Al Pacino and the Mob
Al Pacino a name that immediately brings into mind intense roles and a crackling screen presence that can chew up the scenery. Ask Keanu Reeves, who ended up as a glorified extra in The Devil’s Advocate. And yes those wonderful monologues, which basically comes from Pacino’s penchant for Shakespearan Theater.
In his long career, Pacino has portrayed crooks, gangsters, cops, lawyers, football coaches, blind colonels, crusading journalists, city mayors and even the Devil himself. But a common thread in most of the roles is that Pacino has made a career out of playing neurotic, edgy, restless characters. Even as a cop either he is an outcaste hated by his colleagues( Serpico), or a workaholic with a messed up family life(Heat) or an insomniac( Insomnia).
While doing some work on my article about Scarface, i was basically trying to do a run down on some of the gangster characters Pacino acted. Quite inescapable, considering that when you start to write on Scarface, you inadvertently bring The Godfather into the picture, and when you bring Godfather, you have to get Michael Corleone. Now apart from Michael Corleone and Tony Montana, you have other memorable Pacino gangster flicks like Carlito’s Way and Donnie Brasco.And each of those characters had a strong personality trait, and in fact the progression represents a very interesting trajectory.
Michael Corleone was the role that made Pacino a star. When the Godfather begins, Michael just wants to lead a normal life, having nothing to do with his family business. However when an attempt is made on his father’s life Don Corleone by Virgil “The Turk”, he swears revenge. Now the scene where Michael convinces his brother Sonny about killing the cop McCluskey, as he believes he deliberately set up his father, is critical. This scene in fact establishes Michael’s tendency to go against the code of honor. While Sonny is the more hot headed one, Michael actually conceals his ruthless nature effectively, and that makes him more dangerous. In fact if you see the way, he gets rid of McCluskey and Virgil, that shows his absolutely devious nature. He promises to his wife that he would not be involved, but following his father’s demise and his brother’s murder, he has to take over as the head. In Godfather I, he is more of a reluctant leader, who begins to establish himself.
In Godfather II, Michael still tries to go legitimate, the period having shifted now to the 50’s. Most of GF II, is set against the backdrop of the Casino business. But the repeated assasination attempts on him, and his inability to start the gambling business in Havana due to Castro’s revolution, force him to operate illegaly. However he faces a double blow when he learns his own brother Fredo betrayed him and Kay deserting him. Michael manages to get rid of his rivals Hyman Roth and Frank Pentangeli but in the end he is left with nothing. He is an all powerful man, but lonely, as he sits looking out emptily.
Tony Montana in Scarface was radically different from Michael Corleone. Tony is born dirt poor, a Cuban refugee, with no formal education. What Tony however has is loads of ambition, a burning desire to succeed and a street smart instinct for survival. Basically Tony wants to have the world, he wants wealth, power, women and riches. He is the person who rises from Ground Zero up, ruthlessley. But his rise to the top, takes it’s toll on Tony, as he becomes neurotic, insecure and a cocaine addict. The woman he loved and wedded, leaves him. His sister and his best friend are in a relationship, but yet terrified to reveal it to him. The irony is shown in the climax, when Tony falls dead into the pool of his mansion, and the statue titled “The World is Yours” being shown. He got what he wanted, but he ended up with nothing.
In Godfather III, Michael Corleone, finally is able to make his family business legitimate. The Vatican even recognizes him for his good Samaritan work. He mentors Vincent, Sonny’s illegitimate son, but however his attempts to go straight receive a setback, when his attempts to hand over his properties, are thwarted by an assasination attempt. Vincent now takes over Michael’s role and also begins to date Michael’s daughter Mary. Michael is now finally weary and decides to leave the Mafia, making Vincent his succesor. However when Mary is killed in an assasination attempt on Michael, he withdraws becomes a recluse and dies a loner, losing every one he loved.
As we can see the progression so far if Godfather was the beginning, Godfather II was the ascent, Scarface depicted the rapid rise and fall, while Godfather III showed his final years. The difference though is that in Scarface, his fall was by the gun, Tony Montana lived and died by the Gun, a victim of his own delusion. Michael Corleone’s downfall in Godfather III, was however more personal. He died a totally broken man, a diabetic, broken from the death of his beloved daughter. Michael Corleone in GF III, was a man whom fate mocked at. Every time he attempted to go straight, destiny pulled him back, as if this were the path for him. Tony Montana on the other hand, wanted to be a gangster, that was the only way he could enjoy the good life. If he did not enjoy the good life however, it was due to his own delusional and neurotic nature.
The desire to go straight was what would characterize Carlito Brigante, Pacino’s character in the 1993 Brian De Palma flick Carlito’s Way. Incidentally Carlito Brigante was based on the character in the novels, Carlito Brigante and After Hours by Judge Edwin Torres. The actual movie version was based on After Hours, but De Palma titled it after the first novel, in order to avoid confusion with the Martin Scorcese movie of the same name. Carlito was Pacino’s second shot at playing a Hispanic gangster, after Scarface.
While Tony is Cuban, Carlito is Puerto Rican, and the action is set around the Spanish Harlem neighbourhood in New York, while Scarface was set in Miami. If one actually takes the Mafia history in US, initially it was controlled by Italian, Irish and Jewish gangsters. With most of the Italians and Jewish Americans, settling into more respectable professions, the late 60’s and 70’s saw the rise of the Cuban, Puerto Rican and Black mafia gangs. Now compared to the Italian and Jewish gangs that were more organized, the Cuban, Puerto Rican gangs were more disorganized.
