William Schoell - Al Pacino: In Films and on Stage, 2D Ed.

Also by WILLIAM SCHOELL
AND FROM MCFARLAND

Creature Features: Nature Turned Nasty in the Movies (2008, softcover 2014)

The Horror Comics: Fiends, Freaks and Fantastic Creatures, 1940s1980s (2014)

The Opera of the Twentieth Century: A Passionate Art in Transition (2006)

Second Edition

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Jefferson, North Carolina

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

BRITISH LIBRARY CATALOGUING DATA ARE AVAILABLE

e-ISBN: 978-1-4766-2285-9

2016 William Schoell. All rights reserved

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Front cover: Al Pacino in the 1983 film Scarface (Universal Pictures/Photofest)

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers
Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640
www.mcfarlandpub.com

In loving memory of my partner,
Lawrence J. Quirk (19232014),
who was a big Al Pacino fan.

The author tenders his appreciation to: the late Lawrence J. Quirk, Gene Massimo, John Cocchi, Billy Otis, Caroline Schoell, the staff of the Billy Rose Theatre Collection at Lincoln Center, Frank Lavena, and Margaret Wolf. And to: Dunne-Didion-Dunne Productions, 20th CenturyFox, Paramount, Warner Bros., Dino De Laurentiis Productions, Columbia Pictures, Lorimar, Universal, Goldcrest Pictures, Viking Pictures, Touchstone, Silver Screen Partners IV, New Line Cinema, City Light Films, Epic Productions, Showtime, Albert S. Ruddy Productions, Francis Ford Coppola Productions, NBC-TV, Artists Entertainment Complex, Inc., United Artists, Jerry Weintraub Productions, Martin Bregman Productions, USA Network, Buena Vista Productions, Fox Searchlight, and Tristar.

All of the stills in this book are from private collections and are reproduced strictly for historical purposes.

This is an updated and greatly expanded version of my book The Films of Al Pacino, published in 1995. As with the original version, this book is not a biography, although it does have a biographical section. Instead, this is a study of Al Pacinos career, with essays on each of his movies and his performances, and a section on his appearances in plays both on and off Broadway.

I chose to write this book on Al Pacino not just because I admired his work, but because he is unique for a movie star. First of all, Pacino has an abundance of talent, which is not always true of many actors whose names light up a marquee and who seem to simply exude personality and little else. Second, unlike many other film actors whose careers began upon the stage, Pacino returns to his roots time and again. There are very few movie stars who not only do theater on a regular basis but have dared to tackle roles by the likes of Shakespeare and Oscar Wilde. Pacino is also unique in that he is a documentarian, making non-fiction films focusing on those two aforementioned great writers (as well as two stage adaptations in which he also appeared); indeed, Pacino has a love affair with Shakespeare just as he does with opera. Unlike most movie stars, Pacino is a cultured man who is knowledgeable and appreciative of arts other than film.

Most importantly, Pacino is not afraid to be passionate on stage or on camera. This is sometimes a risky proposition, as there are those among the critical establishment who prefer their actors to be cool and unemotionalthe less charitable might say wooden or stiffmore along the lines of, say, Robert Redford. Pacino has been described more than once as being over the top or lacking subtlety, but one must argue that it is these very intense and dramatic qualities that make Pacino so riveting and have garnered him millions of fans. In truth, Pacinos decision to eschew subtlety in many of his portrayals is the absolutely correct choice.

There have been too many actors who have been so afraid to be emotionalthey seem to find it unmanlythat their portrayals seem perfunctory and half-formed. Pacino has no such fears, and his work is all the better, all the more dynamic because of itPacino does not hold back. Here is an actor who can be grandiose and larger than life one moment, and touching and persuasively gentle in the next. In other words, Pacino can rein himself in when required, but, thankfully, in most cases it isnt required. Pacino has appeared in dull movies, but he has never given a dull performance. There are people who are embarrassed by the expression of emotionbe it in music, in real life, or in performancesand these people will never be counted among Al Pacinos fans, mores the pity.

When all is said and done, Al Pacino is an Artist, and this book examines that artist in all of his facets. There is his basic life story; a section on his many romantic relationships over the years; and a reevaluation of his career and talent as seen through the eyes of certain critics. As Pacino aged, there were attacks made upon him, suggestions that he phoned it in or made very bad picture choices, or was only in it for the money. On occasion, these attacks were warranted, although not their nasty tone. Often this nastiness could be attributed to plain and simple age discrimination. Younger (and not so young) critics couldnt deal with a man in his seventies who was still a movie star. And who says that an actorespecially a serious actor who never gave up the stagehasnt got the right to occasionally pick a movie for a hefty paycheck and hope that it will at least turn out to be fun for himself and the audience?

Its worth repeating. Whatever his flaws, whatever the problems with his choices, Al Pacino is an artistan artist who has every right to try different things, new approaches, as he explores his career and his life to its fullest potential.

***

A note about the film credits: I list major cast members only, and whichever executive producer or producer is the most important to each project, along with the screenwriter, cinematographer, composer, and editor. Others, such as the production designer and art director, are listed only if their work on the picture is especially noteworthy or elaborate.

A warning: the synopses of the films sometimes contain spoilers.

Al Pacino may have gone Hollywood, but hes a New York actor in every sense of the expression. First, he was born in New York City. Second, he got his early training in small theater companies in Manhattan and continues to tread the boards of both Broadway and Off Broadway theaters to this day. Third, fully half of his motion pictures take place almost entirely in New York City, and several others contain key sequences or large sections that take place in the area. Finally, theres something about the manon the screen and offthat screams New York. You can see it in his performances (except when hes playing Cubans, maybe). Pacino has confessed that he loves the city; in many ways he is New York. He even played the mayor in City Hall.

Pacinos early life was not exactly a New York success story, however. He was born Alfredo James Pacino on April 25, 1940, in East Harlem, to Rose and Salvatore Pacino. When Alfred was two, his father walked out on his mother, leaving Rose to fend for both herself and a young boy. Since she was unable to look after Al while she was working, she thought it would be best if he lived with her parents, James and Kate Gerard. Rose eventually moved in with them herself, only adding to the overcrowding in the Bronx tenement. Pacino spent his formative years living in cramped poverty.