Actor Profile: Al Pacino

In a continuing tribute to all things Scarface, I'd like to pay a little homage to my favorite actor, Alfredo James Pacino. Everybody already knows that when you come down to it, the greatest performance by any given actor is Pacino's work as Micheal Corleone in The Godfathers I-III (even if Godfather III was disappointing, Pacino's work was not). He's been acknowledged for his Oscar nominated work, so I'm going to take a look at one of his more controversial performances, the one in Scarface.

Despite giving an iconic performance, Pacino received some really negative reviews for his work in his first collaboration with the polarizing Brian DePalma. DePalma deals in excess, and Pacino was happy to contribute. You ever read a review where the critic calls a performance "a work of great restraint"? Well, Pacino specializes in performances of great lack of restraint. While his earlier work in films such as ... And Justice For All showed hints at where Alfredo was heading, it all really came to fruition in Scarface. Pacino is completely unhinged, yet completely in character. I've lived in Miami and never quite came across anyone as cartoonish as Tony Montana, but I did know a few Cubans that acted like they thought they were Tony Montana. I love subtlety as much as the next guy, but I also appreciate an actor who is willing to take risks because sometimes subtle is another word for boring, and being boring can be just as much an acting crutch as "hamming it up". If you want a subtle performance, rent The Godfather, or Donnie Brasco, or Insomnia, or Serpico. The same artsy-fartsy critics that dissed Pacino's work in Scarface are the same people who made hot monkey love to James Cagney's over-the-top work in White Heat when they first viewed it in film school.

Pacino later baffled critics when Heat was released in 1995. Director Michael Mann let the monster loose, and the result is a performance as polarizing as the one in Scarface. In fact, on the film's DVD commentary, Michael Mann stated Pacino was holding back a little and he encouraged him not to really let loose. Pacino's characterization of Lt. Vincent Hanna was the perfect foil for Robert De Niro's masterful, understated work in the film (De Niro's performance was "a work of great restraint" you could say). A lot of critics treated the film as an actor's duel in their reviews (it was hard not to, I guess), with the infamous "diner scene" being the film's OK Corral. Almost all of them handed the acting trophy to De Niro. So did I (and maybe that's an undervalued performance that deserves a look-see), at the time. But as the years have progressed, every time I watch Heat, it is Pacino's work that gets more and more interesting with each viewing.

Pacino has many performances worthy of many more paragraphs. However, I'm getting the "wrap it up" sign from the computer, and I'm starting to hear the orchestra's strings boot me offstage. So grab a copy of the new Scarface DVD and bask in the greatness of an actor who knows that hamming it up can be a great art too.

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