The Untouchables (1987) The Untouchables

Brian De Palma's adaptation of the Prohibition-era legend, written by David Mamet and scored by Ennio Morricone. Kevin Costner plays Eliot Ness, a Treasury agent who arrives in Chicago to enforce the Volstead Act and discovers that every institution he was taught to trust — the police, the courts, the political machine — has already been purchased by Al Capone (Robert De Niro). Ness assembles a team of four incorruptible men: an aging Irish beat cop named Jim Malone (Sean Connery), a police academy sharpshooter named George Stone (Andy Garcia), and a Treasury accountant named Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith). The film is structured as an escalating war in which each side's losses raise the stakes until Ness must decide how far outside the law he is willing to go to enforce it.

Quick Facts

Detail Info
Director Brian De Palma
Writer David Mamet
Stars Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Robert De Niro, Andy Garcia, Charles Martin Smith
Composer Ennio Morricone
Cinematographer Stephen H. Burum
Editors Gerald B. Greenberg, Bill Pankow
Production Company Art Linson Productions
Distributor Paramount Pictures
Budget ~$25 million
Box Office ~$187 million (worldwide)
Release Date June 3, 1987
Running Time 119 minutes
MPAA Rating R
Based On The Untouchables by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley (1957)

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