The Devil's Advocate (1997)

This movie is good, but eerie

Summary

-A talented Florida lawyer is given a chance of a lifetime. He is offered a spot at a high-end law firm in New York with one of the top attorneys in the city. Kevin will soon come to find out that the devil is in the details

Cast

-Keanu Reeves: Kevin Lomax

-Al Pacino: John Milton

-Charlize Theron: Mary Ann Lomax

-Jeffrey Jones: Eddie Barzoon

-Judith Ivey: Mrs. Alice Lomax

-Connie Nielsen: Christabella Andreoli

-Craig T. Nelson: Alexander Cullen

-Tamara Tunie: Jackie Heath

-Ruben Santiago-Hudson: Leamon Heath

-Debra Monk: Pam Garrety

-Laura Harrington: Melissa Black

-Pamela Gray: Mrs. Diana Barzoon

Did You Know?

-When Keanu Reeves took a lower salary for this film, so that the producers could pay the asking price for Al Pacino, Al heard about this and did the same thing. He donated the same amount of the salary he was paid to charity

-In the scene where Eddie Barzoon (Jeffrey Jones) is running through the park, he is being pursued by three joggers who are colors that represent the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, specifically their horses. One is wearing white, the horse of Conquest (Pestilence), one is wearing red, the horse of War and the other jogger is in black, the horse for Famine. Meanwhile, Milton (Al Pacino) was reading a monologue about Barzoon, essentially providing a reason he sent demons after Barzoon. He is seen wearing green robes. Green was the color belonging to the horse belonging to Death

-Initially, Charlize Theron was hesitant to appear fully nude in this film. She had been offered a role in the 1995 film Showgirls, but turned it down because she was asked to appear fully nude. With this film, she thought long and hard before she finally accepted. She agreed to it because she really loved her character

-The character Al Pacino plays is John Milton. John Milton is the author of Paradise Lost, an iconic book about a man's fall from the grace of God. Towards the end of the film, Kevin Lomax quotes the book by saying "Better to reign in Hell than serve in Heaven."

-There was a scene in the movie showing Mary Ann (Charlize Theron) being directed to the library and finding three people engaging in a threesome, but the scene was deleted. In this scene, she walks in on three people engaging in a threesome and was disgusted by the act. Seeing this level of lewdness increases Mary's suspicions that her husband may be having an affair

-Keanu Reeves spent time with defense attorneys in New York City to prepare for his role

-Even though they were supposed to be husband and wife, close in age in the movie, there was a 10 year difference in age. Keanu Reeves was 31 while Charlize Theron was 21

-Connie Nielsen, who is Danish, had only been in the US for a month before she landed a part in this film. In fact, this was her film debut in the United States

-In this film, Judith Ivey plays Alice Lomax, Kevin Lomax's mother. In real life, she is only 13 years older than Keanu Reeves

-Al Pacino finally got the chance to read the book Paradise Lost in order to prepare for this role

-Instead of reprising his role as LAPD officer Jack Traven in 1997's Speed 2: Cruise Control, he turned down that role because he didn't like the script and chose this film instead

-During filming, Al Pacino had lost hair due to the stress of his dog passing. As a result, he had to wear a wig. He revealed this on the October 13, 2019 episode of Inside the Actors Studio

-Prior to coming to New York, Kevin Lomax won 64 cases, including the Gettys case. When he comes to New York, he wins an additional two cases, bringing the number up to 66. This could be a reference to 666, "The Number of The Beast"

-Connie Nielsen and Tamara Tunie would later go on to star on Law & Order: SVU. Connie Nielsen would play Detective Danielle "Dani" Beck while Tamara Tunie would play the medical examiner, Dr. Melinda Warner

-Keanu Reeves and Craig T. Nelson provided their voices in Pixar's films. Keanu Reeves appeared in the 2019 film Toy Story 4 as Duke Kaboom. Craig T. Nelson provided the voice of Bob Parr in the 2004 film The Incredibles and the 2018 film The Incredibles 2

