Carlito's Way: Movie Analysis

Since the last century, the City of New York has been epicenter of the entertainment industry. Its neighborhoods and the many emblematic places such as The Empire State building or the Statute of Liberty have been part of the most ambitious films. Accordingly, New York City is one of the famous metropolises around the world. Besides the attractions and places that belong to this urban jungle, its undeniable fame is due to its appearance as an arena in production films. One of my favorites movies filmed in New York City is “Carlito’s Way”.
Carlito’s Way, starring Al Pacino, tells the story of Carlito Brigante, a Puerto Rican ex-convict who has been behind the bars for five years. After his release, he come back to his neighborhood and wants to stay away from illegal activities but his shady past of drug dealings haunts him. In the movie, he finds himself trapped by his

past connections; Carlito has to confront his lawyer and also best friend in order to keep alive. In his career, he wants to leave his shady past in New York, so Carlito takes the job of running a nightclub, but his best friend drag him back into a world of violence when a boss of the Italian mafia is murderer by him because he was unable to pay back a debt.(Wikipedia)
Filmed in the Spanish Harlem in Upper Manhattan, the movie capture the essence of the Hispanic community in New York, businesses, music and Spanish accent are added ingredients in the film to highlight the growing population and the emerging presence of the Hispanic population in the city at that time. In my opinion, there is a particular scene that it’s remarkable because this is where a persecution against Carlito takes place. A group of Italian gangsters try to take revenge the death of one of their relative at the hands of Carlito’s friend. So they start a persecution on the subway of New York. The train A section was where the scheme of the plan got executed. One of the best scenes of the film took place in the iconic Grand Central Station. Located at 42 street and Park Avenue this subway station served as a shelter of Carlito when he was trying to escape from the Italian mafia, unfortunately he got executed before boarding the train where his girlfriend was waiting for him.
There are three important places of point of interest to highlight in the movie.

At first the Spanish Harlem or also called “El Barrio”. An unsafe neighborhood with social issues that remains up to day as one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in New York where the story for the movie begin (Nelson). Later, we can observe the famous subway of the city of New York, that is one of the most used mass transportation in the world operating in a 24/7 basis with 34 lines and 469 stations around the five boroughs(Itzkowitz). And lastly, the Grand Central Station is captured in the film, which is one of the busiest train stations in the world serving every day around 200,000 commuters (NYC Tourist)
In conclusion, from my perspective, the movie is presented in the middle 70’s, showing a portrayal of a City of New York overcrowded. The violence presented is the primary ingredient, drugs, betrayals and murderers are also included in this film that shows the city from a perspective of the streets and the world of the mafia, probably something that happened in those days and remains part of an unseen

underworld.