Movies like Shawshank Redemption, A Few Good Men always figure in my top 10 list of Hollywood movies. I think they are based on a well thought novel or a play which makes them very compact. All the details and the plot is well prepared and worked by the author meticulously, what remains is a appropriate casting and execution as per the original write-up. Problem starts when the original novel is little too much in details (say Bourne Identity) and then it doesn’t translate to motion cinema very well.
One such movie which is compact, highly effective with perfect star-cast is Scent of a Woman. Let me see if I am able to express what I felt the first time I saw this movie and what I felt when I saw it the 10th time (in the last week). Until now I didn’t post on this movie (I did on Shawshank Redemption and A Few Good Men sometime back) bcos I wasn’t sure if I could do justice to it.
______________________The Plot______________________
Let us keep it very simple here: A brilliant student on a Scholarship trying to support himself by doing some jobs on the weekend and also assistantship at the school library and what not. The school itself is renowned as the head-master says ’3 of our students sat in the oval office, many of the articles published in the ashrams in India etc etc etc’ (See! India is regarded as the ’Mayka’ of schooling etc & specifically mathematics: Even ’Good Will Hunting’ has reference to ’a young natural born mathematician kid from India who won the Nobel prize’ etc).
Lot of rich kids study in this school. 3 of the mischievous students do something stupid to the head-master (he is now a loser with Jaguar!) and he sees it along with a 4th one (George) from the same group. To tell or not to tell, to take head-master’s offer to go to Harvard or not...to spoil it all or not. Integrity or opportunity.
This student fortunately(?) has to work on the thanks-giving weekend to look after a Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade who is retired and is blind now. He is an eccentric person with lot of anger and weirdness filled in him due to maybe the life he has to lead after he goes blind to a mishap in military. Played by Al Pacino, the colonel is the back-bone of the movie and the reason to watch this movie N number of times. Every time you tend to appreciate more how GREAT job this genius has done. Colonel makes Chris O’Donnell’s weekend very interesting and mesmerizing too. I will no delve into this area and one must watch it themselves to get the impact.
______________________The Acting______________________
My My My!!! What to say. Every time it is treat to watch these two guys. Pacino and Chris O make it an experience. Chris O has performed flawlessly and has matched the best actor of the times with his restrained young kid who is a little bogged down due to stage in his life but still not willing to compromise on his personal integrity and loyalty even though the other friend who saw it initially adamant not to tell but is now sold out due to his Big Daddy (George Willis Sr!).
The other star-cast is just perfect and nobody has crossed the fine line of the original play/novel. It is a perfect display of honesty to the plot/story. Our young generation that is raised on Karan-Johar and overacting Shah Rukh Khan movies is unfortunate not to get movies like these.
_______________________The Pacino Factor_______________________
Whooo Aaaah! His voice modulation, his frustration, his internal injuries hidden deep down inside just start appearing on the surface at some times but he keeps them down. Marvelous! He shows feeling of loneliness without ever giving you a hint by words or actions. He is not the type who would take help from anyone but has to now as he is 100% blind!! The dialogs like ’Save your body language for something else’ or ’Are you blind, then why you keep grabbing my hand?’, ’Can’t you see, I AM IN THE DARK HERE’ or his appearance at his elder brother’s house, his flirting with the ladies, his as Chris says ’One track mind’. Everything is portrayed to the perfection. He comes across as Lt. Colonel Frank Slade, cent percent a character from reality.
His appearance (court-room sort of in the School) is nothing short of SPECTACULAR. His outburst on the head-master ’Who the hell you are to make me out of order, you are out of order, this whole court is out of order, there was a time I could see and I have seen, boy like these, younger than these their legs torn out their bodies lying around, but there is nothing like an amputated sprit of a young guy. Someone in this room am not going to say who, tried to buy these guys out only Willy was not ready to sell and I call that as integrity, that is the stuff leaders are made of. As I entered I heard the words ’The cradle of leader-ship’. What you are going to do, you are going to reward George whos hiding in his big daddy’s pocket and you are going to send this soldier with his tail in his legs’.
_______________________Conclusion______________________
Do not get me wrong. I described the most powerful scene above where the colonel’s outburst takes constructive criticism. Every scene of this movie is compact and made to perfection. There are a few dialogs where you might feel uncomfortable watching it with kids (of age more than 5/6). Pacino got Oscar for this performance. If you have not seen this movie yet, YOU ARE MISSING IT BIGTIME!!. It is an experience to watch this movie and I think everyone ought to watch it. Recently crossword and other have this VCD on sale for 199 (minus 15%) so it is a good opportunity to get hold of this movie.
_______________________Suggestion______________________
As this is dialog-centric movie I suggest watching it with appropriate darkness in the room, with ultra-quiet audience, no disturbance. Also watching it in the cozy, comfortable atmosphere would make you think and appreciate this movie a lot better.
Please do opine and do not keep it pithy as Bill O’Reilley of Fox News insists! :)