From ‘The Godfather’ to ‘Hunters’ Al Pacino’s Best Work

Here are some of his best.

Al Pacino is not only one of the world’s greatest actors but also one of the most versatile. With Hunters, his first original series on digital out on Amazon Prime Video, we list some of his most iconic performances. Here they are:

1. The Godfather

Al Pacino’s work inThe Godfather is said to be one of the best performances of his career. He played the role of Micheal Corleone who is the don and the head of the Corleone crime family. Pacino effortlessly portrays the transformation from a war hero to someone who goes on to kill his own family. Pacino received Academy Award nominations for the first and second part of The Godfather. According to a report in The Guardian, he did not want to star in the film as Michael Corleone. He felt that director Francis Ford Coppola was “a bit mad” for insisting that he take on the part.

2. Hunters (Web Series)

One of the main attractions of the show is the fact that Al Pacino makes his series debut with the show. The show is about an eclectic group of vigilantes who seek out and kill Nazis who are living secretly in the United States. This group of people is lead by Al Pacino who plays Meyer Offerman, a rich Jewish man who is also a concentration camp survivor. His performance as Meyer is sublime, and so while the rest of the characters are flashier and the show generally has comic book-like feel, Pacino brings a sense of compassionate vengefulness to his character.

3. The Irishman

In Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, he plays the role of Jimmy Hoffa- a mob hitman who became a confidante of Teamster's leader. The Irishman is Pacino's first nomination since Scent of a Woman for which he won the Oscar in 1993. In an interview ahead of the release of Hunters, Al Pacino said he’d frequently go off-script and Robert De Niro would adapt to his improvisations. A review of the film praised Pacino’s performance and said, “The 21st-century Al has too often slipped into penny-dreadful excess, but here his relish is tempered by keen wit that plays sensitively off the surrounding actors. Just listen to the disdain he puts into the words “New Jershshy” and feel for the watching bridge-and-tunnel crowd.”

4. Scent of a Woman

Scent of a Woman is about a preparatory school student (Chris O’Donell) who takes up a job as an assistant to a medically retired Army officer (Al Pacino). Pacino plays the part of a blind, irritable Army man with aplomb and the film also fetched him the Academy Award for Best Actor. Some of the dialogues from the film continue to live on, like one where Pacino says, “If you get all tangled up, just tango on.” Noted critic Roger Ebert said in his review, “Al Pacino in one of his best and riskiest performances - risky because at first, the character is so abrasive we can hardly stand him, and only gradually do we begin to understand how he works and why he isn't as miserable as he seems.” Pacino’s speech towards the end of the film is considered to be one of the most powerful scenes of the film.

5. Scarface

Al Pacino’s character Tony Montana in Scarface was based on real-life mobster Al Capone. Pacino wanted to work on the film after he saw the 1932 film by the same name and loved the story. He watched the film for the first time with his friends and found himself so inspired by the movie that he decided to call Martin Bregman (the producer) the same day, which eventually resulted in the deliberate development of the film's remake.

Scarface has gone onto become one of his most iconic roles and speaking of his decision to do the film Pacino said, “Believe it or not, as hard of a movie it was, as draining as it was, I enjoyed doing Scarface. I really enjoyed the atmosphere, the people. and that time of my life. I was in love at that time and, so, that was an experience. When I look back at it, I found there was something very creative about it. It's got a lot to do with the components that it had, the things happening in your life and where you are in your own.”