The Godfather's Legacy: Al Pacino, From Silver Screen to Cinema Legend | FULL DOC

foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] who put this thing together me that's who do I trust me [Music] this is the story of a young Italian-American who escaped from the Bronx was saved by theater and became one of the greatest actors of his generation it's the story of an actor with a magnetic gaze and an explosive physicality who came to the fore in films of the 1970s he was the embodiment of New York with dark side and its demons [Music] the story of a star who made one big movie after another drowned in work and alcohol and ended up losing himself before coming to terms with success this is the story of Al Pacino [Music] [Music] 1970 New York was in the middle of a heroin epidemic tens of thousands of junkies roam the streets in search of their next fix [Music] in Manhattan most heroin trafficking took place at the intersection of Broadway and 72nd Street small square nicknamed needle Park where a drug addicts hung out day and night this is where a film of raw realism was shot depicting a descent into the hell of addiction [Music] the main role was played by an as yet unknown actor I told my brother all about you my brother yeah he's gonna love you man only Ben I love you too much because I'll kick his ass listen you don't have to worry about money either I got plenty of that yeah we'll take a look at a little trip you want to take a trip you ever been to Philadelphia neither have I from his very first film he burst onto the screen with his naturalistic style achina was not acting he was his character Christmas at the end of the filming he was unable to come out of character he continued to spend time with the needle Park junkies and turned down the chance to go and present the film at the 1971 Cannes Film Festival foreign he didn't feel at home out of New York he would troll all the neighborhoods Crossing into some of the most dangerous areas [Music] I was from the South Bronx my father mother divorced and and I I remember back then living with my grandmother grandfather and my mother my mother was difficult but she was also great Al Pacino had grown up in an apartment that was too small brought up by a single mother who worked as a cinema Usher he started going to the movies with her as early as four years old when he got back home he would reenact the film in front of the mirror the last week is a movie that starred Rhema lamb he's an alcoholic and he hid the bottle somewhere and he goes into a frantic search for it and I would perform it [Music] my mother was always dragging me out saying you show these people last weekend do the last weekend for and I would do the Lost weekend and then they'd be laughing and I never understood why they were laughing [Music] Al started smoking at the age of nine and drinking at 13. he's quoted as saying as far back as I can remember drinking and smoking grass were a part of my life [Music] and many hours out in the streets of the Bronx fell into hard drugs they didn't survive as for Pacino he discovered theater in a local Playhouse and he kept going to the movies when he was 16 he saw Marlon Brando in on the waterfront he was overwhelmed by Brando's style of acting which was truer more raw and more powerful than anything else seen in Hollywood at the time hey friendly job friendly come out of there out of there you take the good Goods away and the Kickbacks and a Shakedown cabbage and I'm pistol arrows and you're nothing it was a revelation it was a breakthrough his acting on screen was different than anything we'd all seen so that's how it impacted me from then on Al dreamed of becoming an actor he quit high school and went to live in Manhattan taking on a series of odd jobs [Music] he saved up enough money to pay for acting classes became enthused by experimental theater and started acting in Greenwich Village cafes [Music] doing the play [Music] through me as though I was able to speak from myself I was kind of born there in a way and I knew then at that point that this is what I'm going to do with my life it didn't matter that I was famous that I had money that I was good or bad What mattered is that I want to do this thank you at 26 on his second attempt he got into the actor's studio the legendary New York theater school where James Dean Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando had trained [Music] at the actor Studio Pacino was taught by the great Lee Strasburg who became not just his mentor but a surrogate father Strasbourg passed on the tenets of the method how to become the character and not to play it by drawing on one's own emotions and inner pain I would go to the studio and then but I wouldn't go on stage I wouldn't do anything and there would be Lee and finally I did a scene there and he pronounced my name for the first time someone pronounced my name right they always used to say bikini or Pacino he said Pacino and I thought okay [Music] hahaha [Music] what happened well like I said I was just out on a Town celebrating the car I bought yesterday I met this girl see and we had a couple of drinks and she got to liking me and she asked me if I took her for a ride in my car for his first screen appearance Pacino had a part in an episode of a forgettable TV series oysters but it was theater where he felt at home and could express himself [Music] Bronx would now get high on Shakespeare monologues working on them alone all day long in 1968 he acted in Israel horowitz's play the Indian wants the Bronx shared the bill with another young actor John gazelle he was like my older brother he was a bit older than I a couple of years he was and he was that way with me too take it easy and say to me come down he was there for me John's a little ahead so he was seeing