-As the movie progresses, the suits Keanu Reeves wear get darker in color. Initially, they start out in a light color, but then proceed to get darker as the movie progresses, until finally, he's wearing a black suit. This represents his descending journey into immorality

-In the scene where Kevin is talking to a reporter named Larry in the restroom, he hears a loud boom when splashing water on his face. In the final moments of the movie, he wakes up in the same restroom, but no loud noise is heard. This loud noise represents Kevin's entry in to the world of John Milton or the hallucination he had of it

-Charlize Theron spent one hour each day with a psychotherapist to practice schizophrenia, so she could accurately portray it on film

-When Mary Ann is trying to find a shade of green for the apartment walls, her friend Jackie tells her no. Jackie is seen wearing clothing / jewelry in the same shade of green

-John Milton's plan to ruin Kevin Lomax is foreshadowed initially by having Mary Ann adopt a hairstyle that was different than what Kevin liked. He knew that Kevin would lose interest in his wife and focus on work. It would also focus his attention on another woman with a hairstyle that was similar

-John Milton is heard being fluent in multiple languages. It shows that the Devil knows no boundaries at all. Each religion has a figure who is considered to be the ultimate evil

-In cases of paranormal activity, doing something three times mocks the Holy Trinity-Father, Son, The Holy Ghost. John Milton would laugh three times

Insomnia (2002)

I forgot how much I liked this movie. It's been so long since I first saw it. I just watched it the other night and forgot how good of a movie it is. It's eerie, but good

Summary

-An LA police detective and his partner go to Alaska to investigate the murder of a local teenaged girl. While chasing the suspect through fog, he accidentally shoots his partner. Between the guilt and the incessant daylight, he loses sleep and becomes delusional. Meanwhile officer Ellie Burr begins her own investigation into the shooting

Cast

-Al Pacino: Will Dormer

-Robin Williams: Walter Finch

-Hilary Swank: Ellie Burr

-Martin Donovan: Hap Eckhart

-Paul Dooley: Chief Nyback

-Nicky Katt: Fred Duggar

-Larry Holden: Farrell

-Yan-Kay Crystal Lowe: Kay Connell

-Maura Tierney: Rachel Clement

Did You Know?

-This movie, and 1995's Heat, are two movies where Al Pacino's character, who is doing a stakeout, are ruined by incompetent officers. In 1995's Heat, he and his officers are in a box truck across the street from an area where a crew of bank robbers are attempting to break in. An incompetent officer with an assault rifle against his back goes to sit down, hitting the metal wall and making a loud clang. This tips off De Niro's character Neil McAuley that there is a suspicious presence in the area. In this movie, during a stakeout, an officer mistakenly hits the squawk option on a bullhorn, tipping off the suspect and giving them time to run away

-In the original script adaptation by Hilary Seitz, the script had Dormer as an Oregon police officer instead of a Los Angeles police officer. It was suggested that Pacino's character had planted evidence at a crime scene, thus convicting an innocent man and sending him to prison in Los Angeles. And that Internal Affairs Bureau, the ones responsible for arresting "dirty" cops, was running an investigation into Dormer and looking to bring him back to Los Angeles. And that it was the crimes in Alaska that were similar to the crimes he investigated in Los Angeles that brought him to Alaska, not so much to help his friend, Chief Dooley. These changes were so popular that Christopher Nolan added them to his director's pass on the script

-This movie is Christopher Nolan's first film to be fully done in color. One of his previous movies was 2000's Memento, which featured black and white and color scenes

-In the biography Robin by David Itzkoff, Robin Williams had been sober for years. While filming this movie, he took up drinking again. Because of the strong isolation of Alaska, he could only talk to people in bars

-To lift the somber tone of the movie, Robin Williams told jokes related to the filming, which made the cast and crew laugh

