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 exploded onto the movie 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 well liked and hated both by motion picture fans 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 looks to be his character. He does not play shy, humble, subdued character portrayals. Everything is loud, shouted, gestured, maybe very similar to his Italian American background.
The thing is when Al goes over the top he doesn't hold back. Whether or not that makes him a bad actor I am not sure. He becomes lost in the role, lost in the personality, dunked 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 the first time the two actors had ever played against each other. Both are renowned for giving strong, assured performances. It was interesting 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 exploded onto the movie 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 well liked and hated both by motion picture fans 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 looks to be his character. He does not play shy, humble, subdued character portrayals. Everything is loud, shouted, gestured, maybe very similar to his Italian American background.
The thing is when Al goes over the top he doesn't hold back. Whether or not that makes him a bad actor I am not sure. He becomes lost in the role, lost in the personality, dunked 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 the first time the two actors had ever played against each other. Both are renowned for giving strong, assured performances. It was interesting 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.
