Al Pacino
Al Pacino is an actor, born 1940.
Al Pacino came out of the New York stage and into film through a run of grim, low key seventies work that started with The Panic in Needle Park in 1971. That performance got him The Godfather, and what he does there is the opposite of what most people remember him for: Michael Corleone is the quietest man in every room, and the horror of the film is watching the volume never rise.
The seventies run that followed is one of the strongest any American actor has assembled. Serpico, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon and And Justice for All are all built on watchfulness, on a small man in a big system, and on a face that registers calculation before it registers feeling.
Then the volume changed. After a fallow mid eighties he came back with the mode everybody now imitates, the sudden bark from a standing start, and Scent of a Woman won him the Academy Award for it. Scarface, The Devil's Advocate and Any Given Sunday belong to the same register, and it worked until it became a brand: the late nineties and 2000s contain a lot of films that hired the shouting and nothing else.
The last decade has been a partial correction. The Irishman and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood both cast him small and let him be funny and old, which suits him. His career now spans more than five decades, an Academy Award, two Tonys and two Primetime Emmys, the Triple Crown of Acting, plus four Golden Globes, a BAFTA and the Kennedy Center Honors.
Movies (76)
- The Godfather (1972)
- In the Hand of Dante (2026)
- The Godfather Part II (1974)
- Heat (1995)
- Scarface (1983)
- Once Upon a Time... in Hollywood (2019)
- The Godfather Part III (1990)
- The Devil's Advocate (1997)
- Scent of a Woman (1992)
- Dead Man's Wire (2026)
- The Irishman (2019)
- Ocean's Thirteen (2007)
- Insomnia (2002)
- Donnie Brasco (1997)
- Carlito's Way (1993)
- Dog Day Afternoon (1975)
- House of Gucci (2021)
- The Ritual (2025)
- Sea of Love (1989)
- The Recruit (2003)
- Cruising (1980)
- Any Given Sunday (1999)
- City Hall (1996)
- The Insider (1999)
- Righteous Kill (2008)
- Jack and Jill (2011)
- Dick Tracy (1990)
- Serpico (1973)
- S1m0ne (2002)
- 88 Minutes (2007)
TV (7)
Where to start with Al Pacino
Start with The Godfather and stay for The Godfather Part II, because the two performances together are one long argument about how little an actor needs to do.
Then go to Dog Day Afternoon, the loosest and most human thing he ever filmed, and easily the best entry point for anyone who finds the mythology off putting.
The middle period is best represented by Heat and Donnie Brasco, two films that use his energy in completely opposite ways, one as a caffeinated cop who cannot sit still, the other as a washed up soldier who knows exactly where he ranks. Glengarry Glen Ross is the pure oratory. And if you want the loud Pacino everyone quotes, Scent of a Woman is where it was born and it is better than its reputation as a punchline.
The seventies
The decade that made him, and arguably the strongest run any American actor has had. Michael Corleone across two films is the whole argument, and Dog Day Afternoon is the loosest and most alive he ever was on screen.
The eighties and nineties
The period when the volume goes up. Scent of a Woman finally won the Oscar and is the least subtle of them. Carlito's Way and Glengarry Glen Ross are the better films, and Heat is where he and De Niro finally share a scene.
The later work
Pacino in his sixties and seventies, and the best of it is quiet. The Insider is a genuinely great late performance. The Irishman asks him to play a man who cannot stop talking, which he does with obvious pleasure.
The paycheque films
The other half of the late filmography, taken for reasons he has never pretended were artistic. Jack and Jill is the notorious one, and he is, bafflingly, the best thing in it.