The Untouchables -1987- ((top)) -

De Palma uses split diopter shots (where foreground and background are simultaneously in focus) to create paranoia. He uses the architecture of Chicago (the courthouse, the train station, the bridge) as a chess board. The film is not realistic; it is operatic. The rain always falls during tense moments. The shadows are always long. This is not history; it is legend.

Among gangster films, however, it stood alone. Unlike the sprawling, three-hour The Godfather , The Untouchables runs a tight 119 minutes. It is a Western disguised as a gangster film—good guys wear white hats (and grey suits), bad guys wear black pinstripes. the untouchables -1987-

score is essential, blending heroic trumpets for the "Untouchables" with sinister, synthesised melodies for the underworld, perfectly capturing the film’s mythic tone. Cultural Legacy De Palma uses split diopter shots (where foreground

It is not a documentary. It is a myth. And it is a masterpiece. The rain always falls during tense moments

No discussion of The Untouchables -1987- is complete without the Union Station shootout. De Palma famously pays homage to Sergei Eisenstein’s Battleship Potemkin . The sequence—where a baby carriage teeters on the top of a grand staircase while Ness and Capone’s gunmen exchange fire—is a masterclass in tension.

Furthermore, the real-life 75th anniversary of the 1919 Volstead Act (Prohibition) was approaching. America was in a reflective mood regarding its history of organized crime. The film didn't just tell a story; it mythologized the birth of modern law enforcement.

The film follows their campaign to stop Capone’s bootlegging operation, culminating not in a shootout, but in a tax evasion trial. The famous "The Untouchables" moniker comes from the squad’s refusal to take bribes—they cannot be "touched."