Akira Kurosawa's 'High and Low'

High and Low is a 1963 film directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshiro Mifune. Mifune’s character is Gondo, a shoe executive who is forced to choose between personal success and honor, controlling stock in a shoe company and paying a huge ransom to a kidnapper for the life of his chauffer’s son. Either way, Gondo loses, but the decision is still a difficult one to make. This summary is detailed and is not recommended to those who feel it may take away from seeing the actual film. Thanks for reading and I’d appreciate it if you’d leave a like and a comment:

High and Low by Akira Kurosawa

Mark 8:36 "For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?"

Executives of National Shoes meet with Gondo, a fellow executive, in his home to discuss making cheaper shoes that are more profitable. Sales are flat because the shoes they make now are too durable. Gondo believes that their shoes should be well-made. The other executives think the president of the company is too old fashioned and they want to buy out his stock. They want Gondo to join them in this; he has 13%. But if he does join them, they will only make him the company’s Executive Director but not its President. 

Gondo is loyal to the old man’s commitment to quality. He also believes that durable shoes are more profitable than flimsy shoes the long run. His fellow executives disagree and leave in anger. 

Outside, they plot. Why was Gondo confident enough to throw them out of his house? The executives promise Gondo’s accountant, Kawanishi, partnership in the company in exchange for his help in finding out what Gondo's plans are. 

Meanwhile, Gondos’ son, Jun, and Shinichi, the son of his chauffeur, are playing cowboys and Indians (Jun is playing the Cowboy). Gondo tells his son that he has to attack or be attacked. 

Gondo knows his fellow executives want him out but he is ahead of them. Gondo’s wife tells him that “Success isn’t worth losing his humanity.” 

Gondo gets a call from the Osaka hotel, hangs up the phone, and orders Kawanishi to go to the Osaka Hotel right away. Gondo is tense and his wife asks him If everything is all right. The phone rings. Again, Gondo answers it. His face relaxes. He tells the party on the other line that it’s within his limit and that he’ll be sending a deposit tonight. Gondo hangs up the phone and it rings again. He answers it and smiles. He hangs up the phone and toasts a glass of wine with his wife—the deal is set! His share, he tells her, isn’t 13%; it’s 47%! He is buying controlling interest in the shoe company. He took loans out on their home and raised 50 million yen to get this deal. He put up everything they own to get this deal!

Aoki, his chauffeur, comes in and asks for his son Shinichi. The phone rings and Gondo answers it. The man claims that he has kidnapped Jun and demands 30 million yen by tomorrow. Gondo agrees to pay without hesitation and stops Kawanishi from calling the police as doing so will endanger Jun’s life. Jun comes in from outside in his cowboy costume. Gondo is relieved, thinking the call was a prank. But where’s Shinichi? Jun tells Gondo that they switched roles but Shinichi never came back. Aoki goes outside screaming for his son. Gondo calls the cops who arrive in a furniture truck disguised as delivery men. 

Inspector Tokura orders his men to tap Gondo’s phone. Gondo wants to publicize the kidnapper’s mistake but Tokura believes that doing this will endanger Aoki’s son. Gondo doesn’t believe they will hut Aoki’s son but Tokura insists on Shinichi’s safety 1st and catching the kidnapper 2nd. 

Police talk to Aoki who’s a widower. The kidnapper calls. Police listen. The kidnapper knows he has the wrong boy but he wants the 30 million yen anyway. Gondo says he won’t pay; the kidnapper laughs and hangs up. Gondo can’t believe this; the kidnapper just wants to humiliate him into throwing away his hard-earned money. Jun, his son, cries because he feels responsible for Shinichi’s disappearance. Gondo’s wife speaks up; she wants him to pay the ransom for Shinichi because he was going to do so when he thought the kidnapper had their own son. Gondo’s accountant, Kawanishi, is running out of patience because he doesn’t believe there’s any sense in paying the ransom because the boy is probably already dead.

