best film: The Godfather is Pacino’s best film with Part II close behind and Heat not far in the rear-view either. Pacino has been in four masterpieces—the fourth of which is Sidley Lumet’s film Dog Day Afternoon. Of the four, Dog Day is far the film most dependent on Pacino to carry it to masterpieces status but its easily the least of the four fims (the other three are in my top 100). Pacino is the story arc in The Godfather and though it’s the story of the entire family, Brando spends less time on screen than Pacino and the greatest scene (there are countless such scenes in The Godfather— but I think it may be the close-up on Pacino’s face at dinner with the subway/train noise escalating) belongs to Pacino. He’s marvelous in all of his four masterpieces but there are a couple scenes in Heat where I think he missteps.
best performance: The Godfather Part II. This is a three-horse race at the top. Dog Day Afternoon is Pacino completely unhinged. He’s frazzled, erratic, shouting, paranoid, drained. It’s a tour-de-force and would be a fine choice to be his best performance. In the first Godfather it’s his transformation that is remarkable. It’s hard to believe that in three hours the guy in the army uniform sitting with Diane Keaton at the wedding is the same man getting his hand kissed and slamming the door on her at the end. It takes fabulous nuanced acting along the way to believably pull off that transformation. For my money though it’s the serpent-like performance in The Godfather Part II that gets the nod as the single best performance of Pacino’s career. He’s so cold-blooded and internalizes most of the movie (which is extremely rare for Pacino in his filmography) but in a few key scenes he unleashes (the “you broke my heart” kiss scene with Cazale, the Keaton fight) to great effect.
stylistic innovations/traits: Pacino started his career with one of the all-time runs from 1971 to 1975. This was the peak of the American New Wave if you will and no actor had a greater impact than Pacino. He’s in six archiveable films in six years including three masterpieces, and five top 10 of the year films. He’d never top that but the rest of his career is highlighted by some fantastic collaborations with Michael Mann (Heat, The Insider) and Brian De Palma (Scarface, Carlito’s Way). Pacino has 20 archiveable films and though it may seem like he’s been in 100 credits like some of his peers (De Niro) and been bad for most the century he actually only has a total of 56 IMDB credits. He only made five films in the 1980’s (going back often to theater work). Pacino has eight Oscar noms and 1 win (sorry Denzel but this one in 1992 should have been yours). Pacino’s filmography has incredible depth. He’s very good in Nolan’s Insomnia (the man was fantastic at playing exhaustion (Serpico, Dog Day Afternoon)) and as the villain in Dick Tracy but I couldn’t find room for either his top 10 performances.
directors worked with: Coppola (3), Lumet (2), Michael Mann (2), Brian De Palma (2), Jerry Schatzberg (2) and then once a piece with Beatty, Nolan, Mike Nichols and Soderbergh
Top 10 Performances:
- The Godfather Part II
- Dog Day Afternoon
- The Godfather
- Serpico
- Scarecrow
- The Insider
- Heat
- Donnie Brasco
- Scarface
- Carlito’s Way
Archiveable films
| 1971- The Panic In Needle Park |
| 1972- The Godfather |
| 1973- Scarecrow |
| 1973- Serpico |
| 1974- The Godfather Part II |
| 1975- Dog Day Afternoon |
| 1979- …And Justice For All |
| 1983- Scarface |
| 1989- Sea of Love |
| 1990- Dick Tracy |
| 1990- The Godfather Part III |
| 1992- Glengarry Glen Ross |
| 1992- Scent of a Woman |
| 1993- Carlito’s Way |
| 1995- Heat |
| 1997- Donnie Brasco |
| 1999- The Insider |
| 2002- Insomnia |
| 2003- Angels in America |
| 2007- Ocean’s Thirteen |
[…] Pacino has garnered 70 total award nominations in his time in the acting game and of those nominations, 47 times he took home a win, which helps solidify his argument for a spot on the GOAT list. The man is a complete powerhouse when it comes to the granddaddy award of them all, the Oscars. Al has been nominated ten times for roles in such classic motion pictures as Serpico, Dick Tracy, and Glengarry, Glen Ross. He won the award in 1993 for Best Actor in a leading role for his work in the film Scent of A Woman. Knowing this, it’s hard to debate Pacino’s legacy as a truly magnificent performer and one of the all-time greats given everything he has achieved for his talents in front of the camera.[3] […]
A serpent endlessly devouring its own tail. Picked from YouTube wrt to Pacino in Godfather Part 2.