-Even though Al Pacino's character Will Dormer and Robin Williams' character Walter Finch were supposed to be competing with one another, they got along very well with one another when not filming. Williams would crack jokes and he even pranked Pacino during an interview by slumping behind him and quoting the 1979 film And Justice for All. He would imitate Pacino's voice and say "You're out of order!" before laughing out loud

-In the scene where Will Dormer and Walter Finch meet on the ferry was not rehearsed at all between Al Pacino and Robin Williams. This unfamiliarity would work out for both of them when their characters did finally meet face to face

-In the scene where Dormer sees Rachel sleeping on his bed, there were rumors they slept together. Christopher Nolan removes those rumors, saying they simply talked through the night

-The original script had Will Dormer with a hot temper, smashing the phone down whenever he talked with Walter Finch. Al Pacino modified his character to use less anger and be more cool and calm under pressure

-It has been proven possible to stay awake for six days straight. One person set a record for staying awake for 11 days straight under medical supervision

-When Dormer mentions child murderer Dobbs, this is based on an actual child murderer named Westley Allan Dodd

Sonny Boy by Al Pacino

This book is written by himself. It's an autobiography about Al Pacino. I thought it was a very good book. He's always been one of my favorite actors. Because he can be funny one moment, intense the next

-Born Alfredo James Pacino on 4/25/1940, he was raised in the South Bronx by his mother Rose and father Sal. His father worked as a military police officer, but disappeared when Al was two, leaving his mother and her relatives and his father's relatives to raise him. He was given his Sicilian grandfather's first name. His mother would often take him to see plays and even films in the theatres, and this would interest the boy. As he got older, he found his mother started suffering from mental health issues and one day, one of his relatives told him to come to her apartment.  There, he found his mother deceased. She had ingested a large amount of pills and choked on her own vomit. He found school to be boring, so he left at 16 and found a calling in the theatre. As time went on, he got better and better at acting. Of course, having no job meant no money. He worked a series of odd jobs to keep the money coming in while he went to auditions

-Some of his earliest films would today be considered independent films or "indie" films. Such as The Panic in Needle Park, where he plays a drug addict looking for a fix. The film that really put his name on the map was the 1972 film The Godfather, where he played the youngest Corleone son Michael. Of course, Francis Ford Coppola, the director, wanted Pacino over the other actors auditioning for the role, which included Robert Redford, Robert De Niro, Jack Nicholson, Warren Beatty and Ryan O'Neal. Despite his success, Al was constantly worrying about being fired

The Panic in Needle Park

The Godfather

-When he was not filming, he suffered with a bout of alcoholism, and would occasionally pop Valium pills to try and calm himself, since he made a habit of showing explosive bouts of energy. When it came time to film The Godfather Pt. II, he surprised Francis Ford Coppola by showing that he didn't know how to drive (because he grew up in New York, where you could hop in a cab or on a bus), didn't know how to dance the waltz and couldn't speak Italian (despite being of both Sicilian and Italian descent), three things required for the Italian wedding scene where he marries the woman Appollonia during Michael's exile to Sicily. During filming, he became good friends with Diane Keaton, who played Kay

The Godfather Pt. II

Italian wedding scene from The Godfather Pt. II

Al Pacino as Michael Corleone and Diane Keaton as Kay Adams

-After the filming of The Godfather films, he wanted to try something different. The "something different" became the film Serpico, a film based on the true story of an NYPD officer named Frank Serpico, who investigated and even tried to stop corruption in the NYPD. After that, he did more movies, such as Dog Day Afternoon, where he plays a bank robber looking to get money for his partner's gender reassignment surgery. He decided to do the play Richard III in the theaters, and it was around that time he had the realization that he needed help for his alcoholism. He asked for help and it was around the time he filmed the movie Bobby Deerfield that he started going to AA meetings and undergoing therapy to wean himself off of the alcohol, thus getting himself clean and sober

