Al Pacino’s Top Five Performances
“Say hello to my little friend!” … “You’re out of order!” … “You broke my heart.” …
If the measure of an actor’s career were the number of lines he’s made famous, Al Pacino would be the biggest performer in movie history.
Earlier this month, the AFI honored Pacino with a Life Achievement Award … so this is the perfect time to consider the best from the 67-year-old raspy-voiced thespian. And his knack for turning dialogue into pop culture.
A Top Five list of Pacino performances:
5) Donnie Brasco — The Boston Society of Film Critics named Pacino the best actor of ‘97 for playing mob stooge Lefty Ruggiero, a guy dumb enough to take an undercover cop under his wing, but wise enough to realize his own weaknesses and demise. Read the filmcritic.com review.
4) Serpico — Talk about a hot streak: This is one of two Pacino films released in between the Godfather movies (the other is Scarecrow with Gene Hackman). Detective Frank Serpico was Pacino’s passage into bona fide leading man — he plays him tough, honest, even sexy and a little hard to peg. Pacino won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Oscar. Read the filmcritic.com review.
3) Heat — In his now-famous showdown with Robert De Niro, Pacino plays a pit bull detective, tracking a group of brilliant thieves. Pacino fits into Michael Mann’s crime dreamworld perfectly, a compact, immovable object full of motivation and rage. Remember when he rails against the guy cheating with his wife? Scary and hysterical. Read the filmcritic.com review.
2) Dog Day Afternoon — The guy’s a badass bank robber who wants to be a woman. Pacino puts on a working-class New York affect and talks for the entire movie — enough for two people (the great John Cazale barely speaks). Al is high-strung, desperate, funny and quick-thinking. A genius Oscar-nominated performance, as directed by Sidney Lumet. And the third fact-based film on this list. Read the filmcritic.com review.
1) The Godfather Part II (… and The Godfather) — As Francis Coppola tells it, there was no way in hell Paramount was going to allow this little unknown Italian guy to play Michael Corleone. Where’s Redford?! Where’s Ryan O’Neal?! Coppola knew better, of course, and Pacino made Michael — and himself — absolute cinema icons. In Shakespearean style, Pacino brings Michael from last in line to a position of power that’s impossible to pierce and tough to describe. Pacino would successfully portray Michael’s ultimate weakness in The Godfather Part III, but this is where he created his career and a dynamic American role for the ages. Read the filmcritic.com review.
For all his successes, Pacino is also known for an odd period of curious film choices. Between 1980 and 1985, he starred in Cruising, the comedy Author! Author!, Scarface and Revolution. Four years later, his career was more back on track with Sea of Love, but there were a few years of doubt. Maybe for him too.
With all this Pacino talk, make sure you see him in …And Justice For All. Perhaps his most overlooked performance.
TODAY’S QUESTION: What’s your favorite Al Pacino movie? And if you have a Top Five, let us know. COMMENT
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- Robert De Niro in Michael Mann’s “Frankie Machine”
2 Comments
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Norm,
With all due respect, Pacino’s subtle, broken-hearted turn in Donnie deserves a slot above his “You’ve got your head shoved STRAIGHT up it” routine on display in Heat. I’m not saying it’s Devil’s Advocate level of chewing, but Heat ranks high on Pacino’s Richter scale, while Donnie is engrossingly quiet.
peace, sean
Hey Sean-
Yeah, I would agree that Pacino leans toward his infamous “over-emoting” in Heat, but the performance is so damn fiery and volatile. His overdone stuff in, say, Scent of A Woman is far less to my taste because you can see it coming a mile away… We do agree about Donnie Brasco though — ah, the art of the quieter performance.
Later.
-Norm S.