7. Al Pacino The Devils Advocate
Al Pacino had been plying his trade for years before he got his first Oscar for Scent of a Woman. Hed been in The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon, Serpico, all the greats, and had come up with nothing from the Academy but nominations. Then he delivered that ham-tastic speech at the end of Scent the one where he threatens to take a flamethrower to everything and suddenly the Oscar doors swung open. After that, he was never quite the same again. Suddenly, Pacino realised that stripping the walls with his gut-busting speeches were a good way to ride the gravy train to success, so he began firing out monologues like a champion, and wherever he could. Subtlety was a thing of the past, becoming little more than a speck in the rear view mirror, and nowhere else was this more apparent than in his role as Satan in the Devils Advocate. Post-Scent Pacino wasnt going to pass this opportunity up, so we were treated to this scene. Frankly, the whole things tremendous. Up until this point of the film, wed really only had Keanu Reeves for company, attempting to affect a Southern accent but instead sounding like hed been drinking far too heavily. It was left to his wife played by Charlize Theron to do the heavy dramatic lifting and to be fair, she didnt disappoint. But what this film needed was a spark, and
boy, did they get one with Pacino. What makes this scene amazing is that Pacino, whether bolstered by his Oscar, or because hes in Keanus presence knows he is by far and away the best actor on the room, and dammit, he wanted to prove it. So were treated to hands down the most dramatic game of whos the daddy (quite literally) ever witnessed on celluloid. Its an absolute tour-de-force of shouty madness which signals the films descent into absolute anarchy, and Pacino is phenomenal in it.