@AP– i like it. How about Pacino’s 2019– not a big role in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood but you could do a lot worse than working with Scorsese and Tarantino in one year!
He is my favorite actor and I am absolutely elated but the Scorsese combination will always be bitter sweet. I do wish it had happened some time earlier as well. We missed out on something great there.
For what it is worth, I think The Irishman is quite easily his best performance since Dog Day Afternoon, 44 years later. Will never fail to bring a smile on my face. The scenes with Stephen Graham were fire.
Shouting Pacino has become a Running joke but here it was so well done. The scene with Pesci, though is the highlight of the year.
@AP– Yeah I wish they had worked together sooner but Scorsese has had De Niro and DiCaprio (and Keitel) in most of his films and I’m not sure I’d want to swap them out. I’m not saying those guys are better than Pacino— we just have the results and I’m happy with them. Pacino is indeed superb in The Irishman.
He’s had a magnificent (all-time great) career but, in general, I wish we had more from him in the 1980’s. He didn’t make a lot of films in general but from 1980-1990 (ages 40-50 for him which should be his prime) we have 2 archiveable films. Not great.
My top 10 of Al Pacino performances :
1. The Godfather II
2. Dog Day Afternoon
3. The Godfather I
4. Scarecrow
5. Carlito’s Way
6. Needle Park
7. Scarface
8. Heat
9. The Irishman
10. Serpico
@KidCharlemagne. That’s a strong top 10. Thanks for sharing. I love that we have the same top 3. My main issue here is you have The Irishman behind his performance in Heat. I think he’s clearly better in The Irishman. He’s good in Heat, but has a couple of scenes where it is just too much.
Swap between 6 & 9. I think it’s better that way, you’re right.
@ Drake. I wholeheartedly agree with Pacino in the 1980s. Tough Question: If we stop at Dog Day Afternoon, which spot would Pacino end up on your list. Top 30? Better or Worse.
On a more important note, have you seen A Hidden Life. People are eager to call it the coming back of Malick. There is a lot of bandwagon stuff going on there, but I have to agree it’s on the MS/MP border if we go with your system. Keen to hear your thoughts on it.
@AP– really good question on Pacino. I do think Pacino from 1970-1975 probably does land him in the top 30— the two Godfather’s and Dog Day Afternoon … man — that puts him with Belmondo, Montgomery Clift, Tony Leung for me– and I think he’s there.
I have not had the chance to see A Hidden Life yet. It is not out where I live. I’m very excited to see it.
@ Drake. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours. May the force be with y’all.
You too
Merry Christmas !!
@ AP, Randy and KidCharlemagne — Merry Christmas to all– appreciate all the discussion. I was not expecting this when I started the blog– what a pleasant surprise.
Incredible actor. So expressive with his eyes.
Did you know that no one wanted Pacino to play Michael. He was considered too short and calm for the role but when George Lucas’ wife Marcia edited the screen tests, she told Coppola, “He undresses you with his eyes.” Haha. He was perfect in the godfather trilogy and dog day afternoon. I literally cannot decide between the godfather 1 and 2 and dog day afternoon. All 3 might be in the top 20 male acting performances of all time.
Drake I think it will be funny if you make lists like: the best short male actors of all time or the best actors born in New York or the best performers of all time(male and female).( Pacino would be close to the top for all of them )
Hey Drake how do you feel Pacino would have done in these following roles?
