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Post by evilbliss on May 24, 2020 10:06:29 GMT
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Post by pacinoyes on May 24, 2020 10:48:00 GMT
Well .....he's great but it maybe doesn't make his top 20 greatest performances (his top 30 is unfnckwithable) but ........it is remarkable in a lot of ways if you want to assess what an actor can do with a role: First, I said this in the "turns 80" thread - no actor in modern times - of any race or gender - had less opportunity to make it than Pacino - and if you know that story it makes him heroic. A high school drop-out (10th grade) who was regularly homeless through his early 20s - he wasn't even a fully functioning adult period until he was 26 or 27 (wtf!) - the fact that he can convincingly play an adult intellectual lawyer at all is amazing to start with. But how he builds this character as an actor is something of a masterclass - if you watch the "non-big" scenes (and he gets like 3 or 4 show-off scenes that are great) - the scenes where he's actually being a lawyer - particularly the way he takes "Ralph Agee's" statement at the start - where he listens, processes and reacts back to the statement in a way that's funny, weary, smart, tough, sympathetic and exasperated alone makes it a great performance - he juggles a whole bunch of "non-actor" friendly stuff here that he has to convey to the audience - and at that point the film is like in its first 10 minutes maybe? This was just his 8th film role ever - and 5th nomination  - and he hits so many emotional notes and gives such a completely rounded performance it's almost hard to place in the context of his filmography. This is a scene I always talk about - how he listens and reacts in this scene - no actor maybe ever was as good at listening as him and in responding either with expressions or in how he phrases dialog back in his replies and this again isn't his "actor-ish" scene at all. |
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Post by TerryMontana on May 24, 2020 13:46:16 GMT
He's fine, actually he's pretty good in this but it doesn't make my Pacino top-25 list.
He's starring in a movie that doesn't take itself very seriously, it's not a serious jury drama (like 12 Angry Men, for example). It's more of a satire of the jury community and it's based on exaggeration, smart dialogue and some easy loughs.
In such an environment, Pacino has to play some dramatic notes in order for his character to appear more human and sympathetic. He does so with great success. Was his nod deserved? Probably yes, but we're talking about an era in which he would have won a nomination even if he played Inspector Clouseau...
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Post by pacinoyes on Sept 8, 2020 10:53:37 GMT
Well .....he's great but it maybe doesn't make his top 20 greatest performances (his top 30 is unfnckwithable) but ........it is remarkable in a lot of ways if you want to assess what an actor can do with a role: First, I said this in the "turns 80" thread - no actor in modern times - of any race or gender - had less opportunity to make it than Pacino - and if you know that story it makes him heroic. A high school drop-out (10th grade) who was regularly homeless through his early 20s - he wasn't even a fully functioning adult period until he was 26 or 27 (wtf!) - the fact that he can convincingly play an adult intellectual lawyer at all is amazing to start with. I came across this on TV yesterday and was struck with how funny this movie is - a lot of this is played as black humor anyway ........also the casting of Sam Levene with Lee Strasberg is pretty amazing - that's sort of a legendary team. A lot of people on MAR may not know Sam Levene but he's a legendary American theater figure - this was his final role on film.........Strasberg of course was Pacino's acting teacher and Hyman Roth.  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Levene |
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Post by Tommen_Saperstein on Sept 8, 2020 19:37:52 GMT
horrible film. Messy tone, bad writing, silly plot, limp satire, even limper drama. Pacino is the most watchable thing about it but it's not like he was doing anything exceptional here. The perf has more in common with his campy 80s and 90s stuff than with his early 70s work. Weird movie.
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- and he hits so many emotional notes and gives such a completely rounded performance it's almost hard to place in the context of his filmography. This is a scene I always talk about - how he listens and reacts in this scene - no actor maybe ever was as good at listening as him and in responding either with expressions or in how he phrases dialog back in his replies and this again isn't his "actor-ish" scene at all. 
