Al Pacino V De Niro

Who's your favourite? Just wanted to put this to a poll.

My choice would be Al Pacino. Performances in Donnie Brasco, Heat and Scarface were as good as they could possibly be. De Niro is a great actor, but I would just edge it to Al.

 

De Niro is my favorite,,

 

It use to be DeNiro pre-2000, but these days he's being involved in a lot more bad movies, which is destroying his legacy, so I'll go for Pachino since at least he reads the script before accepting the part.

 

I say DeNiro. He's one of my favorite actors of all time.

 

DeNiro is my favorite definitely. He is too funny.

 

As far as I am concerned, not even a contest. De Niro is pure genius (Taxi Driver says it all), Pacino a good actor.

A year or so ago, someone (I think from AOL) compared the two heavyweight-actors by judging them 10 times in 2 similar-ish movies:


Round 1: Serpico (1973) vs Mean Streets (1973)
Young, feral and hungry, Pacino and De Niro put their first-hand knowledge of The Big Apple to good use in this double shot of Gotham nitty-grittiness. As the only NYPD cop who apparently isn't on the take, Pacino's Frank Serpico gives the real-life white knight a nice rough edge; he also offers viewers an impressive, ever-changing feathered-locks and facial-hair fashion show. Meanwhile, on the other side of town, De Niro's Johnny Boy is the type of neighborhood guy who Serpico would probably bust in a New York minute, a young punk who gives his partners in crime no end of grief. His dynamic take on Little Italy's resident screwup offers a nice sneak peek of future De Niro tough guys and was the start of a beautiful friendship between the actor and director Martin Scorsese. But this one goes to Pacino, who turns the law-enforcement martyr into a complex, often-contradictory character waging a quixotic battle against corruption.
Winner: Pacino, by a hair(do)


Round 2: The Godfather (1972) vs The Godfather: Part II (1974)
Pacino's Michael Corleone goes through an enormous evolution - or, some would argue, devolution - in the first instalment of Francis Ford Coppola's Mafia magnum opus: from prodigal son ("That's not me, ... moreKate") to pragmatic killer to take-no-prisoners head of the family. Compared with that arc, the changes that De Niro's fresh-faced Vito Corleone, seen in the sequel's extended flashbacks, undergoes don't seem nearly as dramatic. Pacino gets the chance to play the scale, going from cold-bloodedly quiet to those raging tirades that would become his stock-in-trade. De Niro, meanwhile, maintains a reptilian cool even when he resorts to violence. The temptation to award this round to Pacino is an offer we find hard to refuse, until we remember that: a) De Niro's subtle incorporation of Marlon Brando's mannerisms from the previous movie is beyond graceful; and, b) he learned to speak an Italian dialect for the part. Buena lavoro, Bob.
Winner: De Niro, on a series of technicalities


Round 3: Dog Day Afternoon (1975) vs Taxi Driver (1976)
Both actors hit their stride with these roles of social misfits driven to extreme measures: Pacino's bungling bank robber Sonny Wortzik, who's simply trying to procure funds for his lover's sex-change operation; and... more De Niro's Travis Bickle, the tour guide of the damned who takes up arms to protect an underage prostitute. Each actor, of course, delivers his own catchphrase with an intensity that's frightening ("Attica! Attica!" and "You talkin' to me?"). Pound for pound, the stars are evenly matched here; these two performances essentially set the tone for almost everything that came after in terms of acting, and established Pacino and De Niro as the standards against which screen sociopaths would forever be judged. Oh, and just for the record: Yes, we were talkin' to you, Travis.
Winner: This one is a draw. It's just too close to call!


Round 4: Scarface (1983) v Raging Bull (1980)
Mention the name Tony Montana to card-carrying members of the modern hip-hop nation, and watch the quotes fly: "You cock-a-roooach!" "When you get the money, you get the power." "Say hello to my leee-tle friend!" Pacino turned... more this cocaine kingpin into both a symbol of '80s capitalism in extremis and the campiest gangster ever committed to celluloid. But, whereas Montana is a cultural touchstone, De Niro's Jake La Motta is the embodiment of commitment to a role. It's easy to get hung up on the physical transformation the actor went through to play the boxer -- months of training in the ring, then gaining a whopping 60 pounds to play the champ in decline -- but it wasn't the pounds that made us sympathize with this self-destructive beast. The reason we cringe in fear and still feel sorry for La Motta can be chalked up to De Niro's ability to find the human being who's throwing the haymakers. It remains one of the greatest screen performances ever, period.
Winner: De Niro by a knockout

Round 5: Scent of a Woman (1992) v Awakenings (1990)
There's an unwritten law that says every actor must play a disabled person -- physically or mentally -- at least once. De Niro, naturally, did something close to both at the same time: The actor transformed his body ... more(his character was a catatonic who also suffered from Parkinson's disease) and, because he's been "asleep" for years, reacts to every environment as a child would. Pacino's motor-mouthed military man is "just" blind, though we're convinced he was also afflicted with a Tourette's-like tendency to yell everything he says. His scenery-chewing resulted in an Oscar, albeit a compensatory one for Pacino not winning for The Godfather (or "Dog Day Afternoon," or ...). De Niro's physicality is the most impressive thing in Penny Marshall's sap-fest, though the performance is just as tic-ridden and showy as Pacino's sightless mentor in the "Scent"-ed sea of cheese. But, because the latter took home the gold for his troubles, the judges determined that the round goes to Mr. "Hoo-ah!" by merits alone. Still, whoever wins, we all lose.
Winner: Pacino, by this much

