Caan as Rocky with Harvey Keitel or John Cazale as Paulie is imagined, but Caan and Reynolds are considered too established for the unknown-underdog effect.
Recasting: initial leave cast alone, then more palatable Paulie considered; John Cazale failed-brother type may repeat roles but charisma would make him likable. Imagined neglected skinny alcoholic and robe-logo hustler.
This is proposed as Pacino’s second-best performance after The Godfather Part II, with Heat placed third; another response rejects even a top-five ranking.
Dog Day Afternoon is preferred for greater nuance, and Donnie Brasco, Heat, Any Given Sunday, The Godfather, Scarecrow, Serpico and Sea of Love are offered as competing peaks.
Carlito’s Way is offered as a soulful alternative, and The Insider is added to the competing Pacino performances.
Dick Tracy and The Godfather Part III are added to the performance debate; this film is proposed as the moment Pacino overtook De Niro.
The top-two or top-three defense treats Arthur as the culmination of Pacino’s early mastery: quiet and explosive passages form a coherent journey as the system breaks him.
Both Godfather performances and Dog Day Afternoon are placed definitively above Arthur in the opposing ranking; Dog Day receives admiration but is called personally exasperating.
The Godfather’s Kay scenes and marital storyline are criticized as obstacles to placing Michael in the top two; the challenge of playing Brando’s son is offered in defense.
The distinction is clarified as carrying and justifying an entire film rather than delivering a bad performance within an ensemble.
Playing Michael in the first Godfather is provocatively called comparatively easy, while Part II is considered much harder; a particular scene remains admired without being named in this exchange.
Michael’s transformation is defended as indispensable to the film; the counterargument imagines De Niro or John Cazale in the role.
The ensemble is said to elevate Michael’s performance, and James Caan is ranked above Pacino by one participant; a suggestion that Cazale is better is retracted.
Arthur is defended as the full range of Pacino’s abilities, requiring trust in the director and editor, in contrast with Michael’s more observational role.
The Godfather ranking dispute returns: Part II is called the best male screen performance in 50 years, while the first film is framed as a young actor still discovering the role.
Raging Bull and Scarface are called damaging influences on later actors who imitate them, as an argument against accepting inherited performance rankings.
The first Godfather’s stature is argued to confer automatic greatness on Pacino, while the restaurant assassination is singled out as exceptional.
A defense enumerates Michael’s wedding exposition, revenge planning, Italian interlude and hospital protection of his father as stages of a demanding transformation.
Michael is defended as the role that made Pacino a star and helped make The Godfather great; the opposing argument distinguishes iconic characters from great acting to defend Arthur’s high ranking.
The screenplay reportedly wrote the crew as men while explicitly making all roles interchangeable; Ripley was not originally specified as female.
Meryl Streep reportedly competed with Yale classmate Sigourney Weaver for Ripley but was mourning John Cazale; the panel believes Streep could have played the part.
Weaver's imposing physical presence distinguishes her from the imagined Streep casting, though Streep's acting ability is not doubted.
Harrison Ford reportedly declined Dallas; a speaker believes Ford would improve the acting and chemistry with Weaver, anticipating their Working Girl pairing.
Veronica Cartwright reportedly arrived in England believing she would play Ripley and learned during wardrobe fitting that she was Lambert; the panel expresses disbelief at the miscommunication.
An anecdote says John Hurt lost another film after being mistaken in South Africa for a similarly named apartheid opponent, then became available for Alien after the replacement actor developed diabetes; the transcript does not reliably distinguish the two names.
Avery Corman novel; darkened nude scene; Justin Henry improvising at seven; Library of Congress omission; J.G. Melon location; Streep pregnant during filming
Coppola, as with the first film, confirmed as one of the ten most important filmmakers.
De Niro announced himself as the next major movie star, doing it all in Italian.
Lee Strasberg, a teacher who had not performed, lays down a performance that never seems overmatched next to Pacino, like Brad Stevens climbing onto the court.
Pacino, called the greatest performance ever seen and the first thing thought of with this movie.
A tangent asks whether Pacino resented De Niro becoming Brando's heir, comparing their later careers.
A zag picks Cazale and Duvall as the soul of the movie.
