Pacino
One of those weeks yall. My schedule is all screwed up and I make things worse by waking up late, procrastinating on everything and pussyfooting around. Keep clicking back though. With my lack of posts this week, the next one is guaranteed to be the size of a webster's unabridged dictionary.
By the way...I finished watching Scent of a Women for the first time as an adult. I know Pacino won the Oscar for that performance. And, yes, his acting was superb. I really believed he was a blind man...he was magnificent.
But he's now a cartoon to me. Even when he's supposed to be powerful and compelling, I laugh at him. What's the difference -- other than his blank stare -- between the scene where he vouches for Chris O'Donnell at the Baird trial and the scene in Dick Tracy when Big Boy Caprice (Pacino) is deebo'n Spaldoni (James Caan)? Absolutely nothing. Same guttural voice-raising, same semi-tourette's half-manic body-jerks that always causes those stupid bangs of his to flop wildly and then lay, disheveled, over his crazy eyes. It's hilarious.
Me and my dude Tony were up real late (maybe 4 or 5am) one night back in early summer watching this Pacino-flick, And Justice For All...we paid very little attention to the plot, only because it was entirely too diofficult to get past the fact that 1.) he's 5'2 and the directors of photography, in all his movies, manipulate the camera to make him seem taller, but he still comes out looking no taller than 5'5; and 2.) he shouts 65% of his lines. Granted me and Miiks were toasted that evening, but definitely had enough wits to understand how ridiculous Pacino is half the time.
I can't imagine watching a Pacino-flick with a Pacino-lover. We'd be watching Scarface and they'd be mesmerized and enchanted and engulfed and enveloped in "Pacino plays a Columbian" and I'd be chuckling everytime he talks and everytime the cameraman forgot to manipulate the scene and we end up seeing that he's 4'10 playing a bastion of machismo.
Like I said, he's a cartoon. A great actor, but a cartoon.
By the way...I finished watching Scent of a Women for the first time as an adult. I know Pacino won the Oscar for that performance. And, yes, his acting was superb. I really believed he was a blind man...he was magnificent.
But he's now a cartoon to me. Even when he's supposed to be powerful and compelling, I laugh at him. What's the difference -- other than his blank stare -- between the scene where he vouches for Chris O'Donnell at the Baird trial and the scene in Dick Tracy when Big Boy Caprice (Pacino) is deebo'n Spaldoni (James Caan)? Absolutely nothing. Same guttural voice-raising, same semi-tourette's half-manic body-jerks that always causes those stupid bangs of his to flop wildly and then lay, disheveled, over his crazy eyes. It's hilarious.
Me and my dude Tony were up real late (maybe 4 or 5am) one night back in early summer watching this Pacino-flick, And Justice For All...we paid very little attention to the plot, only because it was entirely too diofficult to get past the fact that 1.) he's 5'2 and the directors of photography, in all his movies, manipulate the camera to make him seem taller, but he still comes out looking no taller than 5'5; and 2.) he shouts 65% of his lines. Granted me and Miiks were toasted that evening, but definitely had enough wits to understand how ridiculous Pacino is half the time.
I can't imagine watching a Pacino-flick with a Pacino-lover. We'd be watching Scarface and they'd be mesmerized and enchanted and engulfed and enveloped in "Pacino plays a Columbian" and I'd be chuckling everytime he talks and everytime the cameraman forgot to manipulate the scene and we end up seeing that he's 4'10 playing a bastion of machismo.
Like I said, he's a cartoon. A great actor, but a cartoon.
posted by Twistinado @ 3:05 PM
5 Comments:
At 4:56 PM,
Anonymous said…
GAIL!!!!!!!!! nah but tony montana was cuban. im sure sumaya will let you know
At 1:37 PM,
Anonymous said…
I always been a bobby d dude myself.
At 12:41 AM,
The Dubs said…
Hey man, before you completely give up on Pacino, I want you to do this:
First, watch The Insider. Watch Pacino play the complete good guy, the kind of guy we all wish we were.
Then, watch The Devil's Advocate. Watch as you can completely believe Pacino as the world's greatest man, and then one movie later, actually believe he could be the damn devil!
Then watch Insomnia, and you'll see why he was perfect for the role, because he had to play someone who couldn't even tell for himself if he was a good guy or bad guy.
The man has range. He doesn't do comedy like Bobby D, but he isn't unilateral. But whether it's you bastion of morality or the devil, Al P can play it.
At 12:40 PM,
Twistinado said…
Dubs,
Not testing Pacino's gangsta as an actor. that's foolish. i know the man can act.
but he has BECOME a cartoon...i'd say, it started with Big Boy Caprice in Dick Tracy. Isn't that sad? That Caprice was the role that turned him into a cartoon.
I'm serious, i can't watch him w/o laughing these days.
With that said...I gotta check Insider. never saw it. but Pacino, Crowe and Mann is worth a look.
At 8:36 PM,
Anonymous said…
I agree, I think Al has definitley become a caricature of himself, but I actually think Serpico was a much better "good-guy" than Lowell Bergman (60min. reporter portrayed in The Insider.)
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