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— by Ben Cosgrove
This week's DVD release of "The Godfather: Part II" is a big deal for a couple of reasons. First, it means that the 1974 movie is finally available on its own, rather than as part of one "Godfather" collection or another. Second, the movie marked the moment when Al Pacino proved he could not only hold his own with other acting greats — De Niro, Duvall, etc. — but that he could hold a movie together seemingly by the sheer enormity of his talent: It's the film in which Pacino became a movie star. In light of that — and noting the recent DVD release of 2004's "Merchant of Venice," in which he shone as one of Shakespeare's greatest creations, Shylock — here are a few other memorable roles from the New York native's long, brilliant career.
 "The Recruit" (2003)
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Pacino's portrayal of a hard-nosed CIA recruiter trying to discover a mole, or traitor, within the agency is excellent, but much of the fun of this serviceable thriller comes from watching him act opposite Colin Farrell. Like the young Pacino, Farrell is a talented live wire with great instincts and charm to burn. But he's also in danger of becoming a punch line before his career really gets off the ground. He could take some lessons from Pacino's career in how to gracefully avoid that fate.
"Insomnia" (2002)
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A well-above-average cop thriller, with Pacino playing an emotionally and psychically exhausted detective hunting a killer in an Alaskan town where the sun (metaphorically and literally) never sets. Smartly paced by the young British director Christopher Nolan ("Memento," "Batman Begins"), the film examines moral quagmires without getting bogged down in its own philosophical traps, and also features Robin Williams as a super-creepy murder suspect — proof once again, if anyone needed it, that he's infinitely scarier than he is funny nowadays.
"The Insider" (1999)
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Playing the real-life "60 Minutes" producer and investigative reporter Lowell Bergman, Pacino gives one of the finest performances of his career as a man going after all-powerful cigarette manufacturers for years of malpractice and fraud. With Russell Crowe (magnificent as the tobacco-industry whistle-blower, Jeffrey Wigand), Christopher Plummer and a slew of other strong actors, the film is as convincing a portrayal of justified paranoia and outrage as you're likely to find, and Pacino brings exactly the right mix of cold journalistic intensity and human sympathy to the role.
"The Devil's Advocate" (1997)
A turning point for many Pacino fans, who for years were getting sick and tired of the great man's tendency to over-act. This time, the role (of the devil himself, no less) begs for a larger-than-life portrayal, and Pacino delivers: His performance as the smarmy and charming John Milton (Get it? Milton? "Paradise Lost"? Lucifer?) is masterful. Keanu Reeves, meanwhile, is weirdly perfect as a young hotshot lawyer and husband in way over his head, for whom Milton has some enticing but ultimately unholy plans.
"Donnie Brasco" (1997)
That the same actor could bring Lefty Ruggiero and Satan convincingly to the screen in the very same year says an awful lot about Pacino's gifts. With Johnny Depp — brilliant as ever in the title role, an undercover FBI agent based on the real-life Joe Pistone, who infiltrated the mob in the late 1970s — Pacino plays a not-very-bright wiseguy to perfection. One of the finest movies ever made about the mafia, and hands-down one of the best performances of Pacino's career.
"Heat" (1995)
Michael Mann's masterpiece about two very similar men — a cop, played by Pacino, and a bank robber, played by Robert De Niro) — on opposite sides of the law whose lives are destined to collide. There are several violent scenes here that have become film-buff favorites (the epic shootout on a crowded L.A. street; De Niro's character stalking around a pool, readying to kill someone who betrayed him), but it's a quiet scene in a restaurant, with the two actors onscreen together for the first and only time in their amazing careers, that really makes this a classic.
"Carlito's Way" (1993)
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A Puerto Rican ex-con returns to NYC after spending several years in stir. He wants nothing more than to live a quiet life, away from the temptations that got him into trouble in the first place. How much you wanna bet that it won't work out? Brian De Palma, who 10 years earlier directed the sordidly wonderful "Scarface," again gets a riveting performance from Pacino, this time ably supported by a cast that includes Sean Penn (as perhaps the sleaziest and worst-coiffed lawyer ever to appear onscreen), John Leguizamo, Luis Guzman and others.
"Scent of a Woman" (1992)
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As far as the Academy was concerned, the eighth nomination was the charm for Pacino, as he finally won a Best Actor Oscar for "Scent of a Woman," playing the blind, abrasive and perpetually randy Colonel Frank Slade. A classic coming-of-age tale, the film also stars a baby-faced Chris O'Donnell as a prep-school kid who, needing some dough, agrees to "babysit" the colonel for a few days, only to have the older man gradually impart invaluable lessons about life, sex, the tango, drinking, loyalty and the right way and proper moment to bellow "Hoo-wah!"
"Glengarry Glen Ross" (1992)
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Featuring one of the best male casts ever assembled in an ensemble flick (Pacino, Alec Baldwin, Ed Harris, Jack Lemmon, Alan Arkin and more), David Mamet's morality tale set in a real-estate office is a verbal tornado. Not a punch is thrown, not a knife is pulled, but few films can match the ferocity and violence that seems to hover at the edge of every single frame. As the disgusting, ultra-macho salesman Ricky Roma, Pacino is as charming as a python, and just as mesmerizing.
"Scarface" (1983)
What's there to say about director Brian De Palma and screenwriter Oliver Stone's re-imagining of the great 1932 Paul Muni classic that hasn't been said by every rapper from here to Japan? Playing the drug dealer Tony Montana, the Italian-American from the South Bronx transformed himself into a convincingly insecure Cuban sociopath — in other words, the ideal cinematic anti-hero, and the role model for dimwitted gangster wannabes everywhere. If there's a more exhilarating film portrait of a foulmouthed dirtbag murderer than this one, we've never seen it.
"Dog Day Afternoon" (1975)
A bank robber and Vietnam War vet who only wants some money so that he can pay for his homosexual lover's sex-change operation, Pacino's Sonny is alternately funny, pathetic, charismatic and explosive in this movie that captures the angst and muddled rage of mid-1970s America as perfectly as any film of its era. As his bungled bank heist turns into a hostage crisis, Sonny seizes his moment and becomes a short-lived media sensation — a doomed Everyman howling in the urban wilderness.
"Serpico" (1973)
While "Godfather II" made him a bona fide star, one year before that "Serpico" gave Pacino a role that seemed tailor-made for the young actor — a true-life tale of a hip, long-haired rebel cop in New York who frequents jazz clubs, dates ballerinas, rides a motorcycle and refuses to be corrupted by money and power. For his trouble he's made an outcast and almost killed on the job while his colleagues stand by and watch. A great, gritty movie.
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Photos: Paramount Pictures
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