Carlito Brigante was one of the typical stories, born poor, starting out with a life of petty crime, graduating to be a kingpin and then being arrested by the cops. But Carlito’s Way in effect begins where Scarface ends. It was like what if Tony Montana turns himself over to the law and decides to start a new life. Carlito in the movie is more like Michael Corleone, who wants to come out of the crime world. The movie actually starts off Carlito aka Charlie’s friend Dave(Sean Penn) a lawyer getting him out of prison, and Charlie announcing his decision to go straight.
His 30 years in prison, have made Charlie weary of the life of crime and he just wants to get back to normalcy. He begins to date his former girlfriend Gail, who dances in a strip club to make ends meet. But again destiny has other ideas, as his past keeps catching up some way or another. He begins to run a nightclub, and brings in his friend Pachanga as his right hand man. Charlie’s biggest problem however is with his friend Dave, who now is a cocaine addict. To make matters worse, Dave gets into a mess with a local Italian gangster Tony T, and begins to date the girlfriend of one of Charlie’s associates Blanco.
Carlito tries to lead an ethical life, however that ultimately costs him everything. He tries to help Dave out of his mess, but gets more and more involved in another big mess, when Dave ends up shooting Tony T, and Charlie is drawn into a fight with Tony T’s gang. Dave on the other hand decides to testify against Charlie just to save his skin. The only person who truly loves Charlie is his girl Gail. But he is let down by every one else in the movie, including those he trusted the most. Tony Montana loses everything because of his delusion, his neurotic suspicious nature. Charlie on the other hand suffers because he tries to play it by the rules and trusts people around him.
And that brings us to Donnie Brasco and one of Pacino’s most underrated roles Lefty Rugeiro. Donnie Brasco was based on the true story of Fed agent, Joe Pistone, who infiltrated the Bonnano Mafia family in New York using the alias of Donnie Brasco. This was the first time Al Pacino and Johnny Depp appeared on screen together, and the result was sheer magic. If Michael in GF I was the beginning, Michael in GF II was the ascent, and Tony Montana was the rise and fall, Lefty represents the gangster in his final days.
Lefty is totally washed out, having spent 30 years as a gangster he has really nothing to show for it. Unlike Michael or Tony, he has never even been near the top. In fact, Lefty is a total loser in all ways. His family life is in a mess, neither has he any money with him, and for all his service to the gang, he has been continuously overlooked for promotion. He started off as a low level hit man and still remains that. Sadly he is not too ambitious like Tony nor is he in a position to start a new life like Charlie. As he says
Thirty years I’m busting my hump. What have I got?
Who the fuck am I? Who am I? I’m a, a spoke on a wheel. And so was he, and so are you.
Pacino generally seems to revel in characters that are internally tormented, washed out and cynical. Lefty though represents the other end of the spectrum from Tony Montana. Tony is rich, powerful but internally screwed up, Lefty is broke, has no power and as much internally screwed up. And sadly for Lefty, the only time he sees something positive, he has no idea it would cost him his own life. And that is when he meets Donnie, who is trying to enter the gang. Lefty sees in Donnie, two things, one the son that he could never have, his own son ending up as a junkie, and another he feels Donnie could be what he could never become. Lefty was ambitious like many other, but unlike Tony he never had the courage to go all the way, and so in Donnie he sees some one who could make his dreams come true. He mentors Donnie, instructing him in the ways of the Mafia, giving him all the information he needs to succeed. And his bonding with Donnie gives him the kind of happiness which he had never had in person. Yet he does not know that he is in effect signing his own death warrant.
Donnie Brasco, was a gangster movie with a more emotional undertone to it. The focus here is on the relationship between Donnie and Lefty. Donnie feels guilty about what he is doing. He can’t bring himself to turn Lefty in, yet not doing so would be against his duty. It is the age old conflict between Dharma and Karma. As he says
If I come out alive, this guy, Lefty, ends up dead. That’s the same thing as me putting the bullet in his head myself.
Actually Donnie Brasco takes a look at the very thin line separating the good and bad. Donnie goes in to trap the bad guys, but is dangerously close to becoming one of them.
All my life I’ve tried to be the good guy, the guy in the white fucking hat. And for what? For nothing. I’m not becoming like them; I am them.
Michael Corleone, Tony Montana, Carlito Brigante, Lefty Rugeiro- 4 different characters, but acted by one man. Each representing a distinct characteristic, each representing a phase in a gangster’s life. Well all i can say is hats off Pacino, for this and thanks for giving us such memories.
Anurag Kashyap
Abhay Deol
Dibakar Banerjee
Hansal Mehta
Khalid Mohamed
Kundan Shah
Anish Kuruvilla
Jaideep Verma
Manish Gupta
Navdeep Singh
Bhavani Iyer
D. Santosh
Onir
Ashvin Kumar
Ramu Ramanathan
Sudhir Mishra
Pankaj Advani
Revathy
Saurabh Shukla
Shilpa Shukla
Sujoy Ghosh
Suparn Verma
Santosh Sivan
Shashank Ghosh
Shivajee
Pavan Kaul
Partho Sen-Gupta
Prroshant Naryannan
Sam Langoria
Satish Kasetty
re: Donnie Brasco
a much better undercover cop story, screenplay than either of infernal affairs and departed. depp’s portrayal kept haunting me even while watching leonardo’s anguished eyes in departed.
lefty – forget ’bout it!
Excellent post Ratnakar and Abhisal, I couldn’t agree with you more.
A fittng tribute to one of the best actors in the history of cinema.
Ah… Donnie Brasco… One of my favourites. And one of Pacino’s best. Sadly this is one of Pacino’s most underrated films…
Thanks for the write-up…