As Kawanishi is about to leave the phone rings and Gondo calls out for Kawanishi to come back. The kidnapper allows Shinichi to speak with his father and Aoki breaks into tears. Kidnapper hangs up. Aoki begs Gondo to get his son back. Gondo paces the floor with Aoki on him like a cheap suit. Gondo finally stops and tells Aoki that he can’t do it. Then, he tells Kawanishi to postpone the flight to Osaka. 

Police close the curtain and stay the night. 

The next day, Gondo is still resolute on his position to not pay the ransom. If he does he’ll lose everything. His wife wants him to pay the kidnapper. He reminds her that she is spoiled to the good life he provides for her. He could someone blackmail him now? Gondo's frustration is all over the place. He gives the check to Kawanishi and orders him to take to go to Osaka and buy the stock. Kawanishi refuses to take the check because Gondo will be hated for not paying the ransom for Shinichi. Kawanishi believes that life is more important than money.

Whoa! Now, Gondo is really confused. Just last night, Kawanishi didn’t give a damn about Shinichi and wanted to close the Osaka deal right away. Kawanishi tells Gondo that the shoe company executives offered him a deal and Gondo throws Kawanishi out of his home. Aoki comes back in crying and apologizes for asking Gondo to pay the ransom. After all, Shinichi is a smart boy and can take care of himself. Aoki says this before going off to a corner to cry. The police feel sorry for Gondo.

The phone rings. The kidnapper orders Gondo to open the drapes so that he can see in the house. The cops lie on the floor and Gondo opens the drapes. 

Gondo agrees to pay the ransom but wants to see the boy to make sure he is ok. The kidnapper says he’ll think about it and hangs up. 

Gondo calls the Bank of Tokyo and tells manager to send him 30 million yen right away. Aoki falls to his knees. 

The police check the pay phones in the area. They listen to recorded tapes calls for clues. Kidnapper calls and instructs Gondo to bring suitcase on bullet train. 

On the bullet train, the cops whisper amongst themselves about their respect for Gondo. The PA calls for Gondo to take a phone call. It’s the kidnapper; he has the boy at the foot of the Sakowa river. He orders Gondo to look out the window and to throw the suitcase out in between stops so he can’t be caught by the cops. 

Police snap a picture a man and a boy standing by the Bridge as the train passes it. Gondo pushes the suitcase out the widow and someone picks it up immediately. Gondo and cops get off at the next stop and find Shinichi alone by the bridge. The cops feel sorry for Gondo and vow to catch the kidnapper. They walk the area around Gondo’s house for clues. Kidnapper sees Gondo and his unselfish deed on the front page of the paper; he’s a hero! 

At police HQ, cops study film they shot from the train. A woman with a large hat has Shinichi by the bridge. Cops ask Shinichi if he remembers anything. Aoki yells at Shinichi to remember. Gondo stops Aoki from yelling at boy. 

Bankers visit Gondo’s house to let him know that they expect their money on time. Meanwhile, the police examine map of area around Gondo’s house. They narrow down where kidnapper lives. 

Tokyo, Osaka,and Nagoy are the only places to call train from.

At police HQ, investigators review the evidence they have collected so far:

Detectives go to a railroad station near Yurakucho, Tokyo but no one there remembers a man using the phone there last night; as for the ether, the suspect is probably in medicine. Ether is also used in repair shops; a farmer noticed a gray car. Eighteen similar cars has been stolen in the last month. But 1 of the cars was stolen just before the case broke! None of the 1,000 yen notes have turned up yet. People report seeing dozens of men with boys Shinichi’s age; a turnpike toll collector tells cops that in 1 car he happened to see a boy under a blanket with a toy rifle and a cowboy hat. 

Detectives interview employees of the bullet train to see if there were any grudges among them. Bos’n, a senior detective, interviews the executives at National Shoes to see if they held any grudges against Gondo. The executives openly express their resentment towards Gondo for trying to go behind their back to take control of the company; none of them, however, will admit to holding a grudge against him. Detectives interview a line worker who thinks Gondo is a fine boss to good workers despite his temper. Detectives, under Inspector Takura, discuss results of meeting.

