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Today The Mooch Went All Tony Montana. He Forgot Who He Was Dealing With.

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Here’s one for the movie lovers; what killed Tony Montana in Scarface?

His greed? His arrogance? His ego? His lust for power or another man’s wife? His own rampant jealousy and creepy fixation with his own little sister? He was guilty of all of those things for sure, and he was a murderer and all-round monster as well.

But none of that got him killed.

The thing that killed Tony Montana is that he could never quite shake the idea that he was a good man and had stayed a good man.

Every evil thing he did in the course of that movie, and probably in the character’s backstory, he had managed to rationalise away.

The hits in Cuba? There were about living outside of the law, when the law was obviously far more evil and cruel than a mere gangster.

The first hit he did in Miami? “I kill a Communist for fun,” he said, the second time in the movie he’d expressed his sneering hatred for the people who had ruled his home.

Doubtless he thought the guy had it coming.

Remember his attitude when Frank Lopez tried to have him killed?

He did his deals on the side, made money where he could, maybe even skimmed a little off the top and went after the guy’s wife … but he stayed loyal and had never betrayed him?

What? Only someone warped could think that those actions were anything other than disloyalty.

When he went to see his mother he tried to buy her off with the idea that he had done so well that she no longer had to work. She saw through it and refused to take his blood money. She called him a disgrace and said that it was people like him, Cubans like him, who were giving the rest of them a bad name. That was a woman of honour and integrity.

And all the while, he thought he had integrity, and honour.

His deal with Alejandro Sosa made him a rich man. But right from the start he fundamentally misunderstood who and what Sosa was. When Sosa needed a key witness eliminated, he sent his assassin to America to deal with the guy. Tony was asked to look out for him and show him around as he didn’t speak English.

In fact, Tony was to go on the job with him and drive the guy around. The killer, The Shadow, played by the wonderful Mark Margolis, intends to kill the guy using a bomb and Montana’s role is to get him close enough for the remote control detonator to work. The Shadow, who knows exactly who he is and who he works for, has no qualms about killing innocent people in the process … but Tony balks when he realises that a kid will be in the car.

What kills Tony Montana is this idea that in spite of everything that he has done that he is a better man than The Shadow and Lopez and Sosa. That he’s still a good guy. So he shoots the assassin dead instead of allowing him to detonate the bomb and the ensuing argument with Sosa is what leads to the massacre at his mansion which forms the final sequence of the film.

Sosa won’t accept that disrespect. He wanted the guy dead and instead his best man is gone. I don’t know if Tony believes he can bluff or bullshit his way out of that or that he can tell Sosa that he made the decision and that’s that, but it’s readily apparent, as it has been for much of the film, that he doesn’t even know that he’s overmatched and that the guy he thinks is his business partner is on a whole other order of ruthlessness from him.

Tonight, The Mooch is feeling a bit of that heat after forcing his own players to step aside and allow Thistle a goal after one of them, Tillman, had taken advantage of Thistle behaving like sportsmen. In his own desire to play the good guy, he’s forgotten himself. It may have made him feel momentarily good, and set aside some of his self-loathing, but wow.

He doesn’t play in front of fans who appreciate that kind of thing. His dressing room celebrated the goal and then his players were made to stand down. No matter how well intentioned the act – and I applaud him for doing it, not that he had much choice because the firestorm would have raged for a long, long time – he’s caused himself some problems here.

Ibrox social media is enraged by that act, in no small part because they loathe and despise every other club in the country. Ibrox rang to the sound of booing. Booing their own team for an act of sportsmanship forced on them by the guy in the dugout. The players weren’t for doing it, that’s for sure. The manager had to tell them to.

And so apart from problems in the stands, where they now think this guy has shown weakness and might be “too nice” for the job, I think he’s probably got a couple in his own dressing room as well. Tavernier talked about “high standards” and how it was the right thing to do but Tillman scored it, didn’t seem like he had any other thought and McGregor plainly didn’t want to allow the equaliser. There are probably more dissenting voices than just them.

It amazes me that this guy who has acted so outrageously already at Ibrox might have caused himself his first problems trying to do the right thing, but like Tony Montana his sin is not being a good guy but in believing himself to be … that and misunderstanding the people he’s working for. They aren’t the kind, generous or forgiving sort.

All they know how to do is hate … and a lot of them hated that today alright.

