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Al Pacino: Movies
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Al Pacino can ... refer to an obscure American actor who used to act in low budget mafia movies that are still screened in drive-ins in the Southern United States. He escaped to Ukraine after being spat on by mobsters, and lives under the alias of Ace Talpa. He started a choir band with a group of Bananas in Pyjamas impersonators. They occasionally raid the occasional farm, or rob the occasional bank, when business is bad.
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Amazon.com essential video - Al Pacino cuts a noble figure in this very enjoyable drama by director Brian De Palma (Scarface), based on a pair of books by Edwin Torres. Pacino plays a Puerto Rican ex-con trying hard to go straight, but his loyalty to his lowlife attorney (a virtually unrecognizable Sean Penn) and enemies on the street make that choice difficult. Penelope Ann Miller plays, somewhat unlikely, a stripper who has a romance with Pacino's character. The film finds De Palma tempering his more outlandish moves (think of Body Double or Snake Eyes) just as he did with the popular Untouchables and Mission: Impossible. But while Carlito's Way was not commercially successful and never rises to the level of greatness, it is a genuinely compelling movie graced with a fine performance by Pacino and a surprising one from Penn. --Tom Keogh
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Alfredo Pacino was born to Salvatore and Rose Pacino in East Harlem. At the age of two, he quickly learned the drama of married life when his parents divorced. Al and his mother moved to his grandparents' house, where most of his days were spent entertaining his grandmother.
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The acting started early, not long after Alfred James Pacino was born on April 24, 1940 in East Harlem, N.Y. His stonemason father abandoned the family two years later. Overwhelmed with the responsibility of raising an only child, his mother moved with him to his grandparents' tenement apartment in the Bronx. It was here that the boy nicknamed "Sonny" found his first audience. After attending the movies with his mother, he would entertain his relatives with imitations of James Cagney, Ray Milland, and other stars he saw on the silver screen.
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Pacino's first acting lessons were at the Dover Theater, where he would go with his mother or grandmother to watch movies. After imitating the action on the screen for his grandmother, he was often asked to do the "looking for the bottle scene" from The Lost Weekend. Pacino found he could get positive attention with his acting antics. He won admission into Manhattan's prestigious High School of the Performing Arts but dropped out at age 17. As a teenager, Pacino took acting lessons from Charlie Laughton, who became a friend. Pacino held odd jobs to support the family.
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Pacino's next major role was as the sleep-deprived Detective Will Dormer in the crime thriller feature "Insomnia" (2002), writer-director Christopher Nolan's English-language remake of Erik Skojdbjaerg's 1997 Norwegian film, costarring Robin Williams and Hilary Swank. While the film received mixed reviews, the actors were roundly praised for their performances. Less appreciated was the Hollywood send-up "Simone" (2002), with Pacino playing a washed-up director who revitalizes his career by secretly creating a digital actress that perfectly executes his every command and becomes a major star. Not only was the movie's fable style tale wafer-thin, Pacino appeared out at sea with the material, giving one of his least memorable performances. Next up was "The Recruit" (2003) which saw him play a manipulative CIA instructor who recruits a young agent (Colin Farrell) to root out a mole inside The Company. Pacino followed with a supporting role in the dismal Ben Affleck-Jennifer Lopez comedy dud, "Gigli" (2003), reuniting with "Scent of a Woman" director Brest to play a federal prosecutor whose mentally disabled younger brother gets kidnapped.
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