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Scent of a Woman
Scent of a Woman
Scent of a Woman
Scent of a Woman
Scent of a Woman
Scent of a Woman
Scent of a Woman
Misery
Kramer vs. Kramer
Miracle
Saturday Night Fever
Film credit
Al Pacino
Also referred to as Pacino
Stats
- Episodes featuring their films
- 16
- Movies in this archive
- 17
Rewatchables episodes featuring Al Pacino’s films
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
2019 film
Bill Simmons · Sean Fennessey · Chris Ryan
Aired February 6, 2020
Displaying episodes 1 - 12 of 16 in total
Mentioned in discussions
Apex Mountain
Apex checks cover Pacino, O’Donnell, blind movie characters, the Ferrari, bad Thanksgivings, and the Ringer chokehold.
In the discussion (10)
Approx. transcript time · 01:07:09Read transcript
- Pacino's apex is rejected, while the movie is accepted as Chris O'Donnell's apex. — Bill Simmons
- James Rebhorn's apex is debated because his supporting roles occupy a consistently high level. — Bill Simmons
- Scarface is preferred as the apex for Pacino movies featuring a character named Manny. — Bill Simmons
- Blind movie characters are proposed as an apex because few alternatives come to mind. — Bill Simmons
- The 1989 Ferrari Mondial T Cabriolet is declared an apex. — Bill Simmons
- The Thanksgiving scene is placed among apex dysfunctional family holidays. — Bill Simmons
- The Ringer chokehold is declared an apex. — Chris Ryan
- Matthew McConaughey in A Time to Kill is chosen as the apex for 1990s hunk actors crying. — Bill Simmons
- Philip Seymour Hoffman and prep-school or boarding-school movies are rejected as apexes for this film. — Bill Simmons
- The Oak Room is considered a possible apex for the location itself. — Bill Simmons
Half-Assed Internet Research
Locations, blindness and weapons preparation, the origin of “hoo-ah,” and a deleted hotel cameo
In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 01:05:55Read transcript
- The Baird scenes were filmed at the Emma Willard School in New York. — Bill Simmons
- Pacino prepared with a school for the blind and avoided focusing his eyes on objects. — Bill Simmons
- A lieutenant colonel taught Pacino to load and unload the pistol. — Bill Simmons
- Pacino reportedly adopted 'hoo-ah' after hearing a soldier use it while handling a rifle. — Bill Simmons
- A Plaza Hotel scene with Trump and Marlon Maples was filmed and then removed. — Bill Simmons
The Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award
Pacino is actively bad; his performance plays like a parody
In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:24:15Read transcript
- The producer says he did not enjoy the movie and calls Pacino actively bad. — Craig Horlbeck
- He says the performance feels like a parody of someone playing a blind role and blames Pacino for dialing it up too far. — Craig Horlbeck
- He also says Chris O'Donnell is not very good and calls both central performances one-note. — Craig Horlbeck
The Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award
The takes place the performance outside Pacino’s best eight and condemn Karen Rossi for leaving him with a teenager.
In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 00:55:02Read transcript
- The performance is placed outside Pacino's best eight and possibly outside his top ten because several earlier roles are more nuanced. — Bill Simmons
- The counterpoint says the movie is valuable precisely because Pacino commits fully to the outsized character. — Bill Simmons
- Karen Rossi is blamed for abandoning a vulnerable heavy drinker to a teenager during Thanksgiving. — Chris Ryan
What’s Aged the Worst?
The escort requests, dated first class, heavy drinking, and unexplained football background draw criticism.
In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 00:50:07Read transcript
- The colonel's repeated public requests for an escort would now attract scrutiny, though the behavior is defended as plausible for the pre-internet era. — Chris Ryan
- The first-class airplane cabin looks cheap and ordinary by current standards. — Bill Simmons
- The quantity of whiskey consumed during a short flight and across each day appears incompatible with the character remaining so controlled. — Bill Simmons
- Charlie's sudden description as Baird's star halfback feels unsupported by everything else shown about him. — Bill Simmons
- Frank Slade is described as a nightmare guest at holiday dinners. — Bill Simmons
- The recurring Pacino impression is added to What's Aged the Worst because it repeatedly parodied this movie. — Bill Simmons
What’s Aged the Best?