Case seems impossible to break. Inspector Takura reminds detectives of Gondo’s pain. Division 3 calls Takura to let him know that they found the stolen car!

Back at police HQ, detectives listen to the taped phone conversations between kidnapper and Gondo. The sound of a passing train can be heard behind the kidnapper. The train is near his hideout! Detectives find a specialist in the area who tells them that the train on tape is the Enoshima trolley.

Detectives take Shinichi to the bridge where they found him to try to help him remember a clue.  Later, Aoki takes his son out in the car to look around the area on their own. Shinichi finds a tree he remembers peeing by. 

The detectives drive around looking for Shinichi and his father and get a call from the crime lab letting them know they found fish oil, blood and mackerel scales on the stolen car. Car was at the Koshigoe Market near the trolley.

While cops are at market interviewing a fish vendor, a car goes by and hits a pothole that splashes mud, blood, and fish scales on the cops—they are getting closer! The vendor tells them that the trolley goes under a nearby cliff that offers a view of Enoshima island where Gondo lives!

Aoki drives around with Shinichi still trying to get the boy to remember something that can help the investigation. Bos’n and fellow cop go to cliff to compare their map of Enoshima to their vantage point—both match!

Shinichi recognizes a tunnel. Bos’n driving 1 road and Aoki on another road just miss each other at an intersection! Bos’n returns to Koshigoe to get Aoki to show them kidnapper’s hideout. Shinichi and Aoki get out car to look around on foot. Cops find them and they find the cops! Aoki bursts into tears; he thinks everything is his fault. 

Shinichi recognizes a small villa the kidnapper took him to. Here, they find a couple dead from a heroin overdose

Police headquarters:

Police hold a press conference. The man and woman they found at the villa died from a heroin overdose. The heroin they used was 90% pure; by comparison, regular heroin is only between 70-75% pure. A note by the bodies said: “Bring us stuff or we’ll spend money and not do what you say anymore.”

Cops also recover some of the marked money Gondo paid the kidnapper at the scene, 2,500 $1,000 yen notes. The dead couple were caretakers of the villa. The Inspector tells the press to keep a lid on it. He wants the kidnapper to think the junkies are alive so that he can try to go back to the villa and kill them. 

The executives of National Shoe voting Gondo out makes the front page of the paper. The kidnapper dumps all the money out the briefcase when he sees a picture of it in the paper.

Police go by Gondo’s place to get him to claim the 2.5 million yen they recovered from the dead addicts. Kawanishi asks Gondo to maintain an honorary post at the company to counter negative public opinion. Gondo rejects this offer and kicks Kawanishi out. 

Aoki shows cops picture Shinichi drew of the kidnapper. Shinichi looks out the window and calls everyone’s attention to a plume of pretty pink smoke. The cops treated the briefcase with a chemical that would create pink smoke if burned. 

Bos’n checks out local incinerator. Old man there remembers someone bringing a box for him to burn. 

Bos’n stops by hospital and sees man with scar on his left hand, the same hand wrapped in bandages that Shinichi drew. The young man’s name is Ginjiro Takeuchi. He had taken 3 days off work during kidnapping; his apartment faces Gondo’s house; one of the pay phones is near his apartment; he’s a medical student; his name is on the medical report of the couple they found at the villa that OD’d on heroin—Bingo!

Inspector wants suspect to reconstruct his own crimes. Their plan is to buy purchase heroin from Takeuchi on behalf of the dead couple they found at the villa. When he delivers the dope to the dead couple they’ll nab him. 

Takeuchi waits at shipping harbor to kill time. When he leaves, hobos and other random characters follow him. 

Cops radio Inspector Tokura to let him know that Takeuchi purchased a bouquet from a florist. Takeuchi stops by a pay phone then ducks into a nightclub. He sticks a red flower in his shirt pocket and sits at bar. He is wearing sunglasses. He blends into the crowd of dancing people. 

