The pivotal Italian restaurant scene in The Godfather featuring Michael Corleone, rival boss Sollozzo, and the corrupt police captain may be my favourite acting scene ever.
As Michael comes back from the washroom with the hidden gun, and as the man who tried to assassinate his father Vito Corleone continues talking where he left off, a loud train passes by in the distance, muting the mob boss's words, which is the perfect artistic device at the right time, heightening the tension of this classic scene (Walter Murch is considered one of the greatest sound designers of all time).
The camera slowly pans in on Al Pacino and the beauty of his acting is all within his eyes. He's clearly not listening, because his mind is elsewhere. At that very moment, he's not only preparing to kill Sollozzo and Captain McCluskey, he's preparing to kill the young, ambitious, educated, war hero who once wanted nothing to do with the so-called "family business". The same young man who in the beginning of the film tells his girlfriend, "That's my family Kay, that's not me." After these acts of murder, there's no going back. We know that, and Michael Corleone certainly knows that. All of that is spoken in the flickering eyes of Al Pacino as his character comes to this daunting realization that nothing will ever be the same again.
Edit: Al Pacino was not only close to being fired by the The Godfather producers (who never wanted him in the first place), even Francis Ford Coppola himself (who had fought so hard for Pacino) was losing faith in him during the early part of the shooting. This scene erased all of those doubts.
NotARobotSpider on April 25th, 2017 at 23:50 UTC »
He had an incredible run in the 70s. Nobody talks about Serpico anymore but I saw it again recently and it's just so well made.
Go_Habs_Go31 on April 26th, 2017 at 02:39 UTC »
The pivotal Italian restaurant scene in The Godfather featuring Michael Corleone, rival boss Sollozzo, and the corrupt police captain may be my favourite acting scene ever.
As Michael comes back from the washroom with the hidden gun, and as the man who tried to assassinate his father Vito Corleone continues talking where he left off, a loud train passes by in the distance, muting the mob boss's words, which is the perfect artistic device at the right time, heightening the tension of this classic scene (Walter Murch is considered one of the greatest sound designers of all time).
The camera slowly pans in on Al Pacino and the beauty of his acting is all within his eyes. He's clearly not listening, because his mind is elsewhere. At that very moment, he's not only preparing to kill Sollozzo and Captain McCluskey, he's preparing to kill the young, ambitious, educated, war hero who once wanted nothing to do with the so-called "family business". The same young man who in the beginning of the film tells his girlfriend, "That's my family Kay, that's not me." After these acts of murder, there's no going back. We know that, and Michael Corleone certainly knows that. All of that is spoken in the flickering eyes of Al Pacino as his character comes to this daunting realization that nothing will ever be the same again.
Here's the scene in its entirety: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSQqv2UuvC0
Edit: Al Pacino was not only close to being fired by the The Godfather producers (who never wanted him in the first place), even Francis Ford Coppola himself (who had fought so hard for Pacino) was losing faith in him during the early part of the shooting. This scene erased all of those doubts.
sandpip3r on April 26th, 2017 at 03:20 UTC »
I feel a godfather back to back to back coming on. Rounded off with scarface.
Legend