I consider Pacino's performance in this to be one of the greatest performances not to win the Oscar. Unfortunately he had the bad luck of doing this the same year that One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest won everything (and Jack did deserve it). Anybody agree?
sharePacino deserved to win.
Also, Cazale deserved a nod.
Broderick was great also.
"Hate is baggage, life's too short to be pissed off all the time".
Well I actually don't give a fat rats for the Oscars - they've shown time and time again that those doling out the awards are a bunch of lack-witted ninnies. So rarely is it about the best performance of the year. It's usually about who they think might be overdue for a nod or some other spurious reason.
Having got that off my chest though - Al Pacino's performance in DDA is the best performance I've ever seen any actor give!
A bold statement to make, and yet I make it.
It's not flashy or over the top. It's real and human. He exudes a nervous energy that seems so apt for someone who, in robbing a bank, finds he's bitten off more than he can chew. Trying to juggle so many balls in the air when he realises to his dismay that he has butter fingers. The despair and confusion Pacino conveys is subtle but all the more powerful for his restraint.
I'm not a rabid Pacino fan but this is a beautiful performance.
Well I actually don't give a fat rats for the Oscars - they've shown time and time again that those doling out the awards are a bunch of lack-witted ninnies. So rarely is it about the best performance of the year. It's usually about who they think might be overdue for a nod or some other spurious reason.
"Incidentally, you may or may not know this, but the performances by Pacino and Cazale in Dog Day Afternoon have been cited by Steve Buscemi as the reason he got into acting. Definitely Pacino's greatest performance in my eyes. After DDA he quickly desended into a style of scenery chewing rather than nervous energy."
Yeah I heard that (actually Buscemi is one of my favourite actors) and I also heard this was why he was so pleased to take on the 'sonny' roll in an homage/p!$$-take ep of the Simpsons.
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Never saw DDA. However, I think the biggest injustices for an actor in leading role not winning is Liam Neeson in Schindler's List and Don Cheadle in Hotel Rwanda. Don't get me started on best pictures...the list is too damn long!
shareHeath Ledger as Ennis del Mar in Brokeback Mountain, fercrissake. As great a performance as any ever captured on film.
"Tell you what . . . the truth is . . . sometimes I miss you so much I can hardly stand it."
I agree Heath Ledger made you really believe in that performance how he didn't win and Brokeback Mountain should have won for best picture. Crash is the worst best picture winner of all time by far.
sharewhat about Dustin Hoffman in Midnight Cowboy,probaly one of the best performances ever he lost to John Wayne which makes me angry
shareI agree! I couldn't believe my eyes when I've seen that he didn't win the Oscar. As for Al Pacino... too bad he was nominated in the same year with One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.
shareIt's a shame he had to be competing with Jack Nicholson for One Flew. Those were really great performances.
But at least he got nominated, right? There are tons of great performances that don't get to be nominated due to politics and race.
I was the original poster of this topic and can't believe that it is still going strong almost eight years later. Dog Day Afternoon is such a great movie and Pacino's performance is so complex.
I just watched Denzel Washington in Flight and had a similar feeling about his performance that it was unfortunate that it was the same year of Daniel Day Lewis' Lincoln. I won't say Washington was as memorable as Pacino, but it was a very solid, nuanced performance.
Yeah, OP, and since my last post here I would add WILLIAM H. MACY in Fargo, JOAQUIN PHOENIX in The Master, and BILL MURRAY in Lost in Translation.
You are a smooth smoothie, you know.