Cop radios inspector that Takeuchi is at ‘Dope Alley.’ 

The narrow alley is clogged with addicts. Takeuchi walks through a tangle of arms. He looks them other until he finds a woman by herself (this is how he found caretakers at villa). 

Cops are confused and don’t understand why Takeuchi would go to addicts before getting dope. 

Takeuchi takes the girl into a motel. Inspector thinks Takeuchi uses addicts for guinea pigs.

Woman OD’s, still clutching the hypodermic needle.

Takeuchi re emerges on the streets. Cops watch him from unmarked police car. 

Gondo looks at women shoes in a storefront window. Takeuchi approaches him for a light and follows him. Cops go to villa and cut the radio up loud as if the addicts are inside partying. When Takeuchi knocks on the door and says “I got the stuff,” The cops come out. He runs but they catch him. He opens his hand and drops the dope. 

The cops recover most of Gondo’s money. Men from the bank prepare Gondo’s home and possessions to be auctioned off. 

The front page of the paper reads: “Kidnapper gets death sentence.”

Gondo visits Takeuchi in jail. Gondo is making shoes again, has his own company, and is determined to build it up like National Shoes. Takeuchi refuses a priest and refuses to apologize. He’d always look with envy from the window of his cold apartment at Gondo’s big house high up on the hill. He wants Gondo to see that he isn’t afraid to die. Takeuchi cries and complains about the Hell his life has been. He cracks and the guards take him away from the glass and back to his cell. 

Summary of 'Mad Men' Season 1 episode 1: Smoke Gets In Your Eyes

Hi, this is a summary of the very 1st episode of my all-time favorite series 'Mad Men'.

Don Draper is alone at a table in a restaurant writing on a napkin. He asks the Black waiter for a light and what brand of cigarettes he likes. The White manager reprimands the Black waiter for speaking to the customers. Don sends the manager to fetch him a drink and picks up his discussion with the waiter. The Black man tells Don that he loves smoking Old Gold and Don writes this down.

Don drops by his mistress’ apartment and they make love and afterwards they smoke cigarettes.

Workers stream into the Sterling Cooper office building. Young ad men surround the new girl in the elevator. The ad men make lewd remarks and ogle the new girl as if the Black elevator operator isn’t there.

A young ad man named Pete Campbell is on the phone with his fiancé telling her that he and some co workers are going to see a movie after work but they are actually going to a striptease club.

A tall curvy redhead in a tight dress and high heels walks the new girl, whose name is Peggy Olsen, to her desk beside Don Draper’s office. Joan Holloway is the head secretary. She schools Peggy on what the men in the office expect of her and advises her to wear a dress showing more of her legs.

Don is in his office changing into a fresh shirt and talking with his partner, Roger Sterling. They’re scheduled to meet the Jewish owner of a department store and they need to have someone there who is Jewish. They have no Jewish employees. Don makes a racist joke: “Want me to run down to the deli and get someone?”

When Roger leaves, Don looks at the purple heart the army gave him and puts it away. Salvatore Romano from the Art Department comes in to show Don a drawing he did for the Lucky Strike ad showing a man with his torso exposed smoking a cigarette; a neighbor posed for it. Don tells Sal to put a woman in the picture with the man. Sal goes over to the server tray to pour drinks. Greta Guttman from the Research Department comes in to advise Don that they should police themselves to offset government regulations on their cigarette ads. She cites Freud’s death wish theory and Sal interrupts her: “So we’re supposed to believe that people are living one way and secretly thinking the exact opposite? Ridiculous!”

Don doesn't think the issue is why people smoke but why people smoke Lucky Strike. She gives him a report on the dangers of smoking and he drops it in the trash can. When she leaves his office, he takes a drink and takes a nap on the couch. Peggy wakes him up; Pete Campbell wants to see him. Pete flirts with Peggy and makes a sexist comment about the excessive length of her dress. 

