THE CHICAGO JOURNAL ON 'THE UNTOUCHABLES'
The Chicago Journal is keeping a running master list of Chicago movies. "What makes a 'Chicago' movie?" the Journal asks in the introduction. "It's a good question that, we admit, in some cases requires a bit of je ne sais quoi. To us, the best 'Chicago' movies are those where the city becomes almost a character in itself. It's a movie that, once seen, you can't picture set anywhere else. A movie that lifelong Chicagoans can see themselves and their friends and family in the characters and a movie that makes us instantly recall long forgotten memories."
Listed alphabetically, The Untouchables entry on the Journal's master list reads:
This David Mamet written and Brian De Palma directed 1987 picture probably also deserves Mt. Rushmore Chicago movie status. There are not many that can check all the boxes it hits.It was almost entirely filmed here and has pivotal/famous scenes in some of the city's most iconic locations, it was a critical/commercial success, and it piles on the je ne sais quoi of Chicago attitude with the quotes to match.
In fact, The Untouchables gave us maybe the most-used/well-known movie quote in the history of Chicago. When Sean Connery, who won an Oscar for his role, is talking to Kevin Costner playing infamous lawman, Eliot Ness, famously describes increasing violence in order to bring down Al Capone's empire:
"They pull a knife, you pull a gun. He sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. That's the Chicago way!"
De Palma's The Fury is also listed, briefly:
Brian De Palma directs this movie about kids with occult powers who go to a special Lincoln Park school and fight a government plot.