The score, class dynamics, supporting performances, Oscar debate, career-changing roles, New York locations, and the hero’s heightened senses
In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:22:30Read transcript
- Thomas Newman's score is praised as an active character in the movie. — Bill Simmons
- The prep-school conflict between inherited power and the scholarship student remains a sharp depiction of class and old-boy protection. — Bill Simmons
- The running joke in which the colonel calls Jack Daniel's 'John Daniels' is explicitly offered as something that aged well. — Bill Simmons
- James Rebhorn is praised as an elite supporting actor at playing polished men with sleazy interiors. — Bill Simmons
- The boarding-school setting belongs to a strong run that also includes Dead Poets Society and School Ties. — Bill Simmons
- Pacino's advice that a young actor should never marry an actress is recalled as a colorful set anecdote. — Bill Simmons
- The movie sits at an early point when public arguments over Oscar winners became part of mainstream movie culture. — Chris Ryan
- The performance helped establish the cynical idea that an actor could win awards by playing a disability or other conspicuous obstacle. — Bill Simmons
- The coveted Charlie role is used as an example of the career-changing parts that many young actors once competed to win. — Chris Ryan
- The Waldorf and Oak Room footage preserves an appealing pre-reservation-app vision of New York access and luxury. — Chris Ryan
- The colonel's heightened smell and hearing are treated as entertaining superhuman powers attached to a disability. — Bill Simmons
Most Rewatchable Scene
The second half of the school hearing
In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:25:34Read transcript
- George's threatening walk with Charlie is praised for the strange physicality and for revealing an actor who immediately stands out. — Bill Simmons
- George's ingratiating conversation with Mrs. Hunsacker is a smaller candidate that shows him as a skilled rich-kid manipulator. — Chris Ryan
- The airplane conversation is selected for the colonel's loudly inappropriate advice while other passengers sit nearby. — Bill Simmons
- The Oak Room arrival efficiently establishes the direction of the weekend and the conflict between the two leads. — Bill Simmons
- The Thanksgiving dinner is praised as a great dysfunctional-holiday sequence built around rising tension, insults, and the horrified family.
- The tango is praised for its lesson that mistakes can be folded into the dance and for the surprise it creates in the room. — Bill Simmons
- The tango partner said Pacino skipped the rehearsals and that she was left with several half-broken toes. — Bill Simmons
- The Ferrari sequence includes the dealership negotiation and the implausible but exciting blind drive. — Bill Simmons
- Charlie's intervention during the suicide attempt is praised as an emotional toe-to-toe performance with Pacino. — Bill Simmons
- The second half of the school hearing is the final choice because the speech and immediate verdict provide the dramatic apex. — Bill Simmons
- The final teacher flirtation is a small closing candidate because the perfume-reading premise finally pays off. — Bill Simmons
Casting What-Ifs
Many actors declined Annie Wilkes and Paul Sheldon; several alternative Paul Sheldons are debated
In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 00:29:38Read transcript
- Anjelica Huston and Bette Midler are identified as actors offered Annie Wilkes — Bill Simmons
- Richard Dreyfuss is proposed as a believable writer but possibly insufficiently physical — Brian Koppelman
- Robin Williams is proposed for his sympathy, physicality, and caged energy — Brian Koppelman
- Robert Duvall and Michael Douglas are proposed as strong alternatives — Bill Simmons
- Donald Sutherland is proposed as another alternative — Bill Simmons
- William Hurt, Kevin Kline, Michael Douglas, Harrison Ford, Dustin Hoffman, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Richard Dreyfuss, Gene Hackman, and Robert Redford are listed as having declined Paul Sheldon — Bill Simmons
- Richard Dreyfuss and Bette Midler are said to have later expressed regret — Bill Simmons
Casting What-Ifs
James Caan, Al Pacino and Jon Voight for Ted; Kate Jackson, Faye Dunaway and Jane Fonda for Joanna; Gail Strickland as Margaret
In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 01:34:24Read transcript
- Hoffman initially did not want the role, and James Caan reportedly declined over fears the film would flop. — Bill Simmons
- Al Pacino reportedly turned it down as not right for him; seeing him in the role would have been welcome. — Mallory Rubin
- Jon Voight reportedly declined because he was already in The Champ, another divorced-parent story whose ending is called one of the saddest.
