The Untouchables (1987)

Robert De Niro: Al Capone

Photos 

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Quotes 

• Capone : [to his henchmen after Ness and his team intercepted his shipment of liquor from Canada]  I want you to get this fuck where he breathes! I want you to find this nancy-boy Eliot Ness, I want him DEAD! I want his family DEAD! I want his house burned to the GROUND! I wanna go there in the middle of the night and I wanna PISS ON HIS ASHES!

• Reporter : [interviewing Capone while a barber shaves him]  And what of your reputation for violence? That those who don't buy your product are dealt with violently?

  Capone : [pulls his face away from the razor, sees that he's bleeding slightly, the barber looks horrified]  S'alright. I grew up in a tough neighborhood and we used to say "You can get further with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word."

• Capone : [to the members of his crime family]  A man becomes preeminent, he's expected to have enthusiasms. Enthusiasms, enthusiasms... What are mine? What draws my admiration? What is that which gives me joy? Baseball! A man stands alone at the plate. This is the time for what? For individual achievement. There he stands alone. But in the field, what? Part of a team. Teamwork... Looks, throws, catches, hustles. Part of one big team. Bats himself the live-long day, Babe Ruth, Ty Cobb, and so on. If his team don't field... what is he? You follow me? No one. Sunny day, the stands are full of fans. What does he have to say? I'm goin' out there for myself. But... I get nowhere unless the team wins.

  Hoods : Team!

  [Capone beats one of the men to death with a baseball bat] 

• Capone : [to reporters]  I'm gonna tell you something. Somebody messes with me, I'm gonna mess with with him. Somebody steals from me, I'm gonna say you stole. Not talk to him for spitting on the sidewalk. Understand? Now, I have done nothing to harm these people but they are angered with me, so what do they do, doctor up some income tax, for which they have no case. To speak to me like me, no, to harass a peaceful man. I pray to god if I ever had a grievance I'd have a little more self respect. One more thing, you have an all out prize fight, you wait until the fight is over, one guy is left standing. And that's how you know who won.

• Ness : [in court]  Never stop, never stop fighting till the fight is done.

  Capone : What'd you say? What're you saying?

  Ness : I said, "Never stop fighting till the fight is done."

  Capone : What?

  Ness : You heard me, Capone. It's over.

  Capone : [sneering]  Get out, you're nothing but a lot of talk and a badge.

  Ness : Here endeth the lesson.

• Capone : [to reporters]  When you got an all-out prizefight, you wait until the fight is over, one guy is left standing. 'N' that's how you know who won.

• Capone : [to reporters]  People are gonna drink! You know that, I know that, we all know that, and all I do is act on that. And all this talk of bootlegging - what is bootlegging? On a boat, it's bootlegging. On Lake Shore Drive, it's hospitality. I'm a businessman!

• Judge : [after Ness has discovered Capone bribed the jury to acquit him]  Bailiff, I want you to go next door to Judge Hawton's court, where they've just begun hearing a divorce action. I want you to bring that jury in here, and take this jury to his court. Bailiff, are those instructions clear?

  Bailiff : [puzzled]  Yes, sir, they're... clear...

  Capone : [to his attorney]  What's he talking about? What is it?

  Judge : Bailiff, I want you to switch the juries.

  Bailiff : Yes sir.

  Defense Attorney : Your honor, I object!

  Judge : Overruled.

• [first lines] 

  Title Card : 1930. Prohibition has transformed Chicago into a City at War. Rival gangs compete for control of the city's billion dollar empire of illegal alcohol, enforcing their will with the hand grenade and tommy gun. It is the time of the Ganglords. It is the time of Al Capone.

  Reporter : [to Al Capone]  An article, which I believe appeared in a newspaper, asked why, since you are, or it would seem that you are, in effect, the mayor of Chicago, you've not simply been appointed to that position.

  [other reporters laugh] 

  Capone : Well, I'll tell ya, you know, it's touching. Like a lot of things in life, we laugh because it's funny and we laugh because it's true. Now, some people will say - reformers, they'll say, 'Put that man in jail! What does he think he is doing?' Well, what I hope I'm doing, and here's where your English paper's got a point, is - I'm responding to the will of the people.

• Bodyguard : [Ness confronts Capone]  Something you want here?

  Ness : [referring to Oscar Wallace]  My friend was killed today.

  Bodyguard : I don't care.

  Ness : You don't care.

  [Ness punches the bodyguard in the nose, knocking him to the ground] 

  Ness : Now he does.

  [to Capone] 

  Ness : Come on here, Capone. You want to fight? You and me, right here? That's it, come on! What's the matter? You afraid to come out from behind your men, you afraid to stand up for yourself?

  Capone : You want to do it now? You want to do the mat now?

  Ness : Yeah! Come on, you guinea son of a bitch!

  Capone : What? You talk to me like that in front of my son? Fuck you and your family!

  Ness : Fu...

  [Ness goes for his gun, while all of Capone's men pull out there guns and point them at Ness] 

• Ness : [confronting Capone at the entrance to a hotel]  Come on Capone! You wanna fight? You wanna settle it right now? Right here? Let's go!

  Capone : Listen to me here! You ain't got nothin' on me, nothin'! You're just a cop! Fuck you and your family!

  Ness : Fuh... know what?

  [Ness goes to pull his gun, Capone's goons pull their guns and point them at Ness] 

  Malone : Not now Eliot, not now.

  [Malone grabs Ness] 

• Capone : [to reporters]  Yes! There is violence in Chicago. But not by me, and not by anybody who works for me, and I'll tell you why because it's bad for business.