It may be hard to imagine for the younger eyeballs amongst us but there was a time when Al Pacino was arguably the greatest actor on this and any other planet...THAT'S RIGHT MARS!! Now I use the word arguably, well, advisedly, as many a bar room brawl began with a DeNiro Vs Pacino debate but in the interests of diplomacy and the sake of this wee bit of internet, let's just say Pacino was the best. (Bobby if you're reading this, I will flip flop on this as soon as you ask me if I'm looking at you so we cool)
In his prime Pacino had that rare quality of being both great to look at and even better to watch. His could smoulder and spook in the blink of those huge brown eyes and used this raw presence to gift us some of the most iconic performances in cinema history.
So ahead of Little Al’s arrival to Ireland this weekend for ‘An Evening With Al Pacino’ in the Bord Gais Energy Theater’, I thought I’d pay homage to the man who gave us Michael Corleone, Sonny, the greatest half time speech in cinema history as well as inventing a beige casual trouser for men* with 5 of his greatest moments!
*this may not be true in any way
Michael Corleone in The Godfather Part II (1974)
His finest moment! Pacino brought a gentle and soft spoken menace to his role as the heir to the Corleone mob franchise. Watch here how those legendary eyes transform from calm to rage with the speed of an angered snake as Kay (Diane Keaton) dares to ‘ask about his business’
Sonny in Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
An extraordinary performance in an extraordinary film. Pacino plays Sonny, a down-and-out criminal who makes his first attempt at robbing a bank. Things go from bad to worse to truly bizarre as it emerges that Sonny is robbing the bank to pay for his wife's transsexual surgery.
Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman (1992)
It is often said that Pacino must refuse to sign up for a film unless he gets to shout a speech! It’s hard to argue with this but when it works, magic like this happens. Pacino prepared for his role as the ascerbic and fatalistic Frank Slade by spending time in a blind school and later claimed to have achieved his remarkable performance to not allowing his eyes to focus on a single object at any time. Hard to imagine considering how powerful and focused his performance is here.
Lieutenant Vincent Hanna in Heat (1995)
Michael Mann’s ‘Heat’ is awesome for many reasons but none more so than for this heart stopping, air punching, drool inducing moment that two of the greatest finally got to sit down and have a cup of Barry’s. Take note from about 2.49 on, the boys have the faintest smile in their eyes as they toy with the significance of the moment which only adds to the glorious tension. This makes my movie pants dance!
Coach DAmato in Any Given Sunday (1999) *
Oliver Stone’s overblown look at the overblown world of the NFL has not aged well. That said it’s worth it for these 4 minutes. Here’s Pacino in textbook shouty form but he just about keeps it just behind parody. This is the stuff goosebumps are made of
*language warning
