Beautiful, moving film.

The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.

The movie is wonderful and true, an act of love in all its contradictions and complexity

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Although it plays quite liberally with the documented facts and makes a sizable number of historical blunders, this film nonetheless manages to be a worthy and engrossing presentation of the cagey and ambitious, but hot-headed and sadistic Al Capone's rise to power during the Prohibition era. Ben Gazzara delivers a marvelously fierce and volcanic portrayal of the notorious Capone: Cheeks stuffed with cotton, spitting out his profane dialogue with venomous aplomb, and glowering at his minions and enemies alike with unbridled seething rage, Gazzara's Capone makes for an appropriately loathsome and frightening psychopathic hoodlum. The strong supporting cast likewise do well in their parts: Harry Guardino as Capone's shrewd mentor Johnny Torrio, Susan Blakely as brash and free-spirited flapper Iris Crawford, Sylvestor Stallone as the traitorous Frank Nitti, Carmen Argenziano as loyal bodyguard Jack McGurn, John Davis Chandler as hateful rival Hymie Weiss, Royal Dano as crooked politician Anton J. Cermak, Dick Miller as wormy corrupt cop Joe Pryor, and Martin Kove as brutish strong-arm flunky Pete. John Cassavetes makes the most out of his regrettably small role as smooth capo Frankie Yale. Director Steve Carver, working from a tough no-nonsense script by Howard Browne, relates the absorbing story at a constant brisk pace, stages the thrilling shoot-outs with considerable muscular aplomb, and maintains a suitably gritty and hard-hitting tone throughout. Moreover, Carver deserves extra points for his decidedly harsh and unsentimental warts'n'all evocation of the 1920's period setting and his unsparingly graphic and equally unromanticized depiction of the more seamy and vulgar aspects of the mob. Vilis Lapenicks' cinematography makes nifty occasional use of slow motion and freeze frames. David Grisman's tuneful and jaunty score also does the trick. A solid and satisfying movie.

Several reviewers have mentioned that this movie is hard to find. It is currently available on HULU.COM. Unfortunately you have to watch a few commercials, but the good news is that the copy is excellent. The characters are well developed and the pace is quick. While I would not say that the plot is overly realistic, it is worth watching. If you are looking for an engrossing, albeit brutal, diversion then this is the fare for you. Definitely NOT FOR CHILDREN. One of Sylvester Stallone first movie appearance and well acted by him. The other characters offer excellent performances as well. You will recognize many character actors in this ensemble cast. Hope you all enjoy this nearly classic mob movie.

This film is a real curiosity.It is notable for a few reasons: raw language that would not have been allowed prior to the Seventies, but might be close to the way real gangsters would have spoken to each other; total frontal nudity, and an early appearance by Sylvester Stallone. The portrayal of Al Capone by Ben Gazzara is so broad as to be farcical, apparently on purpose.There is a lot of exaggerated humor and comic antics in the film that make it seem like it wasn't meant to be taken too seriously. By contrast, the 1959 Al Capone with Rod Steiger had a certain gallows humor and bleak comedy, but never at the expense of the historical figures being portrayed. When Rod Steiger bellows and blusters, connives and threatens, you believe he's Al Capone. Gazzara seems almost to play Capone as if he were in a Saturday Night Live sketch. I saw this movie in its original release to theaters, with a high degree of audience involvement. An elderly gentleman, who had apparently had a few too many before the show, talked to characters in the movie and gave advice and pointed out things throughout the screening, climaxing with a gunfight where Al Capone was ambushed by rivals, and the elderly viewer stood up in the aisle, pointed his cane at the screen like a tommy gun and hollered "I'll help you, Al!", while firing his cane at the screen. This somehow seems the appropriate spirit in which to view this film.

"Capone" is an excellent gangster movie! Ben Gazzara plays the best Al Capone I have ever seen! Actors such as Robert De Niro, Rod Steiger, Jason Robards and even Eric Roberts (hee hee) have played Al Capone but none of them can come near the accuracy and brilliance of Ben Gazzara's Al Capone. This movie was bashed by most critics, who said that this was an "exploited" version of the Capone story and that it was too violent and too brutal. Well, wasn't Al Capone himself a violent and brutal man? He was far from being a "saint" I guarantee that. The cast is fantastic; Sylvester Stallone (in one of his first roles); John Cassavettes who is always terrific; and Harry Guardino - a name you may not recognize but whose face you've seen in many movies. So how can you go wrong? You can't! "Capone" wasn't a made-for-tv movie that omits violence and profanity...something a true mob movie MUST have. It was a movie that was released in theatres. It had a poster (I have the original one sheet) and a MPAA rating of "R - Restricted." It has a reasonable length (101 mins.) and a wonderful story that could be told by great actors in a realistic way - without having to worry about the rules of television. It is also the only Al Capone movie to explicitly show Capone himself going insane because of Syphilis. Unfortunately, this marvelous movie is out of print and hard to find so see it if you can. You'll never see a better Capone movie....I guarantee it