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De Niro

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I have so much admiration and respect for Robert DeNiro and Al Pacino that I am reluctant to choose one over the other in terms of their acting ability. I've enjoyed so many performances by each of them. It's like comparing a perfect, luscious strawberry, to the perfect peach. They're just different, and we like them for different reasons. When I think about Al as Tony Montana in Scarface, I think, well it doesn't get any better than this. Then I think about DeNiro's performance in Raging Bull, gaining all that weight for the role of the boxer, and again I think, it doesn't get any better than this. I wonder if the roles were reversed whose performance would've been better? As much as I love Al Pacino, especially for his outstanding, finely drawn performance as a blind man in Scent of a Woman for which he won a much deserved Oscar, I believe that Robert DeNiro has a slight edge. When I watch Robert DeNiro in the various roles he's played over the years, the man becomes the character. He inhabits the character like a second skin. In Stanley & Iris, he plays a man who cannot read. He plays a simple man,without a lot of bells and whistles. He's someone you might meet on a bus, your everyday Joe. He plays a role like this as skillfully as he plays an over-the-top fan in, The Fan. Robert DeNiro's ability to walk in another man's shoes and grasp the essence of the character is extraordinary. Al does too, but to a lesser extent. In Scarface he did. In Scent of a Woman he did. But Al's played a few roles that I don't believe are as rigorous or demanding in terms of the depth and range of emotion required of the actor, that Robert DeNiro has. Take for instance Max Cady in Cape Fear. The attention to detail, the subtle nuances in his performance in the various scenes. He is soooo into the role. For example: The scene where he is hanging upside down on a bar exercising, while talking on the phone to Nick Nolte's young daughter. The look on his face is priceless. He's actually smiling like a depraved lunatic as he swings back and forth, upside down to the tune of, "You gotta be a do right, do right man." Then the scene on the boat at the end of the movie where he confronts Nick Nolte for "selling him out." Watch his face. The rage. The raw emotion. The delivery of his lines. The man is genious. Sheer genious. To be able to play a depraved character as convincingly and compellingly as he did in that role, you'd have to be truly gifted. And he is. I can't see Al Pacino playing the role of Max Cady, inhabiting the character, the way that Robert DeNiro did. Then again, I don't see Robert DeNiro playing Tony Montana better than Al did in Scarface. They are both extraordinary actors who have mastered their craft and are a pleasure to watch.

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