As the actor turns 86, we rate his greatest screen performances and ask which Godfather was the best of the trilogy
With greased-back hair, dainty spectacles and bristly chops, Pacino is a former Little League baseball coach turned locksmith. But – symbolism alert! – who holds the key to his clenched heart? One scene gives good cringe: over a would-be romantic dinner with a bank teller (Holly Hunter), he starts reminiscing about his great lost love, oblivious to his date’s escalating indignation.
No surprise that Oliver Stone’s football drama is frenzied, overloaded and unsubtle. At least it has at its centre a performance of style and grace by Pacino. He plays the idealistic coach of the fictional Miami Sharks, who sees the game as a test of character. “On any given Sunday, you’re gonna win or you’re gonna lose,” he says. “The point is – can you win or lose like a man?”
Christopher Nolan’s atmospheric remake of a 1997 Norwegian thriller puts Pacino in the Stellan Skarsgård role of the cop whose guilt over past and present misdeeds hounds him through the sleepless nights of a new murder case. Fascinating to see both Pacino and Robin Williams (as the unctuous killer) dialling down their usual mania for the most part.