- Hoffman changed his mind after meeting Jaffe and Benton in a London hotel. — Bill Simmons
- By her own claim, Kate Jackson was offered Joanna but could not take it because of Charlie's Angels; the story is treated as only mostly true. — Bill Simmons
- Faye Dunaway was reportedly offered the role and did The Champ instead; Jane Fonda, earlier said to have been talked about for the role, is mentioned again; Ali MacGraw is named only with the judgment that she would have butchered it, without saying she was considered. — Bill Simmons
- Streep was originally meant for the JoBeth Williams role before being cast as Joanna. — Bill Simmons
- Gail Strickland was cast as Margaret but reportedly fired after Hoffman taunted her on set, and Jane Alexander replaced her. — Bill Simmons
- Earlier, a Kate Jackson version of Joanna is dismissed as unable to reach Streep's level, with casting what-ifs promised for later. — Bill Simmons
Probably Unanswerable Questions
Would a news-breaker spoil the tape-delayed game now; a Ralph Cox sequel; Kurt Russell movie ranking; greatest sports-movie speech
In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:13:54Read transcript
- A possibly unanswerable question: would a news-breaker ruin this tape-delayed game in 2020 by announcing "USA wins 4-3"? (ASR "Woge"/"Walsh"). — Bill Simmons
- A top five Russell movies list is deferred to Probably Unanswerable Questions. — Bill Simmons
- A Ralph Cox sequel would be watched, perhaps as season two where he becomes super successful. — Bill Simmons
- Asked where this ranks, one list is hedged as "six or seven, maybe five": Escape from New York one, The Thing two, Tombstone three, Tango & Cash four, Miracle five; Big Trouble in Little China is loved less by one host than the other. — Bill Simmons
- Russell is also really good in Silkwood and great in Death Proof and The Hateful Eight; a "Silkwood shower" line once made the other host laugh hard. — Bill Simmons
- Is this the greatest motivational speech in sports movie history? It was forgotten for Apex Mountain; top three are this, Friday Night Lights and Al Pacino in Any Given Sunday, with Pacino first. — Bill Simmons
- The chef's Pele story in Vision Quest must be mentioned; Friday Night Lights is good but Pacino is still the apex; Vanderbeek at halftime in Varsity Blues is a good bad one. — Bill Simmons
- The through-line: coaches say nothing matters more than winning, then say they will love the players anyway, like Hackman in Hoosiers. — Chris Ryan
Most Rewatchable Scene
You Should Be Dancing solo; opening credits
In the discussion (14)
Approx. transcript time · 00:29:55Read transcript
- The opening credits are indelible and endlessly parodied; most people have only seen the first minute. — Bill Simmons
- In the opening Tony carries a paint can, stacks two pizza slices and eats them at once, and hits on two women, blocking one from passing in a point-of-view shot; the music makes the scene. — Jimmy Kimmel
- Travolta gives a one-of-one unicorn performance; no actor of the last 50 years could pull off the opening walk, with only a young Mario Lopez or a young Pacino floated. — Jimmy Kimmel
- Magic Mike and Channing Tatum are named the closest current-era equivalent for driving women crazy. — Jimmy Kimmel
- The first disco sequence brings Disco Inferno, an "I love to watch you dance" cameo by a Saturday Night Live alum, and the Night Fever group line dance. — Bill Simmons
- Tony popping out of his bedroom in his underwear doing "Al Pacino, Attica" for his grandmother is a funny, real moment rooted in 1977. — Jimmy Kimmel
- The first coffee scene, where Tony is called a cliche on his way to no place, is praised as well written and well acted.
- The Father Frank Jr. disco visit includes the Fran Drescher cameo, and she is called the best-looking girl in the club.
- In the You Should Be Dancing scene Travolta takes over the floor; he threatened to quit unless it was shot wide instead of in close-ups, and it plays like a sports movie. — Bill Simmons
- The solo scene is called one of the five most iconic scenes of the 1970s and announced in advance as this participant's category winner. — Bill Simmons
- The first Brooklyn Bridge scene was filmed about 600 feet up with few safety precautions. — Bill Simmons
- The dance contest is enjoyable because it is infuriating, with Caesar and Maria excelling; the other view is that the final dance is underwhelming compared with the solo scene. — Jimmy Kimmel
- The You Should Be Dancing scene is picked as most rewatchable. — Bill Simmons
- The opening scene with the credits is the other pick, accepted as fair. — Bill Simmons
In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:09:30Read transcript
- The hosts distinguish heightened acting from acting badly — Michael Mann
- Mann says Pacino was never too much for him — Michael Mann
- Hanna’s cocaine use and detailed fictional biography explain his intensity — Michael Mann
- Mann supplied character histories that actors could internalize — Michael Mann
Displaying discussions 73 - 84 of 137 in total
Films in the archive
The Godfather Part II
1974
The Godfather Part III
1990
The Insider
1999
The Irishman
2019
Two for the Money
2005