Pete and Don head towards the conference room. Pete says that he wants 1st crack at Peggy and Don warns him that he’ll wind up alone because nobody will like him. Don enters the conference room and a man and a woman are there. He gives the man a handshake and ignores the woman. The woman, not the man, is the owner of Menken's Department store. Don apologizes. The man with her is David, an employee of the agency Roger found in the mail room. David is also Jewish.

Peggy is in the doctor’s office at the clinic. She’s on the exam table with her feet in stirrups. The doctor comes into the room smoking and coughing. He is also Joan’s doctor. He asks Peggy if she’s married and orders her to spread her knees. He warns her that he’ll take her off the pills if she abuses them. He also warns her that “easy women” don’t find husbands. She tells him that she’s a responsible person. He writes her a prescription and warns her not to become “the town pump.” 

At the meeting with Ms. Menkin, Don and Cooper try to persuade her to offer coupons but she wants the store to have a high-end image. Don warns her that she is way out of line. He thinks that the idea of people going to a store because it’s expensive is a stupid and she reminds him that the customer-meaning herself-is always right. He leaves the meeting with Pete following him agreeing about Menken forgetting her place.

Joan takes Peggy to meet the switchboard operators who are all women. One of them comments on Peggy’s long dress, saying that Draper would like her legs if he could see them. 

Don and other ad men from various departments meet with the owners of Lucky Strike over the media’s claim linking cigarettes with cancer. Everyone in the conference room is smoking and coughing. The federal government is suing 1 of Lucky Strike’s competitors for making false health claims. Therefore, Sterling Cooper can no longer claim that Lucky Strike cigarettes are safe. Cooper turns the floor over to Don who is stumped. Pete seizes the opportunity and makes his pitch by comparing smoking to the dangers of driving a car. He cites Greta Guttman’s research; earlier, Greta told Don that no one else had seen her research! Pete tells the old man and his son that the agency can design an ad campaign that can tap into Freud’s death wish theory.

The old man dismisses Pete’s idea and he and his son get up to leave. The son makes a casual remark that their competitors have the same problem and Don stops them and goes over to the chalkboard. Lucky Strike can say anything that they want because none of their competitors could make any health claims either. Don asks the old man how their cigarettes are made and his answer is that they are “toasted,” which becomes the company’s new slogan. 

Roger and Don celebrate afterwards with cigarettes and alcohol. Roger brings up the possibility of the agency backing Presidential candidate Richard Nixon. Pete and others come in with more alcohol to celebrate. Everyone leaves except Pete who places a pass to the striptease lounge on Don’s Desk. Don lays into Pete for using Greta’s research at the Lucky Strike meeting. Peggy enters and Pete leaves. She places her hand on top of Don’s hand and thanks him for standing up to Pete on her behalf; Don takes her hand off of his hand and warns her not to let Pete go through his trash again. She is embarrassed. Don sends her home and tells her to come back tomorrow and get a fresh start. 

At the striptease club, the ad men are at a table drinking, smoking cigarettes, and flirting with waitresses. Their dates arrive and sit with everyone except Sal. One of the girls looks around and says, “It’s hot, it’s loud, and it’s filled with men!” Sal smiles and agrees with her. A stripper is on the stage starting her routine.Pete gropes the woman next to him. He forces his hand up her dress and she gets up and sits with one of the other ad men. The stripper peels off all of her clothes and the song ends. 

Don and Ms. Menken are in a restaurant with low lighting. He apologizes to her for walking out of the meeting and she agrees to another meeting. He asks her why she isn’t married and she tells him that she’s never been in love.

Pete shows up drunk at Peggy’s apartment. When he tells her that he’s getting married Sunday she invites him inside. 

After having dinner with Ms. Menken, Don goes home to his wife and their 2 children.

Summary of Band Of Brothers 1: Currahee

Band Of Brothers: Currahee

Prologue

World War 2 vets recall the draft for U.S. Army paratroopers and their eagerness to sign up.

