Why a Mexican ‘Scarface’ Makes Sense

Someone else will be screaming Al Pacino’s famous line, “Say hello to my little friend!” when the upcoming remake of the classic movie “Scarface” comes to fruition.

The reboot is still a few years off. The film has a script, but current director Antoine Fuqua (“The Magnificent Seven”) said, “I have still have a couple more meetings on it,” according to Fandango.

An updated “Scarface” could be dramatic proof that an uncontrolled border leads to preventable crime.

He also revealed the film still needs to be cast. Original star Pacino gave the film a tepid blessing when he told The Hollywood Reporter about the remake, “It’s part of what we do. We remake things.” The 1983 “Scarface” is itself actually a remake of a 1932 film by the same name.

The 1983 “Scarface” was inspired by the real-life Mariel boat lift — which was a massive influx of Cuban refugees to the U.S. in 1980. More than 100,000 Cubans landed on Florida’s shores. It was revealed in time that some were actually from Cuban jails and mental hospitals.

“Scarface,” written by Oliver Stone, followed one of those immigrants as he took the American drug scene by storm and became a fictional and infamous criminal kingpin.

The film functioned partly as a way to put the Cuban refugee crisis in perspective. It never suggested all Cuban refugees were bad or had ill intentions, but dramatically showed that in an uncontrolled environment, a few bad apples are bound to come through and twist the American dream to their own ends.

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An updated “Scarface” may be exactly what many on the Right need to help put the immigration crisis into perspective for those unwilling to compromise their liberal beliefs and admit some control is needed to prevent awful crimes — like the murder of Kathryn Steinle by an illegal immigrant in San Francisco.

An updated “Scarface” could be dramatic proof that an uncontrolled border leads to preventable crime and opportunities for bad people.

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One change the new version of film will make, which will no doubt prove divisive with pundits, is turning the main character, and famous criminal, from Cuban to Mexican.

To even suggest an uncontrolled border and overwhelming refugee numbers lead to crime — let alone a modern-day Scarface character — today is to suggest you are a racist. This election has been proof of that. But stats don’t lie.

A report published by Fox News late last year found, “Statistics show the estimated 11.7 million illegal immigrants in the U.S. account for 13.6 percent of all offenders sentenced for crimes committed in the U.S. Twelve percent of murder sentences, 20 percent of kidnapping sentences, and 16 percent of drug trafficking sentences are meted out to illegal immigrants.”

It also revealed that “ICE estimates there are more than 1.2 million criminal aliens at large in the U.S.”

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It’s certainly not the only report to reveal rather shocking data when it comes to crime linked to illegal immigration. It’s these studies that led to Donald Trump’s obsession with reforming our border and refugee programs.

“When Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending their best. They’re not sending you. They’re not sending you. They’re sending people that have lots of problems, and they’re bringing those problems with us. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And some, I assume, are good people,” Trump said in an early policy speech about the need to secure the border and prevent crimes committed by illegal immigrants.

Many may be shocked to find Trump’s words partially validated by one of Hollywood’s hottest directors. Fuqua touched on crime seeping across the border when talking up one the upcoming “Scarface” remake.

“We’re dealing with a lot of stuff now coming out of Mexico. And again, we still have those issues dealing with the ‘American Dream,’ and the fact that the game is rigged, right? It’s not really an even playing field, but the promise is that it is. The promise is that everyone gets a fair shot, but that’s not always the case,” Fuqua said.

“So that’s always relevant, and right now with what’s happening in Mexico, which is where [the main character] comes from — he comes out of Mexico — that’s relevant, especially when you’ve got people talking about putting up walls and other kinds of stuff. We’re still dealing with immigration, we’re still dealing with what would turn someone into Scarface.”

While there’s little chance Fuqua will be punching his ticket for Trump or supporting the man’s immigration views, he does acknowledge the problems of crime coming across the border. An update of “Scarface” set against the backdrop of the border crisis makes perfect sense — it’s just surprising to see Hollywood acknowledge that.