Al Pacino has been the star in many spectacular films. The Godfather, Smell of A Woman, Scarface, Donnie Brasco and Heat to name only a few.
He exploded onto the film 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 adored and hated both by picture admirers and critics.
The fans who adore it claim it is a tour de force, people who do not like it claim it's an over acted hammy performance. Whatever view you take, or have on Al Pacino, he is a bigger 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 does not hold back. If that makes him a good actor I don’t know. He gets lost in the job, lost in the character, immersed in the moment; 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 coffee shop scene they sat across each other in a caf booth. Not one of them appeared perturbed by the other’s character. De Niro comes out powerful willed and nefarious, and Pacino exuberates calm and confidence. If it was any actor portraying his bigger than life movie screen persona’s it would be either comedy or pastiche, but Pacino usually plays it to a T.
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