Carlito’s Way (1993)

Plot of Carlito’s Way: Carlito, a Puerto Rican criminal sometimes known as Charlie Brigante, is freed from jail after serving five years of a 30 year sentence due to intervention from his friend, lawyer Dave Kleinfeld. He resolves to go straight, but is persuaded by a cousin who is running drugs to accompany him to a pick-up. The pick-up is a trap, the cousin killed and Carlito forced to shoot his way out, but picks up the $30,000 to be used for the deal. With the money he buys an interest in a nightclub intending to move to the Bahamas once he has $75,000, and with some difficulty takes up with a former girlfriend Gail. Dave, the lawyer, has stolen a million dollars from a crime lord in jail, who ropes him in on a rescue plan, for which Dave needs Carlito’s help. Also the duo have come up against Benny Blanco a young hoodlum who threatens Carlito, but is released by him so is still a threat. When Dave kills the crime lord during the rescue things come to a head.

Content: There are implications that sex has taken place, and quite a bit of female nudity because Gail, a ballet dancer, moonlights as a stripper. Almost continuous drinking and some consumption of cocaine. Most of the film takes place in Carlito’s club with people dancing all the time in the background, plus a long scene in the strip club. The betrayal of the drug providers is also lengthy but well scripted.  We see Dave gradually go off the rails and Carlito being forced by circumstances into violent criminal action.

A View: This is a well made film, with a plot that we can follow, and there never seems to be much doubt about the direction of travel. I only mention this because I have watched many films recently which are at the very least obscure, and quite often edited in a way which makes them virtually unintelligible. They often seem to be outings which the writer understands but that he or she has failed to tell us. So, despite its age and the slightly downbeat criticisms at the time, well worth a view if you like that sort of thing.

Fun Fact: The producers wanted the opening scene to be shorter, but the rewrites actually made it longer.