Story

Film begins June 4, 1944 with Easy Company loading gear onto C-47 transport airplanes. Troops are chomping at the bit and ready to go into battle. But at the last minute, they are told that they can’t go out because of bad weather. Everyone is dejected and the barracks are quiet. 

Two years earlier, Camp Toccoa, Georgia

Fresh recruits stand at attention as Lieutenant Sobel inspects them 1 by 1. Sobel finds everything wrong with them from specks of rust on the stock of a bayonet to a stray piece of thread. He revokes all weekend passes and orders them to run up Currahee Hill—3 miles up and 3 miles down—in 15 minutes.

Privates run 3 miles up Currahee and return downhill 3 miles in 15 minutes total. Sobel berates them on the way up. After completing the hill in PT gear, Sobel makes them run the hill again in full heavy gear. Sobel drives the recruits hard all day long.

Easy Company marches up Currahee hill with Lieutenant Winters leading the way. One of the privates asks Winters why Easy Company is the only company marching 12 miles on Friday night in full gear. Private thinks that Sobel hates them. Jokingly, Winters tells the private that Sobel only hates him.

**

Sobel orders Winters to instruct Easy Company to pour out their canteens and everyone complies except 1 private whose canteen is already empty. Sobel orders the private to repeat the 12 mile march up Currahee and orders Winters to bring him 6 soldiers to punish with latrine duty. 

Montage

• Captain Sobel oversees a paratroop training drill.
• Captain Sobel singles out privates to run Currahee.

Colonel Sink promotes Sobel to Captain and pins emblems on his shirt. Sink is also promoting Lieutenant Winters to 1st Lieutenant but he wants Sobel to pin the emblems on Winter’s shirt. 

**

Sobel does a surprise search of Lieutenant Louis’s belongings (Louis is Winter’s assistant) and finds contraband. Sobel cancels all weekend passes. Later, he pins the 1st Lieutenant CO emblems on Winter’s shirt; Winters will serve as Sobel’s executive officer. Sobel assigns Winters to the mess hall for 2 weeks as a test. He tells Winters to serve spaghetti tomorrow. 

The next day, Sobel interrupts Easy Company’s chow and orders them to run up Currahee Hill. Some of the privates lose their spaghetti on the way up and this seems to please Sobel who keeps pace. Defiantly, the company belt out their running cadence which pisses Sobel off. 

**

Easy Company is taken up 12 at a time in C-47 airplanes to complete 5 exits (jumps) that will certify them as paratroopers. In one of the planes, Sobel looks scared and hesitates before making his jump. 

Easy Company celebrates in a bar after successfully completing paratroop training and earning their wings. Colonel Sink toasts them and leads the chant of their motto: “Currahee!” 

**

In a battlefield simulation, Sobel’s bad leadership skills are exposed when he leads his squad into an ambush by leaving a safe position. 

**

Winters introduces 2nd Lieutenant Louis Nixon to 2nd Lieutenant Harry Welsh from the 82nd Airborne. Word has gotten around about Sobel’s bad performance in the last training exercise. He’s jumpy in the field. As they are talking, Sobel appears out of nowhere and their faces tell him that they were talking about him. Throughout the camp, troops whisper amongst themselves concerning Sobel and distrust his leadership. 

**

Winters, Welsh, and Louis on train. Louis produces a flask of whiskey and takes a swig. 

9/6/43

Troops load their supplies on the ship that will take them to Europe (Roosevelt’s the President). 

9/18/43, Aldbourne England

Troops do battlefield simulations to prepare for the German army. Easy is broken up into squads and each is assigned a captain. Again, Sobel leads his squad to the wrong position and has a great deal of trouble reading his map. Another squad hidden from view, plays a trick on him by getting private Russ to impersonate the major. Russ orders Sobel to cut through the goddamn fence blocking his squad. Meanwhile, Winters checks his wristwatch; Captain Sobel is late. Winters improvises and orders 1st and 2nd platoon to cut off both sides of a T-shaped road. While they are doing this, he will lead 1st squad up the middle of the road to trap their enemy. They execute and Winters pulls off the mission. 