things and able to see things feel things in a way it's a little finer even if the general public was unaware of him Al Pacino's peers began to take notice for his role in the play does a tiger wear a necktie he picked up a Tony Award the most prestigious Accolade in New York theater [Music] please hey it's good that's good [Music] in the fall of 1970 a director in his 30s Francis Ford Coppola was in the middle of preparing his next film an adaptation of Mario puzo's best seller The Godfather he only had one actor in mind for the main role Al Pacino in order to convince the producers Coppola made him do some screen tests [Music] how to evolve against Hallie's head and my father told Hallie that either his signature or his brains would be on the contrary [Music] the liking of the boss of Paramount who wanted a real star and not a beginner he thought Pacino was too short and his complexion too dark he would have preferred an All-American type like Robert Redford or Ryan O'Neal for the role foreign yet since the end of the 60s less classical looking actors were making their Mark in Hollywood for example Dustin Hoffman in The Graduate his success opened the way for other actors considered atypical by the studios but in fact Ino himself wasn't sure he was right for the part of Michael Corleone so what did I know I knew what the studio why why why use me in such a you know why would I be that part I mean come on there's so many other wonderful actors out there could do it and they're well known and it isn't that even I didn't want me I didn't think he was right actually Michael why are all those people bothering your father on a day like this well that's because they know no sister you can refuse a request on his daughter's wedding day Coppola auditioned other actors but he was set on Al Pacino for his film his insistence paid off and he got his man in two weeks [Music] Pacino threw himself into preparing for his new role he spent hours walking along the streets of New York thinking about his character he met up discreetly with members of the New York mob some of its leading figures agreed to support the film on condition that the word mafia was never uttered in the city streets scores were still being settled even as the production progressed [Music] filming got off to a bad start for Pacino when the producers saw the first dailies they found his acting lackluster he was on the verge of being fired [Music] it's not working I I don't feel wanted or you know it acted needs confidence you need a certain amount of feeling people want you there [Music] in order to help his young Protege and give him a chance to make his Mark Coppola decided to change the shooting schedule and move one of the film's key scenes forward the one where Michael carries out his first murder in a Bronx restaurant you know Italian Community [Music] [Music] in just one take Pacino silenced his critics his acting would never be questioned again in The Godfather he was playing in the same league as his Boyhood Idol Marlon Brando as if the film was staging a symbolic Handover between the two Actors Studio graduates [Music] I'll handle it I told you I can handle it I'll handle it [Music] all the glitterati turned up on the evening of the New York premiere [Music] [Applause] [Music] Pacino panicked just a few minutes after arriving he made his escape and went out and got drunk [Music] he was the revelation of the film which was a huge box office success [Music] but the young actor wasn't ready to deal with the ups and downs of Fame could have given in to the siren Call of commercial films but instead returned to the Art House Cinema of Jerry schatzberg the director of the panic and needle Park [Music] [Applause] and scarecrow Pacino played a loser a vagrant hitchhiking across the U.S alongside an ex-convict played by Gene Hackman the actor made use of his small stature and childish looks to embody a character still caught up in childhood almost as if Al Pacino had refused to grow up Frank what the hell is that I'm out here now it's five hours I don't know I don't know what he said he returned to the theater in the winter of 1973. for the first time in his career he took on a Shakespeare play Richard III but the critics would only refer to his status as a young film star and his social Origins [Music] Soliloquy is of course one of the most beautiful one of the most Musical coincidentally why on Saturday night did you deal with a little accent when I get I get nervous on openings I I didn't know it was opening until that night so I was very nervous before now you spoke that speech beautifully resonantly you were deliberate you were slow you got all the melody into it but I couldn't believe you were saying it in a kind of accent as though it was uh back to the Godfather or something it probably was because I was nervous [Music] [Music] as the start of the 1970s the New York police was undergoing an unprecedented crisis a whistleblower had just drawn attention to widespread corruption within the NYPD an institution which was racist and rotten to the core in retaliation he suffered an assassination attempt police corruption cannot exist unless it is at least tolerated at higher levels in the department the true story of Frank Serpico an Italian-American police officer became the subject of Al Pacino's next film I met Frank serpenter when I met Frank I knew there was something I could paint there there was something that would I could sort of serve I just felt that he had an earring long hair and strange looking but he had a look in his eye that I thought there it is the first time the actor was playing a real-life character he transformed his physical appearance and spent days on end with the real Frank to the point where he never got out of character now that's crap and