That’s what I’ve been asking myself way too often lately… What happened to two of my favorite actors? Both Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are undoubtedly two of the most talented actors who have ever been in a movie and they’ve participated in high-quality political movies. However, it seems that, at some point, they decided to pick movie parts for the money, not for quality. Despite the fact that they’re far beyond rich. They’re getting older, sure, but they could still choose to play older characters in good movies. I mean, neither of them has financial problems, so why don’t they wait for a good part to come along their way? If they want to work they can produce or finance movies if they want. Well, it doesn’t make any sense to ramble about this any longer… Just thought I should express my feelings after reading this LA Times article by Patrick Goldstein today:
I thought Francis Ford Coppola was being cranky last fall when he badmouthed Al Pacino and Robert De Niro — the stars of Coppola’s immortal “Godfather” films — for taking parts for the money and losing their passion for doing great work. “I met both Pacino and De Niro when they were really on the come,” Coppola told GQ magazine. “Now Pacino is very rich, maybe because he never spends any money; he just puts it in his mattress. . . . They all live off the fat of the land.”
Coppola was right on the money. The two icons of ’70s New Hollywood, heroes to a generation of young actors and filmmakers, have become parodies of themselves, making payday movies and turning in performances that are hollow echoes of the electrically charged work they did in such films as “Serpico,” “Dog Day Afternoon,” “Mean Streets” and “Taxi Driver.”
