The Ten Greatest Al Pacino Movies

I did a top ten list for Robert De Niro and people seemed to enjoy discussing the list even though my rankings were almost universally hated. You can read that blog below but I figured I'd do the same thing for Pacino and see what the reaction would be this time. I feel like Pacino has been in less great movies?

As with De Niro, I am not judging the quality of the performance. Serpico isn't going to be on this list because even though he was great in it, I found the movie to be simply decent. There are at least a dozen other Pacino movies I like more. With that being said, here are my ten favorite Al Pacino movies.

10. Glengarry Glen Ross

This is #91 on my Top Movies Of The 1990's countdown so I already talked about it at length in the blog below. But, I did want to mention that everyone talks about Alec Baldwin's great Always Be Closing scene and I agree that is the best part of the movie. But Pacino and Jack Lemmon really carry this. Pacino's Ricky Roma walks around with such arrogance but the way he plays him, you can clearly see that's all a facade. Roma is just as fragile as the other guys in the room.

9. Scarface

This chaotic movie brings out the best and worst of Pacino. He wildly overacts here but the movie needs it. This doesn't work with a quiet, thoughtful performance. I've never done cocaine but I imagine this is what it feels like. Everything is ramped up, subtlety is out the window and the whole experience is pretty exciting. I don't know if the was the best choice for Pacino but I also can't imagine any other actor in this role.

8. Heat

When I saw Heat in the theaters, I walked out really disappointed. I expected far too much. It was the first time Pacino and De Niro shared a scene together and I think I thought it would be one of the greatest films of all-time. It's not but it's really fucking good. The worst part of the movie is Pacino's performance. It's just bizarre and cartoonish EXCEPT for the scene with De Niro in the diner. That is just great acting by both of them.

7. Donnie Brasco

This is the opposite of the Heat performance. Pacino is so much softer and more thoughtful here. Mike Newell directed this and it feels different than most gangster movies. Newell had directed Four Wedding And A Funeral before Donnie Brasco. He hasn't gone back to the crime genre either. He went on to make a Harry Potter movie and Pushing Tin (which is pretty decent and about air traffic controllers with Billy Bob Thornton and John Cusack). I wish Newell had gone back to making movies like Brasco. 

6. The Insider

This is the best Al Pacino performance since the 1970's. Russell Crowe is equally great but that part is much flashier. If you haven't seen The Insider, check it out. The premise may not seem exciting: a 60 Minutes producer works with a former Phillip Morris executive to do a story on the dangers of cigarettes. However, The Insider is one of the most compelling movies I've seen. It didn't do particularly well at the box office and Pacino somehow didn't get an Academy Award nomination but it holds up really well and might be my favorite Michael Mann movie.

5. The Irishman

I got a ton of shit for having this in my top 10 Robert De Niro movies so I am sure people won't love seeing it this high either. One thing I will agree with people on is that I don't think Pacino is that great as Jimmy Hoffa. Pacino, Pesci and De Niro all got Oscar nomination but I thought De Niro and Pesci were far superior. I never bought Pacino as Hoffa. The best parts of the movie are in that last 30-45 minutes when you see what you are left with after a life of crime and horrible acts. That was my takeaway from this movie, not the Hoffa elements.

4. Dog Day Afternoon

Look at this run Pacino had:

1972 Godfather I

1973 Serpico

1974 Godfather II

1975 Dog Day Afternoon

He's absolutely brilliant in that entire stretch. Dog Day Afternoon is the best heist movie ever and I almost feel like it's cheating Dog Day just calling it a heist movie. This is about bank robbers holding people hostage and you care and root for the robbers. Nothing about this movie should work yet all of it does. It's also an interesting look at New York City in the 70's and the anti-authority attitude that was so prevalent in the aftermath of Nixon.

3. Once Upon A Time…In Hollywood

I don't think anyone would think of this as a Pacino movie. It's certainly more of Tarantino/DiCaprio/Pitt movie. But it is my favorite movie of the five years. I have it just above Belfast, The Worst Person In The World and 1917. Pacino does a nice job here though in the small part. He sets the movie up really well with that initial conversation with DiCaprio at the restaurant. Because it's Pacino, you believe that he can talk to DiCaprio's character like that. Plus, it's pretty great we finally got Pacino in a Tarantino movie.

2. The Godfather Part II

1. The Godfather

Al Pacino as Michael Corleone is the greatest acting performance I've ever seen in a movie. Seeing Michael go from good to bad in Godfather I is perfection. It's a three hour movie and his soul is completely changed from the beginning of the movie to the end. He even somehow looks different. 

Look at the those pictures from the beginning of Part 1 to Part II. Those movies only came out two years apart but you'd think at least a decade had passed. Michael changes the way he speaks, walks and looks at the world and it never feels rushed. It all feels earned.

The first Godfather is my favorite movie ever. I love Part II but my favorite pieces of that movie are the Young Vito flashbacks. I don't value seeing Michael go from bad to evil in the sequel as much as I do seeing him go from good to bad in the first one. I also don't enjoy the Hyman Roth stuff as much. The Michael/Fredo piece is brilliant though. Watching him lose the last morsel of humanity in him as he has his own brother killed is heartbreaking. I also love the last scene in Part II when we see the kids all alive at the kitchen table including Michael just before he goes away to war. You are reminded how much Michael has changed. I don't know if you can have better acting in a movie.

The third Godfather never existed.