Quote:
Originally Posted by $5 submissions
Of course he was a bad guy but there were aspects of his persona that people, regardless of their background, could relate to in their pursuit of the American Dream. While no one's condoning rushing out and slinging yeyo for a living, something's gotta be said about coming from dirt poor / nowhere backgrounds and making it in the US through self-confidence, pluck, and hard work. It's the American story. Just as true for the kid born in a shack in the Ozarks to the kid on a banana boat to Florida escaping from Cuba to the kid in a Haitian raft to the Filipino kid on a plane to Hawaii. I ought to know, I was that Filipino kid in the 70s.
They all have America's promise in their eyes and a burning desire to make it. While HOW we choose to make it subjects us to MORAL judgment, and HOW Montana made it made him a bad character, its the promise of the American dream and the triumph of the individual regardless of caste/background that makes the American story burn even brighter
By the way, if anyone needs book or movie reviews, hit me up [email protected] |
Even though he came to America with nothing but a dream he never really achieves it. He is despised and estranged from his Mother for what he does. He killed his best friend. He ruined his sister's life and her dream. His trophy wife couldn't give him the son he wanted and instead was a slave to the very thing that made him rich and powerful. He gets himself killed with half his natural life expectancy still ahead of him. Another forty years of life to live that he blew in a failed chase of the American dream.
Now add to that the fact he was a big time drug dealer and a murderer and I still can't see one thing he should be admired for. He not only took the wrong moral path, he chose a path that couldn't net him that American dream.
I worked with a couple Haitian refugees on a construction crew. They also came here for the American Dream. They came with nothing but a few contacts. They got jobs then brought their wives over and had kids. They worked hard all day and then worked all night in hotel jobs and so did their wives. They made enough to get their own home and buy a car to get around in. They didn't have a lot but they worked hard to get it in an honest way without doing any harm along the way.
I have the utmost admiration for them and others like them that put in an honest days work in their quest to achieve their dreams. Tony Montana and people like him have earned the right to lie face down in their indoor water fountain