The King of Marvin Gardens (Jack Nicholson)
Taxi Driver (Robert DeNiro)
Kramer vs Kramer (Dustin Hoffman)
Misery (James Caan)
Apocalypse Now (Martin Sheen)
Slapshot (Paul Newman)
Goodfellas (Robert DeNiro)
Pretty woman (Richard Gere)
Flash Dance (Michael Nouri)
Get Shorty (John Travolta)
First Blood (Sylvester Stallone)
Days of Heaven (Richard Gere)
Traffic (Michael Douglas)
The Usual Suspects (Chazz Palminteri)
Lenny (Dustin Hoffman)
Runaway bride (Richard Gere)
Close Encounters Of The third kind (Richard Dreyfuss)
Coming Home (Jon Voight)
Crimson Tide (Gene Hackman)
Bang the drum slowly (Robert DeNiro)
Marathon man (Dustin Hoffman)
Se7en (Morgan Freeman)
All the Presidents men (Dustin Hoffman)
Die Hard (Bruce Willis)
The departed (Jack Nicholson)
Pulp fiction (Christopher Walken)
Blow out (John Travolta)
Silence of the lambs (Anthony Hopkins)
@Randy— whoa- what a lineup. If he passed on these he gave many of these guys the best roles of their career (or even made their career). These are some iconic films and performances. I mean he’s Al Pacino– so I’d watch him read the dictionary– and I’d love to see all of these just out of curiosity, but I’m not sure I want to swap them out. How about you?
He didn’t passed on all of them he was either considered for or had scheduling issues for a few them like Pulp Fiction and the thin red line among a few others.
He would have killed all the presidents men, The Departed, Goodfellas, Kramer vs Kramer, Pulp Fiction, and Lenny.
He’s obviously had an amazing career but if he had accepted a few of these films (in particular the 70s films) his career would be untouchable.
Can you imagine if someone dropped Close encounters of the third kind,Taxi Driver, The Godfather 1 & 2, Days of Heaven, Lenny, The king of Marvin Gardens, All the presidents men, Apocalypse Now, Coming Home,Kramer vs Kramer, And Star Wars in one decade. That would be a decade no actor/Actress would come close to in my lifetime or possibly ever that would be hell of a filmography.
Ps: how the hell would he have time to shoot all these movies? Remember apocalypse Now,Close encounters, Star Wars, And days of Heaven We’re shot all around the same time.
@Randy White– haha agreed. That would have been an untouchable decade but I agree with you- I think if he takes some of these it rules him out for others, right?
He would do very well in these: Kramer vs Kramer, Close encounters of the third kind, Blow out, Silence of the lambs, The departed, Goodfellas, Pulp fiction, All the Presidents men, Traffic, Days of Heaven.
My doubts lie in:
First blood, Pacino is not that muscular, but if he were he would be perfect in this
Taxi Driver, I would do it very well but I don’t think I want to see someone else in this
Apocalypse Now, The role that everyone would like to have, but I’m not sure anyone other than Sheen and Brando can.
And you’re right they also offered him the role of Harrison Ford in Star Wars
He regrets turning down Days of Heaven. That’s the one film I would love to see him in. He would have been better Nicholson in The Departed.
Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs was offered to De Niro too. As otherworldly as Hopkins was, De Niro version would have been equally good
They also offered it to Daniel Day Lewis, but with his outlandish methods, I would not want to see him.
What about his two television films you dont know jack(2010) and paterno(2018)
@Janith- I have seen them
You dont know Jack is a highly regarded film
He won the Primetime Emmy for outstanding lead actor in a television film for it.
I get it Denzel should have won in 1992 but the lack of love for Scent of a Woman on this website is too much.Pacino is incredible in it(That Tango scene).I dont know how one can rank his work in Heat and Scarface above that.Are Scarface and Heat better films yes.But that doesnt necessarily mean he is better in them than he is in Scent of a Woman.It should probably be his 6th best after Serpico and Irishman.
@Chris– not at all. This feels like a miss here from you.
You are underrating Pacino.Bogart’s best is clearly Casablanca and Nicholson’s best is clearly clearly Cuckoos Nest.If you rank top 5 performances between these three actors it would be Pacino in Godfather,Pacino in Dog Day Afternoon,Pacino in Godfather,Nicholson in Cuckoos Nest,Bogart in Casablanca.I’m not sure about the order but I’m confident about the top 5.Pacino has the edge over Bogart and Nicholson.
hey if you were to rank the top 10 performances of pacino and de niro together how do you think it would pan out. this is for anyone.
also if you were to do the same for jimmy stewart and cary grant.
