Posted on 12/05/2017 7:16:51 AM PST by SeekAndFind
I don’t think his acting is dreadful at all. He holds 3 together. That wonderful scene with Raf Vallone in which he makes a Confession is beautifully done. I love the Vatican Bank scandal aspect of the movie. I think Pacino’s makeup and dress in the film are peculiar as is Kay’s. I don’t think the movie makers knew how to bring them forward 25-30 years in a believable way.
The mob was wiped out under Mussolini. WWII brought it back thanks to Lucky Luciano. He actually helped with the invasion!
That said, they are a blight on Sicily, patriotism or no patriotism. We have family there and they pay extortion to keep them from destroying their business. You can’t even park in Sicily without some Mafia goon threatens to destroy your rental car unless you hand over cash. Loathsome.
Good points about the hair and clothing — his hair and Kay’s clothes were particularly awful. I’d have to see the film again to comment on the specifics of Pacino’s acting that repelled me— I just remember feeling repelled. The hospital scene springs to mind, and his emoting in the kitchen, and the scene of his daughter’s death. Granted, I can’t imagine how awful it would be actually to lose a child to murder in front of one’s face, but it just seemed all about him as an actor in that scene.
“Running Scared” is a cop buddy movie set in Chicago with Billy Crystal and Gregory Hines. I have seen it probably 20 times. :-)
The Vincent- Mary coupling. That was incest, the characters were cousins. Certainly the whole thing was made creepier by having Mary played by the director’s daughter, but it was just a jacked up story line no matter what. Don’t care if it was based on Coppola family history.
The metaphors are clearly there. It’s filled with Classical allusions. It’s not really conventional either. What film was like it before that?
Part of what makes the 2nd film so great is the contrast between the DeNiro and Pacino sections. That gets lost when you edit it in chronological order.
Ever read the novel? It’s terrible. The movie is much better.
It also has parallels with “The Brothers Karamazov”: a powerful father, an impulsive oldest son, a philosophical son, a sweet-tempered son, and an adopted stepson who is maintained as an employee.
If “Dr. Strangelove” had come out in 1954 as opposed to 1964, Columbia would have been investigated by the FBI for spreading Soviet propaganda.
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