Written by Mr. Mouseburger 4th Jun 2005
Malone is the quintessential 1920s Irish-American flatfoot, with one difference, he has a thick Scottish accent!
That said, his death is classic Hollywood. Chasing a "dago bastard" out of his house, he realises that Nitti (q.v.), dressed like Michael Jackson in ‘Moonwalker’, is standing on a stairwell with a machine gun. Malone is completely gunned down and Nitti leaves him to die.
When it comes to the "Nitti" gritty, Malone gets killed far too easily
Cut to:
Hours later when Elliot Ness [Kevin Costner] enters Malone's house, sees a massive trail of blood and finds Malone in his study. Even though 99.99% of his blood must have been spilt, Malone still had the wherewithal to circle a train timetable and explain that the bookkeeper, who Ness is searching for, will be getting on that train.
Malone's entry into the guinness book of records for the "quickest crawl to the living room with 100+ bullets in your body"
His dying words are "What are you prepared to do?” aimed at Ness, and echoing the line he said to our hero at the start of the film.
Instead of asking for an ambulance, Malone wastes
his last few minutes of life memorising train timetables
Sean Connery's death deserves more than a 33%! Nor was the death unsatisfying. It took dozens of bullets to kill Sean and he puts up a hell of a fight before dying and still manages to give Ness the courage to fight for what he believes in. The death is touching and relevant. And extremely violent. Mr. Mouseburger is a jerk!
The shooting in itself was not the thing i was unsatisfied with, it was the fact that he managed to crawl all the way back into his house and regain consciousness right at the moment Ness needed him to, and fit all the pieces of the jigsaw together for Ness, before delievering a cheesey line and finally dying.
With the amount of bullets he was hit with he would have died of loss of blood within moments, if the bullets themselves did not kill him.
I suppose this is horses for courses. However, if you post up a rating that you think it deserves, at some point in the future we will try to set up a users average rating for each of the deaths.
Mouseburger
It's always unsatisfying when Sean Connery dies.
Just thought I should point out, the "dago bastard" who Malone chases out of his house was Bowtie, whose death at the hands (gun?) of Stone during the staircase shootout I submitted.
heheh, cheers for letting us know. I can see he is stored in my ever growing "to do" pile. Rest assured though that he will be added in due course. It is actually quite a stylish scene.
I laughed a bit during this when, when Ness and Stone find Malone, Ness utters the blandest "Oh, God!" ever heard in the history of film.
[quote=Mouseburger]With the amount of bullets he was hit with he would have died of loss of blood within moments, if the bullets themselves did not kill him.[/quote]Actually, I think you overestimate the killing power of those machine guns.
If enough bullets hit you, then you will die - but not immediately.
For example, one of the victims of the Valentine's Day Massacre was shot 22 times but still survived until the police took him to the hospital*.
So, I have to agree with the others, you are being a bit harsh about this death!
* [Source: [en.wikipedia.org]]
Some trivia:
- Malone, like Oscar, drinks alcohol before his demise.
- The first person shot ("Creeper shot") is a De Palma trademark to introduce tension.
- Sean Connery had to be rushed to hospital when dust got in his eyes on the first take.
- According to De Palma, Connery "hated" the scene, claiming it was "appalling". He had to be convinced to do it a second time, despite the fact it represents "everything he hates about moviemaking".
- The death is deliberately "extremely violent" and "shocking" to motivate Ness to do things he never expected to do (such as throwing Nitti off the building).
hehe, i am good company then, the great man himself hated the scene too!
It is not only the number of bullets, but there is also about 1/2 a mile of blood smeared on the floor where he crawled to the living room. There is no way all that blood was in this Scotch-man. I think i would have been more impressed with the death scene if he was already dead when Ness got there, but his last act was to circle the timetable and leave Ness to work out the significance. Instead, for the audience benefit, he is made to explain the plot, before expiring.
However, as i said, it is horses for courses - now we have the average rating score system, you can all vote for a percentage you think is more fitting - democracy at its finest