Time after time, we see Al simply playing Al, albeit forceful Al, blind Al, crazy Al, he is still, and has always been a big, overbearing image all to himself in every roll he has ever starred in; from the son of a gangster, to an immigrant Cuban, an angry con on a Dog Day Afternoon, to a blind and brash, larger than life retired Army general, to the devil himself.
Look closely and listen to him run his lines; you'll hear the same inflections, the same modulations. From screams to intellectual conversation, Al is quite similar in every roll his takes on.
Range of character must then be the priority when we look to rate the differences in actors. Look through their body of work. How different are they from role to role?
Sure, Robert De Niro has played a number of similar roles; the man has an excellent take on being a hood, Italian or Irish (no way Al, you just ain't Irish by a long stretch), yet he goes beyond this, surprising us with rolls such as Leonard Lowe in "Awakenings".
Let's face it folks, Al has yet to allow his Leonard to show, much less gain and lose sixty pounds during principle filming in order to keep himself in complete character. Those are purely De Niro's techniques.
Al Pacino is a great actor, a legend in his own right, but he ain't no De Niro!
Pistol shots that sound like explosions from the next seat, haunting musical scores, trademark close-ups and scene compositions that would please Michelangelo, these are the dynamic elements with which Sergio Leone delivered to the world his ultimate Western Trilogy.
"A Few Dollars More" neatly dovetails its predecessor, as Leone exercises the next step in his Western evolution, this time giving us a singular villain named Indio and a bounty hunter called Colonel Mortimer (Lee Van Cleef), dressed all in black, to rival "The Man With No Name" as they both attempt to capture the elusive bandit, dead or alive!
To remake any film, particularly one that was originally well-received, is a daunting task. Basically, it's an undertaking that should not be entered into without careful attention to details about what made the film work the first time around. In my opinion, that's usually why a fair number of remakes will fail in comparison to their original versions.It took a few days to track down a copy of the original "The Wicker Man", but in the end NetFlix came through. And, I guess because the Nick Cage version was totally American (Summerisle was actually in Washington State in his version), I was surprised to find that it was set, staged and acted exclusively by Brits! Shows just how much I thought I knew. . .
The cast fared much better in this version than in the remake. The performances of Christopher Lee, Edward Woodward, and an often-fully nude Britt Eckland combined nicely with a tight script (written by Anthony Shaffer also known for Murder On The Orient Express and Sommersby.)
The Wicker Man remake, starring Nick Cage and Ellen Burstyn, is out of gas before it can get started. It is repeatedly bogged down with attempts at building suspense that never comes to be. The story is weak (quite a feat considering the original was so strong) and the acting is awful. As bad as the on-the-screen moments were, I can't imagine the stench of what ended up on the cutting-room floor!
In closing, all I can say is that the original 1973 release of "The Wicker Man" comes with a firm recommendation, as either a rental or purchase to beef up your B-Movie collection.
As for the remake? Save your money--it simply isn't worth it.
Contributed to films with feathermaye & friends by S. Bond Herndon.
The first half of the film is intended to allow you to fall in love with Marla, with her little brother Zane and with their young parents who are just as surprised by Marla's talent as the rest of us. It's almost painful to watch them attempt to grow accustomed to the attention garnered by Marla. Mom is obviously affected by the media and film crews and the like; Dad is affected as well, but he seems to be getting the biggest thrill out of it all. (Dad attempted a career as a painter earlier in his life, without success.)
