Pacino, De Niro Re-Unite: Why You Should See Righteous Kill

By COED Staff

Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are living legends, among an elite group of actors who are celebrated now, and will continue to be in years to come, for their continued excellence on the screen. This weekend marks only their second time sharing the screen since the 1995 film Heat, in the much anticipated thriller, Righteous Kill.

In the film, De Niro and Pacino play veteran New York City policeman assigned to a case that seems oddly familiar to one they thought they solved years ago. A known criminal who happens to elude the judicial system is found murdered.

When more innocent-found criminals turn up dead it becomes clear that a serial killer is on the loose; a serial killer that targets people the police and judges are not able to nail in the first place. Before viewing this much awaited film though, it’s important to remember the incredible cinematic brilliance that Pacino and De Niro have shown us in some of the industry’s most notable performances.

Starting with the always intense and forever badass Al Pacino, we have the unforgettable character of Scarface‘s Tony Montana.  Cocaine, beautiful women, guns, money, Tony had it all. Tony Montana has become a film legend, forever ingrained in pop culture. With countless references in other films and hip-hop music, Al Pacino created a monster with this cocaine sniffing, cigar smoking don of the screen.  Name the last time you walked into a frat house and didn’t see a near life sized poster of a bloodied Pacino holding a machine gun. Pacino as Tony Montana also delivered one of the most quoted lines in movie history. With M-16 in hand Tony screams at his enemies, “Say hello to my little friend!” and reserves a special place in movie history forever.

Speaking of famous lines, it’s time to move on to Mr. De Niro, and one of his most memorable characters (delivering an equally memorable line), that of Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver.  Bickle, played perfectly by De Niro, is a New York City taxi cab driver who is disgusted by the filth of prostitution, crime, and drug dealing that surrounds him.  After an encounter with a child prostitute (played by a young Jodie Foster) Travis decides he has to do something about the status quo.

He buys multiple guns and practices a tough speech in front of the mirror so he’ll be ready for the bad guys when he sees them. During this speech De Niro utters one of the most famous movie quotes of all time, “You talkin’ to me?”  Not only is this quote one of the most famous in all cinema history, the entire monologue was completely improvised!  This is only one example of the undeniable genius of Robert De Niro.

Moving past their unforgettable one-liners, and on to Oscar wins for this dynamic duo, it’s clear why we can’t get enough of Pacino and De Niro. Robert De Niro’s first Oscar came from his brilliant portrayal of the young Don Vito Corleone in another classic film, The Godfather Part II.  Even though Pacino and De Niro were a part of the same project, they never shared a single moment on camera together.

De Niro also earned a second Oscar for his equally compelling and extremely disturbing role of middleweight boxing champion Jake La Motta in Raging Bull.  One notable feature of this role is De Niro learned to box, and worked hard to achieve a fighter’s physique for the role.  After the boxing scenes were filmed, production was temporarily shut down while De Niro gained 60 pounds to look the part of the out of shape La Motta of later years.  De Niro consumed whole pizzas, large quantities of ice cream, and gallons of beer each day to play the heavier La Motta.

Pacino was nominated for an Oscar for the first two Godfather films, but did not win.  Even though his performances are some of the most powerful of his career, and some of the most celebrated in film history.  After many nominations Al Pacino won a well deserved Oscar for his fabulous portrayal of retired and blind Lt. Col. Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman.  Pacino’s character brought the commonly used army exclamation “hooah!” into everyone’s living room in this classic film.

So definitely check out Righteous Kill which will be released this Friday, September 12.  Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are two actors that possess an extraordinary amount of talent to say the least.  The various characters they have played over the years have earned them a place in movie history forever.  What could possibly be their last time on screen together, Righteous Kill is an event you will not want to miss!