you know because even a dumb cop like me knows a prosecutor can take a grand jury anywhere it wants to take it now you never led me anywhere near the real problems nothing about the bosses the brass how corruption like this could exist without anybody knowing about it now a few flunky cops in the Bronx that's it none of this [ __ ] in Queens Brooklyn Manhattan why'd you read it why don't you mention Kansas City well the biggest thing since Harry gross that's what you said all right look Integrity there's going to be a detective's gold shielding this for you well that's terrific that's good maybe this is what it's all about maybe I should take my gold shield and forget it I know you've been through an ordeal prank I'm a mocked man in this department for what [Music] Serpico came out in December 1973 and the film was a huge success [Music] Chino's performance in a film he carried from start to finish earned him an Oscar nomination for best actor Jack Nicholson for The Last Detail Al Pacino for Serpico [Applause] the winner is [Music] throughout the ceremony Pacino was seen taking tranquilizers as if they were popcorn he was in the middle of shooting another film which rested largely on his shoulders in The Godfather Part 2 Pacino turned his character into a Shakespearean tyrant whose apparent Tranquility was all the more ominous seemed he could explode at any moment on the shoot itself the actor had accrued more power he was paid 20 times more than for the first film and he was able to influence the casting of the film he suggested that the character of the old gangster be played by his mentor and Father Figure Lee Strasberg they were wise and considerate young man and you're a great man as much I can learn from you whatever I can do to help Michael I the film reunited him with John Cazale who was like a brother to him in real life and pitted him up against another up-and-coming actor who was also a friend [Music] hey you know what they're gonna do to you hey you know what you're doing you knock somebody off you take a gun you shoot him right up against his [ __ ] head that's what you do you get his you get his brains all over your National ivy league sued Michael that's what happens like Pacino Robert De Niro came from the New York italoamerican Community was also trained in method acting at the Actors Studio but at the release of The Godfather Part 2 De Niro was still only a young hopeful whereas Pacino who was three years older was already a star whose name towered over the others [Music] foreign was triumphant at the box office his old neighborhood was sinking into misery [Music] the South Bronx of his childhood was a working-class district it had now become a vast ghetto where in order to claim insurance money landlords set fire to their own buildings without always warning their tenants before [Music] but in the middle of the 70s the whole of New York was falling into decay [Music] City could no longer pay its debts and started each day by counting the murder victims of the night before any tourist who was brave enough to visit New York was given a survival guide in which there were the following recommendations never take the subway don't go out after 6 PM if possible don't stay in the city [Music] a news item hit the headlines a homosexual Italian Polish immigrant from Brooklyn held up a bank so that he could pay for the sex change operation of his lover [Music] the media filmed and photographed the holdup showing a city on the verge of descending in real time into chaos [Music] New York City resident and an admitted homosexual who left his wife and two children three years ago an article in Life Magazine shortly afterwards described the robber as a dark thin fellow with a broken-faced good looks of an Al Pacino or a Dustin Hoffman the article was immediately adapted into a screenplay and Pacino was offered the role the actor who had just finished the Godfather Part 2 was completely wiped out and drinking far more than was reasonable he turned the part down his agent Marty bregman insisted that he think again calls me one day says Al are you sober he said just do me a favor as a friend just read it I started reading it and after I finished I thought there is just no way I mean this is this is movies I mean these things don't come along you don't read scripts like this come on you got to do it [Music] Pacino signed up for what was to become the most electric performance of his early career totally in sync with the atmosphere of New York at the time nobody's been hurt release the hostages kiss me man what kiss me when I'm being [ __ ] I'd like to get kissed come on come on come on you're a city cop right robbing the bank's a federal offense they got me on kidnapping armed robberies they're gonna bury me man I don't want to talk to somebody who's trying to call me get somebody in charge here I am I'm trying I don't want to talk to some flunky pig trying to calm me you don't have to record what's he doing and when you get back there look at him get over there go on back there man get over there he wants to kill me so bad he can taste it oh God I was gonna kill him [Applause] thank you in September 1971 Attica prison inmates had taken dozens of Staff hostage in their bid to demand better living conditions after several days of rioting the New York State Police were sent in and a bloodbath ensued but beyond the social and political context That permeated Dog Day Afternoon Pacino managed to inject an extraordinary degree of humanity and intensity into his character [Music] he was once again partnered with John Cazale who Pacino insisted should be in the film and together they partly improvised some of the scenes is there any special country you want to go to homing Wyoming it's not a country that's all right I'm gonna take