My Fictional Affair with Al Pacino

I never really enjoyed watching "serious" quality movies growing up. I was a Jim Carey fan and all I watched were his slapstick movies during the mid to late 90's (yes, even The Cable Guy, although dark, is slapstick. The Truman Show - not). Bottom line is that I was crazy about him.

I only started watching dramas and epics during high school, and that was when I was first introduced to Pacino. The first Pacino movie I saw was Dick Tracy. He was not playing the lead, actually he was the antagonist, Alfonse "Big Boy" Caprice. The lead was Warren Beatty but Pacino stole every scene that he was in, much like Heath Ledger as the Joker in The Dark Knight.

To me then, Al Pacino was just a familiar sounding name, and I really didn't know what he looked like, I just know he's famous. I couldn't believe his face in Dick Tracy (he was apparently wearing prosthetics). So I became intrigued with him because of how he carried his character. He wasn't your typical villain - he danced, he sang, he threw out punchlines with the comedic timing of a veteran comedian (which I knew for a fact that he was not). Eventually I started searching for his movies and in the process, I struck gold: I discovered he's won an Oscar in '93.

When he was proclaimed Best Actor that year, everyone went like, "Well it's about time!". Pacino has been receiving nominations since 1972 (The Godfather, hello?) and had to wait 20 years to get his first (and only) golden statuette. Of all movies, he bagged the award for his role in Scent of a Woman, which was indeed a remarkable film, but let's face it - there were a lot of other Pacino films which were more deserving (again, The Godfather, hello?). And I'm not even gonna mention Scarface, Serpico, And Justice For All, Dog Day Afternoon, The Godfather Part II, Heat, The Devil's Advocate... (oh, I did mention them afterall).

Despite having only one Oscar under his belt, he is still considered an actor elite, having won acting awards in 3 various media, which is considered as the triple crown of acting: an Oscar (film), an Emmy (television), and a Tony (theater) award. This is a rather difficult feat to achieve since not many actors enjoy the glory of both the film and television industry, much more the theater world. It seems that Pacino can do it all.

Landing the part of Michael Corleone in The Godfather not only put him on the map but also served as a rite of passage from Marlon Brando, the most acclaimed actor of the past golden era of film, to Pacino, the most promising (at that time) young actor which would eventually spearhead a new age of performance-driven films and memorable characters, cementing his title as today's greatest actor alive. Both are known for method acting, a style that made the distinction between actors who play the part and those who live the part.

 

I can never forget a scene in Scent of A Woman where Pacino's blind character was shouting mad at Chris O'donell's character. Pacino was so in to the scene that he was drooling all over Chris and was shouting right at his ears.

[caption id="attachment_117" align="aligncenter" width="300"] "I'm in the dark, here! I'm in the dark!"[/caption]

Pacino is the standard that actors today measure themselves with. Actors like Kevin Spacey, Robert Downey Jr., Edward Norton, and Johnny Depp all look up to him as a mentor, an idol, a living legend. And right now he still dazzles everyone with his acting, bagging awards here and there and still finds time to go back to his roots, the Broadway stage.

Here are some of my favorite Pacino flicks:





 



Bonus: It's been confirmed that Pacino will be doing his first voice-acting for an animated film: as the yet-to-be-named villain in the second installment of Despicable Me!