Round 6: Carlito's Way (1993) v GoodFellas (1990)
Two seasoned criminals who are comfortable with power (perhaps too comfortable), Pacino's Carlito Brigante and De Niro's Jimmy Conway are true OGs. Both roles are built off the legacy of the actors' tough-guy screen ... morepersonae, and both are given unexpected shadings and depth by the stars. And, ironically, both Pacino and De Niro let other actors -- Sean Penn in Carlito's Way, Joe Pesci in GoodFellas -- steal scenes with abandon. But the problem with Brigante is that this Puerto Rican nightclub owner is a tad too similar to another Pacino creation a decade earlier; he's far less over-the-top than Tony Montana, but the role looms in the shadow of "Scarface." De Niro's Conway is an interesting, layered portrayal of a snake in the grass. This is a man who understands the codes of the underworld, how to live within them and what happens when those rules are broken. Conway is just one character in Martin Scorsese's thrilling work of social anthropology, but the movie wouldn't be the same without De Niro.
Winner: De Niro. What, you think that's funny? Does that ruling "amuse" you?

Round 7: Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) v Cape Fear (1991)
Welcome to masculinity run amok. David Mamet's story about the cutthroat world of real-estate sharks may be chock full of characters jockeying for pack position, but Pacino's Ricky Roma clearly rules the roost; this... more smooth operator is an alpha male among alpha males. Like Roma, De Niro's Max Cady is a guy who knows how to use words to get what he wants, but what this brutish ex-con wants isn't to bilk suckers. Cady wants revenge, specifically against Nick Nolte's soft (by comparison) lawyer who put him in the slammer. De Niro's extraordinary performance turns one long psychic rape into an aria of Y-chromosome anger, yet when it comes down to brass tacks, Pacino has the edge here. It isn't just that the character is better written than Cady, so much as the way Pacino takes Mamet's agro-slick rants and runs with them. Cady can throw a harder punch, but Roma has a sturdier patter.
Winner: Pacino closes. And therefore gets coffee.

Round 8: Donnie Brasco (1997) v Jackie Brown (1997)
You'd be hard-pressed to find a better example of a lion-in-winter on the wrong side of the law than Pacino's "Lefty" Ruggiero, a low-level mobster who ends up mentoring Johnny Depp's undercover fed. After a number of ... more recent turns in which Pacino indulged in his Pixies-song style of acting (start very quiet, then suddenly get VERY LOUD), it's absolutely wonderful to see the star turn in something so subtle and muted again. Despite being a criminal, Ruggiero is the heart of the film; the scene in which he realizes he's been duped (and thus doomed) is devastating. Yet we have to go with De Niro's Louis Gara here. Say what you will about Quentin Tarantino, he knows how to get a great performance out of his stars, and De Niro's stoic ex-con is a genius study in minimalist acting. The way Gara says everything he has to with a shrug or a small facial expression is amazing; when he eventually erupts at the end, it's all the more terrifying.
Winner: A close call, but it goes to De Niro

Round 9: Dick Tracy (1990) v The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle (2000)
Never let it be said that these two serious actors don't have a silly side. De Niro has occasionally turned in a cartoonish performance, but this was the first time he actually played a genuine ... morecartoon character: Fearless Leader, the monocle-wearing übervillain who keeps trying to capture the computer-animated "moose and squirrel." The star seems to be aware that he's stuck in a rather joyless affair, even though he still gives the part his all. But Pacino is clearly having fun with his comic-strip gangster Big Boy Caprice. He gives the nemesis of Chester Gould's square-jawed flatfoot a goofy sense of Shakespearean grandeur (The New York Times compared Pacino's criminal to a cross between "Richard III and Groucho Marx"), and his grotesque underworld kingpin is the one spark of fun in Warren Beatty's suffocatingly faithful take on the funny-pages legend. De Niro's mastermind is a lark. Pacino's ludicrous Big Boy is a movie saver.
Winner: Pacino, hands down

Round 10: Heat v Heat (1995)
Finally! After teasing us by casting the Dream Team together for the first time since The Godfather: Part II, Michael Mann's epic tale of a career criminal and the dogged cop out to nab him at long last lets the legends share a scene. And ... more it's a doozy: Bonding over a cup of coffee in a diner, Pacino and De Niro talk about the importance of professionalism, the fact that they're flip sides of the same coin and, ultimately, that neither plans on backing down when push comes to shove. If you think these two can channel intensity on their own, just watch what happens when they're in the same room: The tough-guy meter goes way into the red. Despite Pacino's and De Niro's tendency to occasionally slip into old habits -- the former's yelling jags, the latter's repetitively terse line readings -- this 10-minute sequence proves they can still bring the heat (ouch!) when it counts. It also proves that, when these guys are face to face, they're ultimately an even match.

Final Winner: A split decision. We're giving both of them the belt.


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