care of it Chino's performance culminated in a telephone scene a night shoot when the actor was in a state of exhaustion I mean I got all these pressures and you know about it you're in that hospital there with all them tubes coming out and you want that [ __ ] operation right you're giving me that [ __ ] everybody's giving me [ __ ] everybody needs money you know what I mean so you needed money I got your money that's it yeah well I didn't ask you to go and rob a bank oh I know you didn't ask me I know you didn't ask me look I want to you know I'm not putting this on anybody you know nothing on nobody I did this on my own you see all on my own I did it but I just want you to know something I want you to know that I'm gonna I'm getting out of here I'm getting a plane out of here and I just wanted you to know it that's all and I wanted you to come down and uh I wanted to just say goodbye to you well goodbye huh thank you with Dog Day Afternoon once again Pacino scored box office success [Music] actor was now a confirmed star highly sought after by filmmakers and stalked by paparazzi in just a few years he'd become a reference even a source of imitation [Music] of the team yeah Al Pacino Attica Attica Attica John Travolta Sylvester Stallone Robert De Niro or Joe Pesci a small group of Italian-American actors jumped into the breach that Al Pacino had opened and set out to conquer Hollywood but Pacino didn't belong to any group his celebrity isolated him the explosion of his career had been too brutal he was going from film to film at a frantic Pace running from Roll to roll without respite suffocated by his own success [Music] that's also another complicated issue with me and that is what was satisfying to me was to be able to to have something that I really cared about doing was vital to me and it was a Lifeline it gave me a hope but success was something else success was always a feeling was fleeting and that it was uh unusual and that it was scary in a way foreign [Applause] spiral of depression he drowned himself in alcohol [Music] after several months he agreed to enter rehab The Godfather Serpico Dog Day Afternoon now Bobby Deerfield I just want to be with somebody that's all in the summer of 1976 Pacino decided to leave New York in order to shoot a film in Europe with Sydney Pollock magnetic idolized but alone moving in his own world motivated by disaster boarded by Death and women in Bobby Deerfield Pacino played a famous racing driver who was going through a bout of depression the actor had never played a character so close to himself caught up in the same torments that he was experiencing in his own life things got even more confusing when Pacino fell in love with Mark Keller who played his partner on screen thank you [Music] but Bobby Deerfield was a stinging failure which cruelly interrupted the series of great films in which Pacino had appeared since the beginning of his film career during this period he turned down Terence Malik's Days of Heaven Robert Benton's Kramer vs Kramer George Lucas's Star Wars and Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now [Music] foreign he chose to play in a film inspired once again by a news item a series of murders that had been targeting the gay community in New York [Music] in cruising Pacino played an undercover cop frequenting the city's gay s m clubs [Music] [Music] but even though he had fought to land the role he looked uncomfortable in the film which had raised a wave of protests your gays were unhappy with the way the film portrayed of violent and disparaging image of their community [Music] foreign s of New York City homosexuals demonstrating against the Movie cruising now being made in Greenwich Village they took to the streets this week after mayor Edward Koch refused to Halt the production by revoking the city's permit to film they have vowed to use nuisance tactics Civil Disobedience and possibly violence to force the movie company out of New York some of the bit actors say they were asked by the filmmakers to perform group sex and as a result have quit the film I saw something so despicable going on people acting so sleazy that I can't imagine people being too upset if one of us were killed and that's the thing that really frightens me cruising was another failure for Pacino who still refuses to talk about the film even today whereas several years earlier he'd been able to embody the frenzy and unique intensity of New York and those on the margins now he was no longer in tune with his City as if he no longer felt its pulse [Music] at the beginning of the 80s Pacino was in the doldrums he lost his friend John gazelle who died from cancer at the age of 42. foreign figure Lee Strasbourg had just suffered a fatal heart attack [Music] three years earlier the two men had starred in their last film together [Music] I don't know what I'd do if he goes he's very proud of me [Music] I'm a lawyer because I am to you being a lawyer was the finest fine it could be [Music] Strasburg used to say you learn the most from your failures you just do yeah so the idea is to do it all you want to keep inventing and you want to keep not knowing and that's how you learn [Music] with a project that he initiated Al Pacino relaunched his career I was walking down some Sunset Boulevard and I saw the marquis's Scarface growing up I had heard about poor Beauty and Scarface [Music] what kind of mug you think I am I don't know nothing I don't see nothing I don't hear them when I do I don't tell a cop man this guy Paul Muni was inspiring to watch I just wanted to imitate him [Applause] [Music] hey come here okay [Music] Al Pacino set out to remake Howard hawks's 1932 film but rather than a straightforward copy the new Scarface was to be based on current events screenplay written by Oliver