The Gangster Movie That Changed Sean Connery’s Career Forever

It would be a great disservice to confine the image of Sir Sean Connery to merely being the star of seven James Bond films. While portraying the iconic British Secret Service agent solidified his name as one of the biggest stars in Hollywood, there is more to his acting prowess than having to repeatedly ask his drink to be shaken, not stirred. Connery needed to move on from the part that made him a star, and Brian De Palma’s Chicago-as-Chicago-can The Untouchables was the pinnacle of his career resurgence.

One can make the distinction that there are two halves to Sean Connery’s acting career. The first half established his immortal screen presence, the kind of which made everyone swoon. His machismo was off the charts, and his suave persona captivated audiences and critics alike. Connery’s performance as Bond catapulted him into the stratosphere, but it was the very same thing that drove him to seek fulfillment in other cinematic ventures. Truth be told, the actor was already tired of playing the agent, and his disastrous experience in his last 007 flick, Never Say Never Again, was an entire “Mickey Mouse Operation” according to the actor himself. It was a sign of the times. There was a need to reinvent himself, and the opportunity came in the form of playing Jim Malone, an incorruptible cop with sometimes questionable methods.

The Untouchables

During Prohibition, Treasury agent Eliot Ness sets out to stop ruthless Chicago gangster Al Capone, and assembles a small, incorruptible team to help him.

Release Date June 3, 1987

Director Brian De Palma

Cast Kevin Costner, Sean Connery, Charles Martin Smith, Andy Garcia, Robert De Niro, Richard Bradford

Rating R

Runtime 119

Main Genre Crime

Writers Oscar Fraley, Eliot Ness, David Mamet

What Is ‘The Untouchables’ About?

The Untouchables was a perfect avenue for Sean Connery to explore a new dimension to his acting. The film weaves through the story of Elliot Ness (Kevin Costner) and his valiant efforts to subdue Al Capone (Robert De Niro) and his control of Chicago during the era of prohibition. Ness chances upon Jim Malone on a bridge, to which the latter offers his help to stop Capone’s movements. Suggesting that they go to the police academy to find people who haven’t been corrupted yet, Malone and Ness recruit George Stone (Andy Garcia) to the cause. They are subsequently joined by Oscar Wallace (Charles Martin Smith), and the four of them successfully raid a liquor warehouse to the acclaim of the city. The press then brands them “The Untouchables.”

The group finds out that Capone has not been able to file an income tax return for over four years and decides that it is within these bounds that they can mount a case against him. Unfortunately, the moniker the press has given them soon becomes just a label, as they start to fall one by one. Oscar Wallace is assassinated by Frank Nitti (Billy Drago) in the Police department elevator as he attempts to escort one of Capone’s bookkeepers whom they have forced to testify. Next on the hit list? Jim Malone.

Why Is Sean Connery’s Performance in ‘The Untouchables’ Brilliant?

When Malone fends off an intruder who he arrogantly berates for attempting to kill him with a knife, he is surprised by Nitti wielding a Thompson submachine gun. Malone is riddled with bullets, and it is in the subsequent developments where Connery displays perhaps the finest acting he has ever put on screen. Moving at a glacial pace, the wounded Malone desperately crawls back into his home. Each of his desperate pulls on the ground reflects to the audience the excruciating pain his character is enduring. Ness and Stone eventually arrive, and the two are greeted by the horrific sight of their partner, bloodied and barely breathing. More than the bigger picture, it is the little things in the scene that transform it from a rudimentary death sequence to a full-on masterclass.

When Ness turns him around, Connery pushes his body off of the ground for a brief second, just a brief second, as if he is suddenly given an electric shock only to fall back down in weakness. It’s subtle, but so effective in relaying how near-death Jim Malone was. In his perpetual chase for justice, he struggles to reach for an object on his left. He is mistakenly given a key by Ness, but he throws it away in desperation. He once again musters up what little strength he has to reach for another object. It was a train schedule, indicating where another bookkeeper of Capone would be at a specific point in time. With all the gusto in his remaining moments of life, he asks Ness “What are you prepared to do”, while he takes his last breath of air before finally dying in his partner’s arms. It is gruesome, emotional, and greatly disturbing. It is also the moment when the cinematic world acknowledged that Sean Connery wasn’t just the actor known for being James Bond. He was now Sean Connery the actor, and he was ready to show everyone his reinvigorated theatrical spirit.

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There was great acclaim from critics regarding Connery’s performance. Roger Ebert mentions in his review of the movie that Connery delivered the best performance of the ensemble cast, noting how his portrayal brings a factor of humanization in the narrative, perhaps even possessing an interesting existence outside of the legend of “The Untouchables.” He adds that whenever he was on screen, the audience believed that the prohibition era was filled with real people, rather than plain old caricatures. It wasn’t without its criticism though. Empire Magazine voted Connery’s performance as having the worst accent put into a film, claiming how he was barely able to hide his remarkable Scottish tilt as a Chicago native in the picture. Nonetheless, his first and only Academy Award was for The Untouchables, speaking volumes about his abilities, the atrocious accent notwithstanding.

‘The Untouchables’ Sparked the Second Half of Sean Connery’s Acting Career

There is great significance in Sean Connery’s portrayal of Jim Malone. Audiences, at least back then, were so used to the image of Connery standing tall, whichever character he plays. Malone gave them a glimpse of how vulnerable and frail he can be. It made people appreciate and love him in a different way and shone a light on previously unexplored territory for him. While he was given a stepping stone in this direction when he was cast against type as a Franciscan friar in The Name of the Rose, it was in The Untouchables that he fully adhered to this newfound image.

This second wind gave us a great number of films that showcase a more sensitive side to the mythos of Sean Connery, which includes Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, The Hunt for Red October, The Rock, and notably, Finding Forrester. It was his willingness to come up with something new, to be touchable as the film espouses, that revitalized his career, and audiences couldn’t be more thankful for it.

The Untouchables is available for rent on Prime Video in the U.S.

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