This film in my opinion is one of the most underrated pieces of cinema ever put on the silver screen.
Carlito’s Way is the journey of one gangster, he makes it out of prison and feels a freedom, a fresh start, an opportunity for a new beginning and consequently sets forward on a quest to open a car rental company in the deep south. To get away from the trials and tribulations of his crime culture and be cut loose from the world that has rotted away his life. This may sound like a simple plot, the mere tale of a man trying to break away from a world of darkness and enter a good and wholesome lifestyle. However it is so much more, for many people the need, the desperation to break free of the constraints that hold and bind us into worlds that we feel no attachment to, the quest for something more than the circles one may move in is a very real struggle. Perhaps more often than not these restricting circles may not be a crime underworld as portrayed in this film, but could be something smaller. A group of peers that you cant break free of, a dead end job that may have taken away your youth and when you see the person looking back at you in the mirror its suddenly an old man, working a 9-5 his whole life, just staring back at you across the sink, eyes full of regret.
When Carlito is given his chance, let free from prison on a technicality he looks at himself in the mirror. He sees the reflection of an ageing gangster who no longer recognises himself in an ever changing world and wishes to free himself of the bonds that his lifestyle has placed upon him. Fighting hard against the pressure around him, breaking away from the reputation which his peers wish him to upkeep he realises what he wants. To be free, happy, with the woman he loves. Making her a promise they will make it together, eventually Carlito raises the needed funds to make the life change. On one of the longest chase scenes in filmic history, Brigante makes it to the door of the carriage, the door of his freedom, only to be gunned down as a retaliation against a previous dispute with a low level gangster. Carlito being carried towards the hospital on a stretcher gives a hugely powerful monologue – “I tired, I tried Baby, Gales gonna make a good mum, to a new, improved Carlito Brigante.” Although Carlito never makes it himself, his dream of breaking away could never be fulfilled, he manages to set up a safe life for his son, allowing him to get out of the spiralling crime world which sucked his father in and spat him out the other end. This is his freedom, this is Carlito’s way, the knowledge that he can live on forever in the success of his unborn childs secure future.
The film allows us to look inward on ourselves, are we on a spiral, perhaps slowly but surely, perhaps on a road we never thought we would go down however when we realise it, its to late, the gigs up, the bands gone home and we are there. Stuck in a place we never thought we would be. It was once written; “the road to hell is paved with gold”, Carlitos surely was, however he broke away from this golden road, a tough battle, but managed to get the people he loved out. I believe the underlying message in this film is an extremely powerful one, the didactic moral being that even though comfort, friendship, supposed happiness may be surrounding you – when you get the chance to change, you should take it. If you ever feel the need to be away, you should take it. If the opportunity arises to break you out of a world which constricts or confides you, you should take it, and even if – the world plays its cards so you don’t complete that change, sometimes the knowledge that your actions have aided those you love can be more rewarding than any dream you may be able to achieve merely for yourself.
The Film Guide 