Stone was inspired by the explosion of drug trafficking from Latin America and the arrival on the Florida coast of thousands of Cuban refugees fleeing Fidel Castro's regime [Music] thank you among them were criminals that Castro had released from prison hoping in this way to create Havoc with the American enemy I got the [ __ ] Russian shoes but it's coming through I do like that would you want me to stay there and do nothing Thief I'm Tony Montana a political prisoner of Vancouver and I want my [ __ ] human right now just like the President Jimmy Carter says it was just a different kind of thing that I have ever done I've never quite thought of a character that way from the outside too who started the scars and of course the accent and the body and everything that went with it [Music] and Scarface Pacino didn't follow the Actors Studio method in his attempt to get to the truth of his character his performance was highly theatrical with long monologues and deliberately over the top as well a bunch of [ __ ] [ __ ] you know why you don't have the guts to be what you want to be you need people like me you need people like me so you can point your [ __ ] fingers I say that's the bad guy so what I make you good you're not good you just know how to hide our life me I don't have that problem me I was coming through even when I lie so second night to the bad guy come on [Music] in Scarface Al Pacino pushed Beyond his own limits he created a cult character and came up with his Most Extreme Performance the one that he considers his most accomplished hello to say hello to my little friend here wow say hello [Music] our new friend [Music] in the 1980s New York was changing and so was American Cinema it was also the start of the block Productions that attracted audiences by the Millions [Music] Pacino didn't feel comfortable in these types of films it was over 40. he no longer had that Juvenile look after the box office failure of Revolution a historical drama filmed in England stop Cinema for four years [Music] [Music] when he returned to films but Chino tried to reconnect the threat of his early career and to follow up or offer variations on some of his mythical roles [Music] Carlito's Way his character was like a softened version of the one he played in Scarface [Music] in heat he teamed up again with Robert De Niro actually sharing a scene with him for the first time on camera type in life [ __ ] is that barbecues and ball games [Music] in Donnie Brasco he once again took on the role of an Italian-American mafioso but this time as a loser a second-rate gangster [Music] some of the dialogues in his new films directly quoted lines spoken by some of his old characters if he's allowed to go free then something really wrong is going on you're out of water the whole trial is out of order sir you're out of order I don't I show you on order you don't know what that order is Mr trash I'd show you but I'm too old I'm too tired I'm too [ __ ] blind if I were to man I was five years ago I'd take a flame through to this place when you have a a part that has an Affliction in it you see you'll win an Oscar and the Oscar the Oscar goes to [Music] Al Pacino [Applause] after seven Oscar nominations Al Pacino finally received the Supreme award [Music] [Applause] after giving the usual Litany of thanks he then talked about the place he'd grown up in now recently a young girl came up to me I was at a function for the South Bronx which is where I'm from and uh she said that I had encouraged her and that's not necessarily by my work but just by the fact that uh we came from the same place and uh I just can't forget that girl and I can't forget the kids out there who may be thinking tonight uh that if he can do it I can do it so uh this is really a proud and hopeful moment for me because I want to thank the academy for giving us a gift of encouragement and this is a gift a great gift to me I thank you all really thank you Pacino was now a film star at home with success he put less of his real self into his characters he preferred to use his Fame to convey his undying love for theater you know Shakespeare William Shakespeare we're peddling him on the streets you saw him how does he feel about it what did you see it live it's what it sucks down the street he spent several years producing and directing a documentary on Shakespeare's Richard III the film is both a lighthearted investigation and an Ode to the craft of theater acting now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer our discontent made glorious summer anybody know what that means okay [Music] since the end of the 1990s Al Pacino has continued his screen acting tirelessly [Music] he's still playing important roles such as the investigative journalist Lowell Bergman in The Insider or Roy Cohn the lawyer diagnosed with AIDS and angels in America Roy Cohn is not a homosexual Roy column is a heterosexual man Henry who [ __ ] around with guys and wow I think I know who you are in 2019 he once again created a stir this time in Quentin Tarantino's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and in Martin scorsese's the Irishman I'm never gonna retire now somebody can tell him that Jimmy I did tell him I told him over and over again let's stop this then forget it enough let me enjoy my ice cream here today at over 80 years old Al Pacino is set to star in three new films and his passion for theater is undiminished it Heaven exists what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the privilegates rehearsals tomorrow at three foreign [Applause] [Music]

Channel: SLICE Full Doc

Views: 2,938

Keywords: documentary, free documentary, raw, the godfather, scarface, al pacino, cinema, legend, culture, art

Id: vxkdMlSfdt0

Length: 51min 17sec (3077 seconds)

Published: Wed Sep 27 2023