Scarface (1983) - Antonio "Tony" Montana

A film that give Pacino one of his iconic characters as Tony Montana, Cuban immigrant who became notorious drug lord, Scarface directed by Brian De Palma and written by Oliver Stone. Alongside with Al Pacino, the film starring Steven Bauer as Manolo "Manny" Ribera, Michelle Pfeiffer as Elvira Hancock, and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio as Tony's sister, Gina Montana.

Brian De Palma's 1983 Scarface is based on Howard Hawks' 1932 film of the same name (but took place in Chicago). The film chronicles Tony Montana's rise from a poor Cuban refugee who comes to Florida to the top of Miami's narcotics underworld and his subsequent downfall, killed by a shotgun blast from behind by "The Skull", Alejandro Sosa's gunmen.

Pacino's appearance as Tony Montana in Scarface has become a cultural icon, inspiring many posters, merchandise, and clothing. Even Al Pacino himself reportedly stated that Tony Montana was one of his favorites of all the characters he's played. Scarface theatrical release poster is a popular decoration and is still in production. Scarface also has been an influence on hip-hop culture and rap music since the late 1980s. Many rappers claim Scarface is their favorite film. Rapper Brad Jordan even took the name of this film as his stage name.

The movie was originally given an X rating three times by MPAA for its extreme violence, excessive strong language and hard drug usage depiction. The 20 members of the ratings board finally give the third cut an "R" (Restricted) rating after Brian De Palma pulled in a panel of experts, who stated that Scarface was an accurate portrayal of the real-life drug underworld and should be widely seen.

The film gaining mixed reaction among critics and general audience. Entertainment Weekly ranked the film #8 on their list of "The Top 50 Cult Films". Roger Ebert rated Scarface four stars out of four for what he decribe in his review "one of the fascinations of the movie is that we aren't watching crime-movie clichés, we're watching people who are criminals". In June 2008, the American Film Institute revealed its polling over 1,500 people from the creative community, rated Scarface as the tenth best in the gangster film genre.

Tony Montana's famous line "Say hello to my lil' friend!" took 61st place on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes list.

Cast:

Al Pacino ... Tony Montana
Steven Bauer ... Manny Ribera
Michelle Pfeiffer ... Elvira Hancock
Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio ... Gina Montana
Harris Yulin ... Mel Bernstein
F. Murray Abraham ... Omar Suarez
Robert Loggia ... Frank Lopez
Paul Shenar ... Alejandro Sosa
Miriam Colon ... Mama Montana
Al Israel ... Hector The Toad
Ángel Salazar ... Chi Chi
Arnaldo Santana ... Ernie
Dennis Holahan ... Jerry The Banker

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Any Given Sunday (1999) - Tony D'Amato

Any Given Sunday is a drama film depicting a fictional professional American football team Miami Sharks, and fictional professional football league AFFA (a creative stand-in for the NFL). The film directed by Oliver Stone, who also write the screenplay for the film with Daniel Pyne and John Logan. Any Given Sunday features many Hollywood big stars in the cast, including Al Pacino as Tony D'Amato (the head coach of the Miami Sharks), Cameron Diaz, Dennis Quaid, James Woods, Jamie Foxx, LL Cool J, and legendary NFL players Lawrence Taylor and Jim Brown.

The theme of the movie "on any given Sunday, anything can happen" refers to an incident when both the starting quarterback Jack "Cap" Rooney and the second-string quarterback Tyler Cherubini are injured and forced to leave the game. The incident then force Miami Shark to call upon third-string quarterback and former seventh round draft pick Willie Beamen (Jamie Foxx), who slightly nervous and makes a number of errors, but eventually displays his athletic talent and pass extremely successfully.

Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino), the head coach of the Miami Sharks, at the final press conference announces that he has been hired as head coach and general manager of the expansion Albuquerque Aztecs, and signed Willie Beamen as his starting quarterback and franchise player.

Along with Robert De Niro, Al Pacino was Oliver Stone's first two choices to play Tony D'Amato. De Niro declined the role, and Pacino had already accepted. Clint Eastwood was also sought after for Pacino's role, but he also wanted to direct the picture, and Warner Bros declined.

However, no special accolades from film critics given to the film. Any Given Sunday only received an aggregated score of 50% from 115 movie reviews on Rotten Tomatoes.

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Serpico (1973) - Frank Serpico

Serpico is a crime film based on the true story of New York City policeman Frank Serpico. The film directed by Sidney Lumet. The screenplay was written by Waldo Salt, Norman Wexler, and Sidney Kingsley, as an adaptation from a biographical book by author Peter Maas. The film stars Al Pacino as Officer Frank Serpico, John Randolph as Chief Sidney Green, Cornelia Sharpe as Leslie Lane, and Tony Roberts as Bob Blair.

Frank Serpico was an eccentric but idealistic New York City police officer in a time when police corruption was rampant. Despite eccentric, Serpico cannot be bought and certainly cannot be had by anyone. He often frustrated by internal politics, and eventually went undercover to expose the corruption of his fellow officers. He starts giving his testimony to the Knapp Commission in 1970. For his bravery to expose the corruption in the New York Police Department, Serpico receives a detective's gold shield and disability pension and leaving the NYPD and the USA in 1972 for Switzerland.