Serpico

Dog Day Afternoon

Bobby Deerfield

-In the early 1980s, came the film that would immediately connect his name to the film world: Scarface. The violent, 1983 film depicting a Cuban refugee turned drug lord directed by Brian DePalma and produced by Oliver Stone. He had to learn how to talk with a proper Cuban accent from both a dialect coach and his co-star, Cuban-born actor Steven Bauer. As a side note, people thought for the longest time that Al was a cocaine addict, because of his manic bouts of energy. He firmly states he has never touched that narcotic. He's never done drugs. He's just always had those manic fits of energy. Unfortunately, after Scarface, he decided to quit acting. He took some time off to simply relax from the stress of filming. Instead, he took to the theater, doing plays because that was what he started out doing and it was something he loved

Scarface

-It was not until he came out of his self-imposed break from acting that he starred in 1989's Sea of Love, where he played a police officer with a hard drinking habit investigating a series of murders. And the woman he's falling for might just be the prime suspect. It was here that he started developing the slightly gravelly voice he now has. This film has a long, drawn out lovemaking scene where Ellen Barkin's character initially gives Al Pacino's character a pat down, and then the two go straight into making love. He said he's normally not one to do love scenes, because he is uncomfortable doing them, especially if he is required to show certain parts of his body. After Sea of Love, he went into making The Godfather Pt. III, which is certainly not as popular with people as the first two installments. He firmly stated the only reason he did the third installment of the film was because he was in financial dire straits. He maintained his friendship with Diane Keaton, and it was actually her that helped him get a good agent to help him get back into good financial standing

Sea of Love

The Godfather Pt. III

-One of the movies he did that he enjoyed was the comic book-turned-movie for Dick Tracy. In the film, he played Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice. His character got the name "Big Boy" from the fact that he had elephantiasis in random parts of his body. He jokingly said he got to feel up Madonna in the film, but he said it was just "love taps" and nothing more. In October 1989, he became a first time father, to a daughter he named Julie Marie Pacino, with an acting teacher named Jan Tarrant that he was seeing. The 1990s proved to be a successful time for him. He starred in movies that proved to be successful, such as Scent of a Woman, Carlito's Way, Heat, The Devil's Advocate, Donnie Brasco, The Insider and Any Given Sunday.

Al Pacino and Jan Tarrant

"Big Boy" Caprice in Dick Tracy

Scent of a Woman

Carlito's Way

Heat

The Devil's Advocate

The Insider

Any Given Sunday

-As the 1990s gave birth to the 2000s, the new decade would bring Al three new kids, two with wife Beverly D'Angelo, an actress. With her he had two children, a son he named Anton and a daughter they both named Olivia. They divorced in 2001. They simply couldn't make their marriage work only because they were both actors and based on opposite coasts. She was mostly based in Los Angeles, where she lived. And he was from New York, which he considered home. They still remain on good terms and remain good friends. Later on in life, he would have another child, a son he named Roman, with an actress from Argentina he was seeing named Lucila Sola.

Al Pacino and Beverly D'Angelo

Al Pacino and Lucila Sola

-He mentioned that he had strong financial troubles and was suffering from them, trying to get a good agent to help him out. As for films, he would continue to make films in the new decade. They would include 2002's Insomnia, 2003's The Recruit, 2005's Two for the Money, 2007's 88 Minutes, 2007's Ocean's Thirteen, 2008's Righteous Kill and more. As a side note, he still, to this day, maintains a good friendship with former The Godfather actress Diane Keaton. As time went on, he mentioned that he had started noticing his vision was not quite what it once was. He stated this issue started happening when he was 19 and it seemed to happen off and on over the years. He would wake up and his vision would be blurry, but would clear eventually. He said he was diagnosed with Fuch's dystrophy, which gets progressively worse as you age. When the COVID-19 crisis effectively shut down the world down for a time, he ended up getting stricken with the condition. Luckily, he was able to get through it

His family. Son Anton, daughters Olivia and Julie

Insomnia

The Recruit

Two for the Money

88 Minutes

Ocean's Thirteen

Righteous Kill

Filmography