1. Raging Bull (De Niro)
2t. Godfather II (Pacino)
2t. Taxi Driver (DeNiro)
4. The Godfather II (DeNiro)
5. Dog Day Afternoon (Pacino)
6. The Godfather (Pacino)
7. The Deer Hunter (DeNiro)
8. Heat (DeNiro)
9. Mean Streets (DeNiro)
10. Heat (Pacino)
1. Vertigo (Stewart)
2. North by Northwest (Grant)
3. It’s a Wonderful Life (Stewart)
4. Bringing Up Baby (Grant)
5. Notorious (Grant)
6. Rear Window (Stewart)
7. Anatomy of a Murder (Stewart)
8. His Girl Friday (Grant)
9. Only Angels Have Wings (Grant)
10. Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (Stewart)
Those are very good lists. How do you feel about any given sundays Pacino role. I thought he was great in it.
Also I think that de niros role in once upon a time in America is among his (and the) best performances out there. I think Pacino is a better actor but de Niro has had some slightly better performances.
@m. It’s curious that you mention that, since the best performance of 1984 is Murray Abraham, have you seen Amadeus? or did I understand wrong? I understood that you said among the best performances that exist or do you mean De Niro’s best performances?
@aldo i have yet to see amadeus but considering i think super highly of de niro in taxi driver and consider his performance in america superior means i do have it as an all time great. just the regret in his eyes and the poetic brutality of the character. i guess also i love seeing an actor encompass different stages of a characters life, since i also think just as highly of orson welles in kane.
What are some movies that can be said to have two or more truly great performances? One is not so hard to come by; there are multiple great performances in many years, but two or even more incredible performances only occur in a select group of situations. I am asking here because Pacino seemed to be in a few of them. Here are some selections, ordered chronologically. There is an asterisk (*) beside those that are particularly special in this respect.
30s:Grand Illusion (Gabin, von Stroheim), Bringing Up Baby * (Hepburn, Grant), Gone With the Wind * (Leigh, Gable)
40s: Casablanca * (Bogart, Bergman), Double Indemnity (Stanwyck, MacMurray), Notorious * (Bergman, Grant), Red River * (Wayne, Clift), The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (Bogart, W. Huston), The Third Man (Welles, Cotton)
50s: Sunset Boulevard * (Swanson, Holden), A Streetcar Named Desire * (Brando, Leigh), Seven Samurai (Shimura, Mifune), The Bridge on the River Kwai (Guinness, Holden), Vertigo * (Stewart, Novak)
60s: Psycho (Perkins, Leigh), The Apartment (Lemmon, MacLaine), High and Low (Nakadai, Mifune), Persona * (Andersson, Ullman), The Graduate (Hoffman, Bancroft), Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (Redford, Newman)
70s: The Godfather * (Brando, Pacino), Cries and Whispers (Ullman, Andersson), Badlands (Sheen, Spacek), Chinatown * (Nicholson, Dunaway), The Godfather Part II (Pacino, Cazale, De Niro), Jaws (Shaw, Scheider), One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest * (Nicholson, Fletcher), Network * (Holden, Finch, Dunaway), Annie Hall * (Keaton, Allen), Apocalypse Now (Duvall, Sheen, Brando), Stalker (Kaidanovsky, Solonitsyn)
80s: Raging Bull * (De Niro, Pesci), Blade Runner * (Hauer, Ford), Ran (Nakadai, Harada), Blue Velvet (Hopper, MacLahan), The Cook the Thief his Wife & Her Lover (Gambon, Mirren)
90s: Goodfellas * (Pesci, Bracco, Liotta, De Niro), The Silence of the Lambs* (Hopkins, Foster), Unforgiven (Eastwood, Hackman), Schindler’s List (Fiennes, Neeson), The Shawshank Redemption (Robbins, Freeman), Pulp Fiction (Jackson, Travolta, Thurman), Heat * (De Niro, Pacino), Breaking the Waves (Watson, Skarsgard), The Big Lebowski (Bridges, Goodman), Fight Club (Pitt, Norton), Magnolia (Cruise, I’m not sure what the second best performance is, but I feel it deserves a mention)
2000s: In the Mood for Love * (Cheung, Leung), Lost in Translation (Murray, Johansson), Before Sunset (Delpy, Hawke), The Departed (DiCaprio, Damon), The Assassination of Jesse James * (Affleck, Pitt)
2010s: The Master * (Phoenix, Hoffman), Birdman (Keaton, Norton, Stone), Mad Max: Fury Road (Theron, Hardy), The Revenant (DiCaprio, Hardy), La La Land (Gosling, Stone)
Are there any obvious films that I missed?