As the storyline showing the progression of Serpico's beard and hair length, the film was shot in reverse order. Al Pacino began with long hair and a beard, then for each scene, his hair and beard were trimmed bit by bit until he became clean-cut. The film shot on 104 different locations in every borough of New York City except Staten Island.

For his role as Serpico, Pacino was Oscar nominated for Best Actor in a Leading Role, but lost to Jack Lemmon for his performance in Save the Tiger. However, he won his first Golden Globe award for Best Actor in 1974 for his performance in the film.


Cast:

Al Pacino ... Officer Frank Serpico
John Randolph ... Chief Sidney Green
Biff McGuire ... Capt. Insp. McClain
Cornelia Sharpe ... Leslie Lane
Jack Kehoe ... Tom Keough
Tony Roberts ... Bob Blair
Allan Rich ... Dist. Atty. Herman Tauber

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Dog Day Afternoon (1975) - Sonny Wortzik

Dog Day Afternoon was inspired by true story of the robbery of a Chase Manhattan Bank branch in 450 Avenue P, at the cross street of East 3rd Street, in Gravesend Brooklyn, New York by John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile on August 22, 1972, was published as an article entitled "The Boys in the Bank" by P.F. Kluge in Life Magazine in 1972. The film directed by Sidney Lumet based on screenplay written by Frank Pierson.

Dog Day Afternoon tells a story about Sonny Wortzik and his friend Sal Naturile's attempt to rob a Brooklyn bank to pay for the operation for Sonny's transsexual wife Leon Shermer. But all the robbery plan goes wrong, and Sonny discovers that only $1,100.00 in cash remains in the bank after the daily cash pickup. His attempt to compensate the small cash by takes a number of traveler's checks and burning the bank's register to prevent the checks from being traced only led them to bigger mess.

Dog Day Afternoon stars Al Pacino as Sonny Wortzik, John Cazale as Sonny's partner in robbery Salvatore "Sal" Naturile, Charles Durning as Detective Sgt. Eugene Moretti, and Chris Sarandon as Leon Shermer, Sonny's preoperative transsexual wife.

The film was nominated for several Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Director (Sidney Lumet), and Best Actor in a Leading Role (Al Pacino) as well as several Golden Globe awards nomination, and finally won one Academy Award for Writing - Original Screenplay (Frank Pierson).

Al Pacino fails to won Oscar for his leading role in the film. However, his performance as Sonny Wortzik received highly acclaimed critics. It is ranked #4 on Premiere Magazine's 100 Greatest Performances of All Time (2006). He also won the British Academy Award for Best Actor, and Pacino's quote, "Attica! Attica!" (in reference to the Attica Prison riots) placed at #86 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes. Roger Ebert called Sonny Wortzik "one of the most interesting modern movie characters" and gave Dog Day Afternoon three-and-a-half stars out of four. In 2009, Dog Day Afternoon was named to the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically or aesthetically" significant and will be preserved for all time.


Cast:

Al Pacino ... Sonny Wortzik
John Cazale ... Sal Naturile
Chris Sarandon ... Leon Shermer
Charles Durning ... Det. Sgt. Eugene Moretti
James Broderick ... Sheldon
Penelope Allen ... Sylvia
Carol Kane ... Jenny

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The Godfather (1972) - Michael Corleone

The Godfather is based on the novel of the same name by Mario Puzo and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. In the film Al Pacino play Michael Corleone, the youngest son of head of the Corleone family, Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando), and later became the next Don.

Alongside with Tom Hagen (Robert Duvall), Michael is the only college-educated member of the family. Michael initially wants nothing to do with the underworld, so the other mafia families consider him a "civilian" uninvolved in mob business. But a second murder attempt to his father at the hospital arranged by Bruno Tattaglia and Tattaglia family's associate Virgil Sollozzo (Al Lettieri), and helped by corrupt Irish American police Captain McCluskey (Sterling Hayden) lead his evolution from doe-eyed outsider to ruthless new mafia boss following his father death.

Al Pacino was not a well known actor at the time, and Paramount originally wanted Ryan O'Neal or Robert Redford to play Michael Corleone. Warren Beaty, Jack Nicholson, Dustin Hoffman, James Caan, and Martin Sheen also auditioned for the role. Coppola insist to use Pacino, and threatened to quit the production if Pacino wasn't given the role. Paramount were opposed to casting Pacino, who did poorly in screen tests (and in part because of his height), until they saw his excellent performance in The Panic in Needle Park (1971).

However, Paramount executive still don't like him. When they only saw the early scenes of Michael at the wedding, they were exclaiming, "When is he going to do something?" and Pacino nearly got fired midway through filming. But when they finally saw the scene where Michael shoots Sollozzo and McCluskey, they changed their minds and Pacino got to keep his job.

Al Pacino received $35,000 for his work on The Godfather. For his role as Michael Corleone, Pacino had been nominated for Best Supporting Actor. The Godfather then received Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

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