Oh, yeah. Yup. Welles as the Don. I like that.
Lightwizard,
"What if Welles had played Don Corleone.?"
Facinating question. Might start a thread of "what ifs."
I think he would have been brilliant, but off target. I don't know what he or the director could have done about his deep, sonorous voice. His polished delivery.
His serious demeanor. (Brando laughed as Corleone)
Welles could play a don and play him well , but not the don of the Godfather. Brando remains the quentessential Corleone in our minds and to even speculate on a substitution seems profligate and even sinful.
An aside. I recall Vivien Leigh (who was married to Olivier at the time) playing Blanche Dubois on Broadway opposite Brando's Stanley Kowalski. She was quoted as saying that backstage she would close her eyes and listen to Brando imitate Olivier. She said she could not tell his voice from from her husband's voice. That coupled with his roles in Julus Caesar and The Ugly American seem to put the lie to his inarticulateness, unless by choice, i.e. On The Waterfront, etc.
But at his "mumbliest", he could be understood better than Russel Crowe in "Captain -----whatever"
Welles could have probably brought it off but was even more of a dirigible than Brando at the time (I see him at "L'Orangerie" in LA having late lunches at his corner table where he filled it out and then some).
Some actors never seem to get the roles they are born for. I am thinking of Richard Burton. I loved him in a number of films, but I always felt that he missed out on the one quintessential role. I enjoyed Night of the Iguana, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf and a few others. Maybe I just missed something.
Burton was outstanding in "Becket" which he was nominated for an Oscar, "The Spy Who Came In from the Cold," and "1984." Whether one has respect for his performance in "Cleopatra," it's the one we always seem to remember.
I can't say I remember Cleopatra with any great deal of fondness, either for Burton or his costar. But The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, yes, a really fine performance in an above-average cold war thriller.
A perfectly cast movie:
Richard Burton
Claire Bloom
Oskar Werner
Sam Wanamaker
As with any epic, "Cleopatra" on the big screen had some real impact -- shrunk down to a TV screen shows up all of the flaws.
I think my favorite Burton performance is still in "Becket" -- saw it in Whittier, California on a full ration CinemaScope screen and enjoyed it immensely. He was nominated for the Oscar again -- always the bridesmaid...
I just saw Memento and was blown away. It's definitely one of the best.
A great film is Fiddler on The Roof. It has just about everything, it's comedic, it's tragic, it's historical, it's got social commentary, and it's a musical! It's one of my favorites.
The Matrix
American History X
My favorite movie is Scarface with Al Pacino and Michelle Pfeifer. Pacino is just too authentic in that movie.
The new DVD release of "Scarface" is really potent and it never looked better.
The death of David Hemmings reminds me of one of my favorite films of the 60s - Blow Up. I've been told how boring it was by some, but I saw it twice.
"Blowup" is a literally a snapshot of the era -- Antonioni never fails to astonish with his auteur craftsmanship and inventiveness. The film gets a respectable 7.4 member rating at IMDb and that has to be a lot of people who did not see it at its premiere but appreciate time travelling back to the awakening Sixties (just a prelude to the sizzling Seventies!)
BTW, welcome to A2K, illmatic. I know some critics have send Pacino went over-the-top in some of the scenes but of all the actors I can think of, he can get away with it.
Dying (sic) to see his performance in "Angels in America."
Another movie I am surprised was not mentioned here (unless I forgot) is PATTON. George C Scott put on as great a performance as I have seen. I used to hear people assert that the film was perfect, but now no one mentions it much that I am aware of.
Pacino was beyond incredible in "Angels in America" as the wily and gay attorney, Roy Cohn -- his confrontation with Meryl Streep as Rosenburg as marvelous.
"Patton" is another big screen epic with a central performance to match. It may be the greatest biopic of all time, although I do love "Chaplin."
Chaplin was really good. I have not seen Angels in America
Patton is not PC these days.
