Tom Jolliffe looks back at the career of Al Pacino as he turns 80…
Ready your best Al Pacino impression. We’ve all got them. Those usually tend to be Al at his explosive, unrestrained best. Maybe it’s one of several scenes in Heat, or something in his scenery chomping brilliance in Scent of A Woman.
Pacino has hit the big 8-0. He’s still going remarkably strong in his career with a recent resurgence thanks to appearing in The Irishman, Once Upon a Time In Hollywood and Hunters. Even now, he still has that fire within to go and steal a scene with the kind of aplomb very few in the business can manage. Let’s take it back though.
Pacino’s first break came in The Panic in Needle Park. It’s a harrowing tale of drug addicts who frequent ‘needle park’ in New York. It was a big role for Pacino. His first lead in only his second feature. It’s a harrowing film but one thing is clear watching…Pacino had an energy and an aura about him. It would be this role which convinced Francis Ford Coppola to cast him in a little Gangster epic you may have heard of.
As Michael Corleone in The Godfather, Pacino carries with him a quiet, cultured demeanour in the blood and bone world of Mafia. His brothers are far simpler, be it James Caan who has the capacity to react with impulsive violence or John Cazale who is just simple. Despite being younger, Pacino slowly becomes (initially reluctantly) the natural successor to the Don, who suffers in ailing health after being left wounded by an assassination attempt. Whilst Pacino’s latter career would see him become synonymous with bluster and bravado and loud delivery, a lot of his earlier films had him measure those moments more, but very introspective in his thoughts. Like the very best in his field, those thoughts are projected. We feel a character that is alive and prescient.
The finest example in Pacino’s ability to complexly portray intense feeling and emotion without saying anything, is perhaps also one of the very best movie scenes in history. In execution and artistry and tension, what is a pretty simple scene is elevated tenfold by Pacino. Michael Corleone’s first hit in The Godfather. Pacino was displaying such internal and complex emotions within this simple scene. The build up was perfect and largely focused on Pacino’s face.
The 70’s was a great decade for Pacino. Awards recognition was already coming (several Oscar nominations too, though no win until later). As well as the sequel to The Godfather he was particularly fruitful with Sidney Lumet in Dog Day Afternoon and Serpico. As Pacino, De Niro, Hoffman and Nicholson ushered in an exciting new wave of actors, more in the mould of Brando, cinema was loaded with an exciting array of gritty films and electrifying performances.
The 80’s was a mixed bag for Pacino, beginning with Cruising, William Friedkin’s thriller set in the underground gay subculture of New York. The response wasn’t great, and nor was it for Author! Author! Pacino’s immense start, in danger of coming off the tracks, until Scarface. The critical reception was a little mixed. Remakes were treated with a little more reticence back then than today, but likewise, some critics felt Brian De Palma’s theatrics tended to glorify the criminal enterprising of Tony Montana. Regardless, Scarface would go on to become a seminal film. Oft imitated, the stuff of merchandised homage. Pacino’s work was irregular in the 80’s, and largely with underwhelming choices. It almost seemed like his relevance was gone, whilst De Niro and Nicholson were a touch more consistent.
Dick Tracy allowed Pacino to chew scenery in a big budget blockbuster. It would mark a film of significant appeal, the first since Scarface. Whilst critically the film was too well received, Pacino received rave reviews (And an Oscar nomination). That style, so synonymous with how he would be perceived from then on, was almost birthed across Scarface and Tracy. The same year saw the contentious Godfather III come out too. Some maintain it’s a decent enough film, but critics at the time mauled it. Pacino began a relatively solid decade with success in films like Frankie and Johnny, Scent of a Woman, Glengarry Glen Ross, Carlito’s Way (back with De Palma). Plenty of award nominations and wins among those, including his first (and remarkably only) Oscar win in Scent of a Woman.
Heat would mark Pacino’s most iconic film of the era. The much vaunted clash of the titans. He and Robert De Niro coming to a head in Michael Mann’s stylish and impeccably crafted crime thriller. It was a film that was oddly unfancied around award season, as if the very power of the two titans almost cancelled each other out. It’s a masterpiece, beautifully crafted all round, but despite all the gorgeous cinematography, careful symmetry, thrilling set pieces, the best scene in the film is the most simply orchestrated. Pacino and De Niro having an exchange of dialogue. Mann refrains any need for stylisation. A master shot, a master shot, an occasional wide. Two legends acting off each other and creating brilliance. Pacino ended the decade back with Mann in The Insider, before ushering in a period of underwhelming cinema.
Whilst the 00’s started pretty well with Christopher Nolan’s perennially underrated thriller, Insomnia, Pacino’s passion was seeming to wane a little. The choices weren’t as good, the performances a little below par, if often still the highlight of films like Simone or The Recruit. In part, De Niro was feeling this too and age may have restricted them to blustering walk-ons but still, by the time Pacino was propping up some rote thrillers in the following decade (including attempts to re-ignite he and De Niro’s formidable chemistry in Heat) it seemed like an on fire Pacino was a thing of the past.
Step forward to more recent times, and suddenly Pacino was engaging again. A few middling indie films here and there (albeit with Pacino in more energetic mood) would be satisfyingly countered with the chance to finally see Pacino work with Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese. In Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Pacino is allowed a few scenes to shine in Tarantino’s ensemble piece, whilst Scorsese would cast Pacino as the inimitable figure of Jimmy Hoffa in The Irishman. We’ve seen several attempts at a Hoffa film with disappointing results, and Scorsese finally manages to do a mostly successful one (not least aided by focusing on another person interacting with Hoffa). Pacino received his first Oscar nomination in 27 years.
After 50 years in the business, Pacino seems to be going strong and on the crest of another wave. Here’s hoping he’ll get a shot at obtaining a much deserved (and long overdue) second Oscar.
What’s your favourite Pacino film? Let us know your thoughts in the comments or on our Twitter page @flickeringmyth…
Tom Jolliffe is an award winning screenwriter and passionate cinephile. He has a number of films out on DVD/VOD around the world and several releases due in 2020, including The Witches Of Amityville Academy (starring Emmy winner, Kira Reed Lorsch) and Tooth Fairy: The Root of Evil. Find more info at the best personal site you’ll ever see here.