@Graham- whoa! what a list— maybe Dietrich and Jannings in Blue Angel? Or Masina and Quinn in La Strada…. you ready to put Pitt and Dicaprio or Driver/Scarlett from 2019 up there yet? I’m sure I’m missing more but that’s the first blush
Thanks. Unfortunately, I have not seen The Blue Angel yet. I have been unable to find a way to view the film with subtitles that line up, though I hope to soon. Von Sternberg remains the only director in your top 30 for whom I have not yet seen a film in my lifespan as a cinephile (a.k.a. since COVID began). La Strada is high on my list as well. I have not seen Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (too bad my mom dislikes Tarantino. She considers herself an avid movie fan but immediately disparages or disregards films with sci-fi or fantasy elements… some red flags there) or Marriage Story (I don’t think parents of any 13 year old boy in 2019 would have seriously considered showing their child a movie about divorce and expecting him to like it), though they both interest me now. A few random ones I forgot to include in the list or skipped: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (Eastwood, Wallach, I suppose van Cleef as well), Se7en * (Spacey, Pitt, Freeman), No Country for Old Men (Bardem, Jones), Zodiac (Gyllenhaal, Ruffalo, Downey Jr.), The Tree of Life (Chastain, Pitt)
God, I wish I (college) had enough time to watch like 3 films a day as you and Drake do. Similarly to you I feel if I had seen a lot of these films about a year and a half ago (when I was much weaker of a cinephile than I am now) I probably would be somewhat amazed by a lot of them but unable to understand them on an artistic level, and perhaps “getting” in some way why this or that film was one of the greatest but not knowing why, so to speak. Anyway, what was your film that made you understand, so to speak, the ultimate power of cinema? I was 13 myself years ago when I watched Django Unchained and it absolutely blew me away – I had never seen anything like it (my parents are… not cinephiles. Both of them hate a lot of art films like, for example, Heat because it was too long and… the action was bad? What the fuck? Same with films like Blue Velvet or Pulp Fiction, they’re “too weird” which means terrible to them). Back on track, in the past, and not for years, would I truly be able to appreciate the true art of cinema in aspects like cinematography, mise-en-scene, sound, or editing; most of those came, like you, with the pandemic, since I only ever really watched films for the longest time and didn’t study them. With cinematography, my awakening was Birdman, but there I was caught up in the one-shot structure and I didn’t truly appreciate it until Drive, mise-en-scene was probably Blade Runner 2049, sound/music was also Drive (since then, Reservoir Dogs, Mean Streets, various Lynch films have expanded my repertoire among others) and editing was Whiplash (since then, among other films, Raging Bull, Sicario and Out of Sight as well), and those are just a few of the things I noticed. I’ve found you have to watch films actively to appreciate them, which a lot of filmgoers clearly don’t do which is why comic book films that are very in-your-face are so popular these days; you can’t get subtlety from, say, Deadpool. The way I view films has changed completely; previously they were just a form of entertainment and now they’re a breathtaking art form; when I first watched Black Swan I didn’t fully understand it, but I rewatched it 2 1/2 years later a few months ago and was absolutely speechless. I’ve come to feel nuanced performances are superior to bombastic ones; a few years ago I would’ve said Christoph Waltz was a lock for the Django Oscar but since then having seen The Master I would say otherwise for PSH (as well as Phoenix), and I didn’t fully connect with Sheen the first time I watched Apocalypse Now (or the film itself) but I rewatched both a few weeks ago and I haven’t yet seen The Searchers but I definitely feel it’s the greatest film I’ve ever seen so far. I don’t even know what to say about how film affects me, it’s simply a remarkable thing; at its maximum it can be a completely enveloping experience that cannot be reproduced in for example literature or a play; it never keeps you at a distance, and in the greatest films, the spectator is right there in the middle of everything, feeling one with the film as the film is one with them.
