An Unbroken Series of Great Scenes, One After Another

SPOILERS FOR THE UNTOUCHABLES

Director Howard Hawks(The Big Sleep, Rio Bravo) had a rule: "a good movie equals three good scenes, no bad scenes."

I'd add that a lot of the greatest movies ever made (The Godfather, Casablanca, Psycho) are great movies because they are "all good scenes, no bad scenes."

But some movies get to where they need to be by having "a long stretch of really good scenes, one after the other." Not every scene in the movie, but a good exciting stretch.

The Untouchables has such a stretch. It starts roughly in the middle of the film on a shot of broad expanse of sun and blue sky and mountains, a sudden rush of sunlight after some nighttime scenes. We are at the Canadian border. The rush of scenes begins:


At the Canadian border: The Untouchables ride on horseback to foil a liquor buy at the border (big outdoor action scene)
The Untouchables find out "the bookkeeper can nail Al Capone"(while questioning a suspect at the Canadian border)
Back to Chicago: An extended "Rope-like" single take bonds Connery and Costner in a long walk around police HQ while setting up an innocent untouchable to be killed in an elevator with his witness.
Outraged over his friend's death, Costner confronts Al Capone(DeNiro) at his hotel, with Connery holding him back.
Costner(Elliott Ness) calls off the investigation.
Connery doesn't want the investigation ended -- heconfronts the crooked police chief ("I'll rat you out for all you did")
Connery gets killed brutally in his home, intercut with Capone enjoying opera in opulence.
The two surviving Untouchables take on Capone's men -- and grab the bookkeeper -- at the Chicago train station. Big shootout, lots of satisfying vengeance for Connery's death.

I recall the thrill of each of those scenes leading to the next in a rather perfect "rising curve of interest" that lost key characters to death along the way(ala Psycho) but redoubled the righteous vengeance of the surviving Untouchables(Costner and his quiet sharpshooter, Andy Garcia.) The movie rather peaks with the train station shootout, but has one more pretty good set-piece before reaching a perfect end(Costner avenges Connery's death by giving henchman Frank Nitti a "Vertigo" fall off a rooftop -- "Did he scream like THAT?")

While I feel that The Untouchables hit a "stretch" of great scenes, one after the other, and then retreated a bit at the end (it slows down for the Capone trial), the great scenes were enough to carry the rest of the film to the poignant finale in which Costner's Ness mourns the dead Untouchables, says goodbye to the live Untouchable(Andy Garcia) and observes that should Prohibition end, "I think I'll have a drink," as Morricone's sweeping score accompanies Ness down the big street and into the crowd where he disappears.

We feel that a great story has been told...