Sobel is reprimanded later for cutting through the fence and is told that the major who told him to do so is in London! Sobel realizes that he is losing Easy Company to Lieutenant Winters. 

Sobel threatens Winters with a court-martial for disobeying his direct order on an administrative assignment despite the fact that Winters was quartered with a family that had no phone and never received the order. Nevertheless, Sobel gives Winters 2 options: to forfeit his 48 hour leave for 60 days or request a trial by court-martial. Nobel hopes Winters will opt for the 1st option but Winters requests the court-martial.  

When Winters is transferred to the mess battalion, the NCOs of Easy Company are not happy about it because they trust Winters on the battlefield. They all agree to turn in their resignations to Colonel Sink. The Colonel is furious. With D-Day fast approaching, the Army needs all of its NCOs and if not for this fact, he would line them all up in front of the firing squad. He denies their requests and tells them to get out of his sight immediately.  

**

Colonel Sink has Sobel in his office and tells him about the NCOs that tried to turn in their resignations earlier. Sobel believes that the majority of the NCOs respect him. Sink compliments Sobel on the great job he’s done with Easy Company and reassigns him to a parachute training school in Chilton Foliat to train chaplains and doctors. Sobel objects to this but Sink’s decision is final.

Sobel is driven off the base in a jeep. He glares at Winters on his way out; Winters salutes him. 

5/31/1944, Upottery, England

US soldiers and British soldiers meet. Winters and the new captain of Easy Company, Lieutenant Meehan, study a large map of Normandy. Later, Louis goes over the Allies’ deployment strategy with the COs and later the COs take this strategy to the troops, giving each a sand table, a map, and reconnaissance photos to memorize until they can draw the area by memory. They will arrive at the beach 5 hours ahead of 4th Infantry in an area called St. Marie Du Mont to take out the German garrison between them and their objective. 

**

Troops prepare for the flight to Omaha Beach, packing up their gear and signing their life insurance policies. NCO Guarnere’s brother, who’s also a soldier, got killed in Italy. Guarnere doesn’t know his brother is dead yet and 2 of his fellow troopers debate on whether to tell him. 

Easy Company is told that the invasion is postponed for 24 hours due to bad weather. 

In the makeshift movie theater, Guarnere discovers that he has on another trooper’s jacket. He finds a letter in one of the pockets saying that his brother died in Paris. Winters writes in his journal. 

June 5, 1944, Upottery Airfield

Troops load their gear into the planes that will take them to Omaha Beach. Troops sit on the ground in neat rows and columns waiting for Winters to pull them to their feet. They board the planes and the planes take off and cover the sky over the ocean (Gen. Dwight Eisenhower is the Supreme Allied Commander)

Summary of Brian DePalma's 'Scarface'

Brian DePalma's 'Scarface'

This is a plot summary of Brian DePalma’s 1983 film Scarface starring Al Pacino. Enjoy!

In May 1980, Castro opened the harbor at Mariel, Cuba, with the apparent intention of letting some of his people visit their relatives in the US. Within 72 hours, 3,000 US boats were headed for Cuba. It soon became obvious that Castro was forcing the boat owners to carry with them not only their relatives, but the dregs of his jails. Of the 125,000 refugees that landed in Florida, 125,000 had criminal records. 

Opening Titles intercut with documentary footage of boats leaving Mariel headed to the United States. Refugees being processed at immigration centers.

Tony Montana is in a small room surrounded by investigators and answering their questions.

He got locked up for changing dollars, he tells them but they see right through his lies. He demands his rights and they send him to a detention center ironically called Freedom Town. Tony and his best friend Manolo are on the bus taking them to detention center. 

1 month later

Manolo pulls Tony out of a basketball game to give him some good news! They can get out of the camp in 30 days, get a job in Miami, and a green card in exchange for killing Emilio Rebenga, Castro’s former right hand man who tortured the brother of a rich guy in Miami. Castro distrusted Rebenga whom he jailed and released in the refugee camp. The tortured man’s rich brother in Miami wants Tony to execute Rebenga. Tony hates communists and agrees to do the job. Later, Tony, Manolo, and other friends receive green cards.

