Al Pacino has starred in many impressive films. The Godfather, Scent of A Girl, Scarface, Donnie Brasco and Heat to name but a few.
He burst onto the flick scene with the cult film Scarface. He played a maniacal South American drug dealer who went out in a hail of bullets. This filmed is loved and hated both by movie critics and fans.
The fans who like it claim it's a tour de force, those that detest it claim it is an over acted hammy performance. Whatever view you take, or have on Al Pacino, he's a larger than life actor.
It seems to be his personality. He doesn't play shy, humble, subdued personality portrayals. Everything is loud, roared, gestured, perhaps very like his Italian American background.
The thing is when Al goes ott he doesn't hold back. Whether that makes him a good or bad actor I'm not sure. He becomes lost in the task, lost in the personality, submerged in the instant; is this not what great acting is all about?
There's a fine line between a great performance and a hammy acting job. Pacino seems to straddle this line, but always erring on the great performance side. As he believes in himself that much, his uber confidence seems to make the characters plausible.
In the 1995 Michael Mann film Heat, he plays opposite another leading man legend, Robert De Niro. It was actually the first time the 2 actors had ever played against one another. Both are famed for giving robust, confident performances. It was fascinating to see what the chemistry was like in this film. It was electrifying.
In the famous cafe scene they sat across each other in a caf booth. Not one of them looked perturbed by the other's personality. De Niro comes out strong willed and nefarious, and Pacino exuberates calm and confidence. If it was any actor portraying his bigger than life flick screen persona's it'd be either comedy or pastiche, but Pacino customarily plays it to a T.
He burst onto the flick scene with the cult film Scarface. He played a maniacal South American drug dealer who went out in a hail of bullets. This filmed is loved and hated both by movie critics and fans.
The fans who like it claim it's a tour de force, those that detest it claim it is an over acted hammy performance. Whatever view you take, or have on Al Pacino, he's a larger than life actor.
It seems to be his personality. He doesn't play shy, humble, subdued personality portrayals. Everything is loud, roared, gestured, perhaps very like his Italian American background.
The thing is when Al goes ott he doesn't hold back. Whether that makes him a good or bad actor I'm not sure. He becomes lost in the task, lost in the personality, submerged in the instant; is this not what great acting is all about?
There's a fine line between a great performance and a hammy acting job. Pacino seems to straddle this line, but always erring on the great performance side. As he believes in himself that much, his uber confidence seems to make the characters plausible.
In the 1995 Michael Mann film Heat, he plays opposite another leading man legend, Robert De Niro. It was actually the first time the 2 actors had ever played against one another. Both are famed for giving robust, confident performances. It was fascinating to see what the chemistry was like in this film. It was electrifying.
In the famous cafe scene they sat across each other in a caf booth. Not one of them looked perturbed by the other's personality. De Niro comes out strong willed and nefarious, and Pacino exuberates calm and confidence. If it was any actor portraying his bigger than life flick screen persona's it'd be either comedy or pastiche, but Pacino customarily plays it to a T.
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