Al Pacino

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by F.X. Feeney, Paul Duncan (Editor), The Kobal Collection (Photographs)

American cinema, as we've known it since The Godfather, would be impossible to reimagine without Al Pacino. As Michael Corleone he breathes life into an American of epic dimension. His characters may explode (Tony Montana in Scarface), or be paragons of calm and cunning (the journalist in The Insider), but his extraordinary eyes do the real talking. As a rival says of Tony Montana, "There is no lying in him," and this is equally true of Pacino. Good or evil, he is at all times a man to be trusted, impossible to ignore, a magnet for our continuing attention.

192 pages, Paperback

First published September 1, 2009

Reviews

[Arthur Cravan · Rating 2 out of 5]

For what it is (essentially a a book of photos & stills of Pacino with brief captions), it could have been worse. Probably not too much worse. But, as stated elsewhere, a completely inconsequential book. The captions occasionally have a nice quote about Al from a director, but the pictures themselves are typically (uninspired) stills from his films rather than press/promo photos (of which I know there are some classics - in my mind is one of him positively beaming, wide-mouthed smile making you wonder how he did so many gritty films). The best part of the book was seeing shots from his lesser known movies, which I see listed on IMDB but typically brush over - seeing the sets & characters give these faceless films more substance. 2 stars for setting me out on a Pacino-completist quest!