Tony and Manolo toil in a small sandwich kitchen in Miami. Tony is frustrated with washing dishes. He didn’t come to the US to bust his ass. They take a break to admire the beautiful women and fancy cars glittering in front of the club across the street.

Manolo’s friends from Miami pull up in a shiny Cadillac and offers them a job picking up 2 kilos of cocaine from some Columbian drug dealers. The drug deal goes bad resulting in the deaths of Tony’s friend Angel and the Columbian drug dealers. Tony delivers the drugs and the buy-money to Frank Lopez. Tony becomes obsessed with Frank’s wife, Elvira. Later, at the Babylon Club, 

Frank shares his wisdom with Tony: Lesson 1: Never underestimate the other guy’s greed and Lesson 2: Don’t get high on your own supply. Tony dances with Elvira. Later, at the beach, Manny is unsuccessful in picking up a woman and Tony tell him that he has to first get money and power before he can get the woman. 

Tony visits his mother whom he has not seen in 5 years. His sister is happy to see him but his mother believes that he’s mixed up in illegal activities. She refuses to accept his money and puts him out of her house. Tony gives the money to his little sister. 

Cochabamba Bolivia

Omar and Tony fly to Bolivia to negotiate a drug deal for Frank with Sosa. The meeting goes bad when Tony defies Omar and negotiates for Frank. One of Sosa’s men identifies Omar as an informer and Omar is killed. Sosa likes Tony but warns him not to cross him. 

Frank is angry with Tony for making the deal with Sosa without his permission. Tony and Frank argue, Tony wants to expand and Frank is cautious of stepping on the toes of rival drug dealers. The meeting ends on a bad note.

Tony pops up at Frank’s place uninvited to propose to Elvira and tells her that he’s no longer working with Frank. 

Tony sees Gina dancing with a man at the Babylon Club. Mel Bernstein, a narcotics detective, blackmails Tony for monthly payments. Tony sees Elvira there and sits with her. He and Frank clash over Elvira. Tony finds his sister in bathroom stall with a man snorting cocaine and slaps her to the floor. Later, 2 gunmen shoot up the club and Tony barely escapes and stops by Frank’s home, finding him and the police detective together. Frank had paid the gunmen to kill Tony over Elvira. Frank begs for his life but Tony kills him and the police detective, anyway. Tony sees a blimp in the night sky saying “The World Is Yours!”

Tony marries Elvira and replaces Frank and finds out that success is not all it is cracked up to be. Now he has to watch his back more by investing large sums on electronic surveillance. Elvira is a junkie and his relationship with his best friend is strained. 

An undercover cop pretending to be a banker busts Tony and Tony is charged with tax evasion. Tony faces prison time. But Sosa has a problem, also, and offers to help Tony with his tax problem in exchange for assassinating a journalist threatening to implicate Sosa and his powerful friends on 60 Minutes. Tony takes the job. 

Feeling pressured from all sides, Tony gets drunk at a restaurant and insults Elvira, telling Manny and everyone within ear-shot that she can’t have children. She leaves him.

He returns to New York to kill the journalist who is making a speech at the United Nations against Sosa and the Bolivian drug cartel. The night before, Albert, an explosives expert, plants a bomb on the car. The journalist is supposed to be alone in the car but when his wife and 2 daughters join him Tony calls off the hit. He and Albert argue and Tony shoots and kills Albert stopping him from blowing up the journalists' car. The journalist makes his speech and Sosa sends a hit squad to kill Tony who kills his best friend Manny whom he told before to stay away from his sister. Gina tells Tony that Manny had quit the business and that they had gotten married. 

Tony returns to his mansion and shortly after this, Sosa’s army of paid killers take out all of Tony’s men, his sister, and eventually, after a long hard shootout, Tony is shot dead, too.