One of the main principles that gangster films had to uphold were that the gangster must die in the end. The "gutter to gutter" lifestyle of the gangster was a common storyline. In Scarface, Tony Montana came from the slums of Cuba eventually coming to America to live a better life. As his rise to power began to develop he soon became a feared man in Miami and a "drug lord". Further into Montana's career he started to become ruthless toward his business, his wife, his sister and his best friend Montana quickly began his downfall back to the gutter. At the end of Montana's life he began going crazy. Killing his best friend, disrespecting his wife and hurting his sister were the main reasons his success story ended in a downfall. Resulting in the behavior that Montana exhibited towards the ones that cared about him made it easy for him to be targeted and eventually killed. Munby explains in his book Public Enemies, Public Heroes, that in gangster films that gangster must return back to the gutter in which he came from or die. In Scarface, Montana doesn't deviate from the status quo of the gangster and also leans toward the psycho path role that Munby also speaks about.
After WWII, The United States had to become more of a corporate system and less discriminatory. Because, gangster films before WWII showed the discrimination of different ethnic groups in the United States the story line behind the gangster had to be changed to not fit the role of a discriminated immigrant but a psycho. Although, Scarface does show discrimination, it is triumphed by the end of the movie. Montana sits in his office with a large amount of cocaine in front of him. He sticks his entire face into the cocaine and begins shooting the invaders which ultimately leads to him taking many gunshots in the process. Montana at this point believes that he is invincible and begins to talk back to the shooters. Only a psycho would believe that after getting shot many times he will be able to escape death.
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