The studio suggested Robert Redford (YEECH!) for Michael, while Robert Evans (I think) was the one who suggested John Cassavetes (who would have been too old). A damn shame that Pacino has evolved into a screaming, screeching parody of himself since “And Justice for All.”
redford would have been hopeless. He is like Warren beatty - wooden. Both preen in front of the camera because they were lucky to win the lottery at birth for above average looks.
Al got over the top in most of his stuff. Still, he was quite good in the Godfather considering he was a fairly young and inexperienced actor at the time. I forget if Dog Day and Serpico came after godfather.
Ain't that the truth! I saw him in a movie a few months ago (that really long movie about AP as a cop chasing Robert De Niro as a cat burglar-too lazy to google title) and all Pacino did in the way of acting was randomly select certain lines of dialogue for screaming. It was so painful and annoying I turned the movie off. I had the impression he was deliberately doing a crappy job as a gesture of contempt to the folks who thought they HAD to pay him big bucks to be in their movie, but I'm probably wrong.