13 Intense Movie Performances That Are Incredibly Difficult To Watch

8. Al Pacino - Scarface

Like Fiennes' performance as Amon Goeth, Pacino's provocative turn as Scarface is difficult to watch because of its animalism, but unlike the Nazi commandant, Pacino's holds some perverse familiarity - and even empathy - which makes it doubly difficult to watch.

Tony Montana's rise to power and descent to depravity and evil is the archetypal bad guy story, without restraint or restriction, as he seeks to make the entire world his, regardless of what it costs him. Ultimately, we can see Tony's fatal end coming a long time before he can, and the film is careful not to stand as an aspirational tale gone wrong (which can be said more obviously of the likes of Goodfellas). You aren't supposed to want to be be Tony, really, but you're also not supposed to hate him.

But, the irony of Scarface is that that agenda failed, mostly thanks to how iconic Pacino's performance was. Yes, the film is depraved, and the performance hugely difficult to watch when he loses control, or when his personal world caves and he can't deal with loss like a normal human, but audiences found an unlikely poster boy in Montana, and proclaimed him a hero. So the over-riding experience of Scarface is wanting to learn the lessons offered by Tony's death, but simultaneously thinking he's got some really nice stuff, and fostering the worst aspirational feelings towards his lifestyle, despite the moral lesson that pummels you in the face.