Suspense and Tension in Brian De Palma's film The Untouchables

Suspense and Tension in Brian De Palma's film The Untouchables

During the 1920's many people were unemployed because of the poor

economic conditions in America and to make it worse, were drinking to

make their lives more tolerable. The government decided to ban the

sale and drinking of alcohol, this was period was called 'The

Prohibition'. People continued to want to drink and this lead people

to go to illegal bars or "speakeasies" which sprang up all over

America. Gangsters such as Al Capone and others saw this as an

opportunity to make money by transporting and supplying alcohol to the

them.. As a result they became so wealthy and well organised that

during the 1930's a special police unit was set up to combat them and

their illegal activities, these were called the G Men of which Elliot

Ness is the most famous.

The film 'The Untouchables' is directed by Brian de Palma and set in

the 1930's. It tells a story about the mob criminal gang leader Al

Capone who sold and transported alcohol, which was illegal at that

time in America. He was also responsible for the deaths of many people

and became involved in numerous other criminal activities. A treasury

officer names Elliot Ness was brought in to stop Capone but had no

proof that he was involved in any of these activities. However, Ness

found a way to bring down him down by arresting him for tax evasion.

Ness achieved this by threatening Capone's bookkeeper to reveal the

secret codes which held all Capone's financial transactions. This

eventually was his key to his downfall and later imprisonment.

In the station scene, the two treasury officers, Elliot Ness and

George Stone are ...

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... member and then immediately show a gang member dying.

The scene where Ness was waiting for the bookkeeper is a very good

example of Da Palma's using many types of elements to help to create

suspense and tension. Lighting, editing, camera angles/movements and

sound are used in many different ways. Ness didn't know what the

bookkeeper looked like, this initially raised the tension and it

continued to rise when he had to deal with the baby. All the elements

together work red in different ways showing different things to the

audience and helped to bring them into the scene.

I think the movie was very successful, it had a lot of dramatic scenes

which made me feel excited and tense. The actors and script were

excellent, I learnt a lot about this period of American history and

also the type of fashions that were popular.