Carlito's Way
Short description
Carlito Brigante walks out of prison after five years behind bars, freed when his lawyer, David Kleinfeld, finds flaws in the prosecution's case. The setting is New York in 1975, and Carlito, a Puerto Rican former heroin dealer, intends to leave crime behind. He wants to save money, join his girlfriend Gail, a dancer, and start over far from the city. Instead he becomes a partner in a nightclub, and his old reputation keeps pulling him back toward the people and habits he is trying to escape. Kleinfeld, who has his own troubles with drugs and with the law, asks Carlito for help, and that debt of gratitude drags him into fresh danger.
Brian De Palma directed the film, the sixteenth of the twenty-four features listed for him in chronological order, arriving between Raising Cain and Mission: Impossible. David Koepp wrote the screenplay, and Martin Bregman, Judith Stevens and Willi Bär produced. Al Pacino plays Carlito, with Sean Penn as Kleinfeld, Penelope Ann Miller as Gail, John Leguizamo as Benny Blanco, Ingrid Rogers as Steffie and Luis Guzmán as Pachanga.
Made for about 30 million dollars, the film took roughly 64 million worldwide. On IMDb it holds 7.9 from around 247,000 votes, and on TMDB 7.8 from some 3,600 votes, while a critics' rating of 7.2 from 51 reviews places it a little below the audience scores.
What's left behind the scenes
- Initially, Al Pacino wanted to grow a ponytail for the role of Carlito, but he went to Harlem and realized that no one there wore ponytails.
- According to Brian De Palma, Sean Penn demanded 30 takes for one scene. When De Palma was about to move on to filming the next scene, Penn yelled at him. He continued to yell at the director on the way back to New York, and later, after they had returned, he called De Palma and continued yelling over the phone. As De Palma said, it was the only argument during the entire filming process.
- In the billiard room scene (22nd minute), one of the men in the room is setting up the balls with a triangle that is full, but there is a blue and red ball next to the cue ball. When Carlito starts walking, these balls disappear.
- The film is based on Edwin Torres' novel "After Hours" (1979). The film's title was changed to avoid confusion with Martin Scorsese's comedy-drama "After Hours" (1985).
- Brian De Palma originally planned to film the film's ending in the World Trade Center in New York.
- The name of the nightclub run by Carlito (Al Pacino) is "El Paraiso." A diner with the same name also appeared in the film "Scarface" (1983), where Al Pacino's character once worked.
- As Sean Penn admitted, he agreed to play David Kleinfeld solely for the money, in order to finance his second film "The Crossing Guard" (1995).
- Filming the foot chase took several months. According to Brian De Palma, "We started filming the chase in winter and finished in the middle of summer." It was especially difficult for Al Pacino to film in the summer, as his character had to be in a coat.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
