The Untouchables

Brian De Palma’s larger than life gangster film – pitched somewhere between a radio serial and a comic book – tells the tale of how Federal Agent Elliot Ness and his handpicked team of incorruptible ‘Untouchables’ set about trying to bring down legendary gangster Al Capone. It still hits hard, thanks at least in part to Morricone’s pacy and punchy score. An excellent use of instrumentation firmly establishes we’re in Chicago in the ‘30s, the good guys are given great superhero themes, the baddies get the whiney trumpets they deserve with all the action set to a metronomic ‘heartbeat’ that keeps things appropriately tense. The Battleship Potemkin-inspired baby carriage scene is a masterclass in tension-building in the movies.