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  • Johnny Green says:

    No matter how the huns hate what he has just done, they will all give him the benefit of the doubt once their hatred calms down. Thereafter praise will be lavished on him from all and sundry saying what a class act he is. and that will be repeated for some time to come, so much so that we are all going to be sick hearing it.

    A skelping from us in the Cup Final will have to be the cure and all of a sudden that adulation will melt away.

  • James Smith says:

    You are one weird creepy stalker how many blogs can you write about one guy?

    Just admit it you secretly want to have sex with Beale that’s the only reason I can think of as to why you’d write multiple blogs every day about him.

    • Hans says:

      Agreed. We scored five on Saturday. Further reflection on our performance would have been appropriate and valuable. Instead we get a hate filled diatribe about Beale (“The Mooch? Your attempt to give him this nickname is beyond pathetic – reminds me of that idiot John James attempting to nickname Gerrard “Bottle”). The League Cup Final is 13 days away. A solid performance and a comfortable win will say all that needs to be said. And maybe save you time and effort writing more rubbish.

  • MArk B says:

    Oh come on it was the right thing to do. Letting Partick walk in a goal was fair and you gotta say that’s a good thing. How can that be spun as anything bad??????

  • Bob (original) says:

    Damned if he did, damned if he didn’t!

    Another off-field distraction to keep the bears raging,

    amongst themselves and against their manager.

    From a CFC point: it’s all good. Very good.

    Roll on that LC FInal. 🙂

  • Nick66 says:

    In all honesty James I skipped the movie review part of the Blog. Whether it’s apposite in this circumstance I’ll leave to others. When I first came upon your blog, probably 10+years, maybe less, timeline matters not. But in all honesty James, you’re need to compare, to use analogies that have in truth no relevance to the average reader (me), means the Blog becomes a hard read. Just stick to commenting on the actual things that matter, without the embellishments. As much as I enjoy history and I know my history, the history on a Celtic blog should reflect that. So kick the Romans, the convoluted film genres and especially the political pish. The Mooch, WHO CARES. Get back to what you do best James, writing an entertaining article that keeps us interested.
    PS, this is not a personal thing , it’s a skip half the Blog thing.
    Thing is I do agree with your basic premise, it’s the method that lacks interest.

  • James McAllister says:

    So true but he only showed sportsmanship because he had to…he’s a slippery snake he reminds me of that ian Huntley monster

  • S Thomas says:

    Michael Beale wins the prize for being on this blog.. more than any other person, since its existence. I didn’t know anything about what happened, until my brother messaged me. But I suppose it was the right thing to do, after investigating it myself . James McAllister he reminds you of Ian Huntley.. seriously are you on crystal meth, or smack or something. Think you get the prize of the day, for the most ridiculous comment ever. Wow man.

  • harold shand says:

    Scraping through at home to Partick Thistle who are 5th in the Scottish Championship via another extremely dubious pen and an own goal

    What’s the betting that they get Robbie Neilson’s bendover fc in the draw tomorrow ?

  • harold shand says:

    Playing at home , 0-1 down at half time , scraping past a team 5th in the Championship via an own goal and another very dubious penalty

    What’s the betting they get the diets for another masterclass in bending over by Robbie Neilson in the draw tomorrow ?

  • Voice of Reason says:

    I think Beale may well be on Crack m8 as used by Montana in Scarface! Anywan that thinks the FILTH have Standards is CLEARLY high on Fukin SUBSTANCES of some kind! NEVER in World Football has there been a more CORRUPT ORGANISATION as the SCUM & yet STILL they exist in some form!! Only when they Fukin DIE fur good can we sit back & toast their DEMISE!!

  • Malc says:

    Just what we needed… another story about the huns… happy days

  • Kevan McKeown says:

    Tbh didnae know if ah was readin James or Barry Norman. Can agree wi some of the analogies, wi regards tae some films, books etc. but ffs that was a bit extreme. Widnae hurt tae keep them shorter. We get the point, calm doon mate.

  • Henry McDade says:

    I think the player was right and the manager wrong. Rangers put the ball out. There is no obligation on the part of Thistle to give it back to them. Quite why hoofing it to the other end of the park, which Thistle were going to do is deemed sporting, I dont know. As soon as the throw in is taken, the ball is in play and the game should continue as before. Now, if Thistle had put the ball out, that would be different.

  • Peter cassidy says:

    Why keep going on about staunch Mick should writing about our win on Saturday but we get nonsense about Mick give it a rest.

  • John S says:

    Poor sportsmanship from the Ibrox ‘keeper.

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