A lot of what I wrote is probably really disorganized, given it was little more than a continuous stream of consciousness. If I was writing this say for school where it really mattered it would probably be a lot more coherent haha.
@Zane- I absolutely love this- thanks for sharing. There are always films that “break you in” so to speak- sounds like Django Unchained, Birdman, Whiplash are three of them— that’s awesome. The exact same thing happened to me in the late 1990’s– whether it was Boogie Nights, Fight Club, Requiem For a Dream– films that were just different– made me think about them for weeks after.
@Graham- haha ok fair but you’ve got Raging Bull, Blue Velvet, The Cook the Thief his Wife & Her Lover and other very R-Rated stuff on your original list
Yes. I cannot deny that many of the movies I see are not made for people near my age group. I always try to research the content that will come up in a film and may sometimes have to slightly spoil for myself those that have possibly objectionable or frightening situations. I think that, ultimately, being a cinephile requires taking some risks to gain a better understanding of the art. I generally understand all the major topics occurring in the movies I see, and there are some lengths to which I will not go. I suppose parents should have the right to stop kids from watching things for which they are not yet ready, but it is different for me because I watch most of these movies alone in my room. However, I am sure my parents would prevent me from watching more if they were worried i was seeing something harmful. Domestic violence in Raging Bull and murderous tendencies in Taxi Driver won’t cause me to become that way when I am older. I don’t think it would for most other teenagers either, but it would be understandable for a parent or other people to suggest against watching a controversial film if they are worried.
The first 2 films of Pacino I saw were HEAT nd THE INSIDER and i think he completely got eclipsed by de niro in heat and Russel Crowe in the insider who gave better performances and had superior characters . And then for a long time i thought he was a lesser actor and then i saw the godfather part 1 and 2 and he was the best part of those movies, most important character in 2 all timer masterpieces and stole the show from Brando. ?
@M*A*S*H- great comment here- I can see that coming out of Heat and The Insider– I still think Pacino is good in those films- but he’s going up against Crowe and De Niro and I would agree with you- he looks a little lesser by comparison. If you haven’t checked it off your list- you should see Dog Day Afternoon if you’re interested in Pacino.
I have seen. Also seen serpico and scarface he’s one of my fvrt actors.
That’s what i said , my myth got broken with the godfather part 1 and 2 and i became an instant fan.
I believe in cinema history there are only few internalised performances like his as Michael corleone . What a performance. He is not howling , throwing things or crying. He’s not even expressing a lot but you are feeling exactly what’s needed to be felt and he’s making you do that.
I think he proudly owns one of the greatest movies ever made and the greatest movie franchise ever. He carries the godfather , its his character’s journey. He’s the heart and soul of the godfather franchise. They are his movies !!!
Where will his performance in The Irishman(2019) land for you among his top 10?
@Anderson- this is a compliment to De Niro as much as anything, but I don’t think his work in The Irishman lands in the top 10 for De Niro
But I asked about Pacino. This is the Pacino page.
@Anderson- Of course, I’m sorry- You just asked De Niro in 1995 so that’s where my head was. I don’t think this touches his top 3– but somewhere between 4-8 feels right.
My ranking of Pacino’s performances I have seen.
1)The Godfather Part II
2)Dog Day Afternoon
3)The Godfather
4)Serpico
5)Carlito’s Way
6)The Irishman
7)Heat
8)The Godfather Part III
9)Scent of a Woman
10)Once Upon a Time… In Hollywood