Scarface (1983 film) to leave the antihero floating face down in a literal bloodbath." The review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes offers a contemporary interpretation of the film's reception, providing an 81% approval rating from 68 critics – an average rating of 7.4/10 – with the following consensus: "Director Brian De Palma and star Al Pacino take it to the limit in this stylized, ultra-violent and eminently quotable gangster epic that walks a thin white line between moral drama and celebratory excess." Metacritic gives it an average score of 65/100. "Scarface" was released theatrically in North America on December 9, 1983. The film earned
Brian De Palma rather than through dialogue. The financial and critical success of "Carrie" allowed De Palma to pursue more personal material. "The Demolished Man" was a novel that had fascinated De Palma since the late 1950s and appealed to his background in mathematics and avant-garde storytelling. Its unconventional unfolding of plot (exemplified in its mathematical layout of dialogue) and its stress on perception have analogs in De Palma's filmmaking. He sought to adapt it on numerous occasions, though the project would carry a substantial price tag, and has yet to appear onscreen (Steven Spielberg's adaptation of Philip K. Dick's "Minority Report" bears