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12. The Untouchables - The Station Steps

“Take him.”

As with #29, the key to this pivotal sequence from Brian De Palma’s 1987 gangland epic is anticipation. He pulls a similar trick with a sequence at the Canadian border earlier in the film, but the payoff here is far more lyrical.

De Palma is the type of director to lovingly craft a sequence. He conducts this one like an opera. In fact, each scene in the film reaches beyond being connective tissue for the larger plot and survives on its own as a self-contained story, part of the reason this sequence achieves more than just being pretty gunplay.

It doesn’t hurt that the score for this opera is provided by the great Ennio Morricone. Building from an innocent lullaby to a chilling adagio, the music seems more fit for a horror film, but has the unexpected effect of imbuing the shootout with a certain poetry.

Part of what makes this scene so effective is the moment of release. After letting the tension build as we wait with Ness for the bad guys to arrive, De Palma gives us an angle on Ness’ priceless reaction to seeing broken-nose-guy, who he knows will recognize him. Costner puts on a flicker of panic that hardens into resolve before he wordlessly blows the guy away and starts the slo-mo shootout to end all slo-mo shootouts.

The sequence itself is a collection of tableaus as much as the film is a collection of vignettes. The composition of each shot in this sequence is some of the most sumptuous you’ll see in any set piece.

Part of the beauty of the composition is the sparseness of the station. This isn’t just a factor of the late-night setting. A deliberate choice was made to create sparse compositions throughout the film, to emphasize the smaller population and more open spaces of the period.

Cinematographer Stephen H. Burum decided to achieve this effect by emphasizing negative space, and you get plenty of that here - adding to the grand oil painting feel of each frame.

This is De Palma as a master of his camera. He even uses zooms effectively. By the late 80’s, no one knew how to use those anymore, or even bothered (today it’s only done ironically, unless you’re Sidney Lumet and you actually know what you’re doing). Here he uses the technique in a flawless reveal when Stone enters the fray.

Once again, the more expensive sequence would have been lamer. Originally, this whole thing was to unfold on a stopped train, but finding a period train proved to be cost-prohibitive.

All that being said, this is a straight-up rip-off of the Odessa steps sequence in Battleship Potemkin. There are segments that are practically shot for shot. And the sailors just hammer it home (it’s a Russian sailor rebellion that gets things going in Potemkin).

Is it fair to call it an homage as well? Little from column A, little from column B. It’s no different than De Palma’s relationship to Hitchcock. But, to be honest, I find this sequence more compelling, due respect to the co-inventor of the montage.

Maybe if Eisenstein had included a slo-mo gun toss.

See also: All of Battleship Potemkin, the climax of The Wild Bunch, “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” sequence in Face/Off.

Next: Whoah.