Ah! the sheer chutzpah of this film! It was such a pleasure
to watch this one.
Al Pacino went from a Scent of a Woman to this one, and
landed right in the midst of another juicy courtroom scene. And he is
characteristically loud and brash and irreverent, and quintessentially Al
Pacino, but you gotta give it to him. He
carries brash like no one else ever could. He plays this gangster who has spent
five years in jail and is a little unsure of his footing now. He gets his
conviction overturned and the unsolicited speech that he makes within minutes
of the opening credits is self-aggrandizing and so tongue-in-cheek, that it
makes you like his character instantly. The way Al Pacino plays out the subdued
glee at being recognised and appreciated is not to be missed. His performance
in this one, did not to my mind, get the recognition it truly deserved. My beef
with Pacino in all his performances has been that he conveys his lack of
conviction as the movie progresses. Consider his purportedly greatest Scarface,
towards the end, it seemed to me that Pacino had lost all conviction in his
role and so also his performance in Godfather 3. There was no application at
all. He has a monologue near the end on this one and it is posited as a dying
man's thoughts, and when you hear and see that scene you will realise why his
Scarface performance was humbug and why this one deserved better.
On the other hand, he carries Carlito’s Way all the way! (pun
intended)
Sean Penn is his lawyer and actually was nominated for the
Oscars for his role in this one. He has a prosthetic makeover and makes sleazy his
trademark. It was a performance to rival his own in Milk.
Viggo Mortensen has a
blink and you miss it role. It is just Pacino’s caper all the way and it should
be watched. Stream it now. This is one of those “cult movies” which no one
watches in the theatres but loves later.
Don’t miss it.
Peace out!
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