MovieChat Forums > Carlito's Way (1993) Discussion > Sean Penn and his billing here

Sean Penn and his billing here

posted 6 years ago by ecarle (14979)
2 replies | jump to latest

Take a gander at the poster for Carlito's Way.

In big letters across the entire top of the poster : PACINO.

In somewhat smaller letters below the title, but certainly big enough to count: SEAN PENN.

When Carlito's Way came out in 1993, both actors were in interesting places.

Pacino, after taking almost half of the 80's off in semi-retirement, had come back blazing and in 1992(the year before Carlito's Way) not only won his only Best Actor Oscar for Scent of a Woman, but was nominated the same year for Best Supporting Actor for "Glengarry Glen Ross." Pacino was not only back, but had fully formulated The New Pacino. No more brooding ice cold Michael Corleone. This guy yelled and put extra relish on his every line delivery. He was FUN, now. (And hey, maybe you hated "Hooah!" from Scent of a Woman, but now everybody had a hook to do a Pacino impression -- well, right alongside "Say 'ello to my lil frien').)

And thus "PACINO" filled the top of the poster for "Carlito's Way." He was a rebooted superstar for the 90's, now.

Meanwhile, Sean Penn had the best of worlds and the worst of worlds. He was praised as a fine actor, Brando-inspired, DeNiro-level and with a real ability to "chameleon" his way into a look for a movie. But he was also known to be difficult and tempermental and..somewhere around this time, Penn swore that he was RETIRING from movies.

Penn had done "Casulaties of War" with DePalma, so DePalma evidently had what it took to lure Penn out of "retirement" to do Carlito's Way. But loyalty only went so far. PACINO got the top of the poster, above the title. Sean Penn had to settle for special billing down below.

Still, fans like us were intrigued: Pacino and Sean Penn together. And LOOK at Penn! The photos that came out before the movie turned the sometimes tough and rugged looking Penn into a smirking half-bald nerd with a Bozo perm and wimpy eyeglasses(even as he was playing a sorta-rich mob lawyer.)

Penn's retirement was short-lived, and a full ten years after Carlito's Way, he would earn a Best Actor Oscar for Mystic River and then a few years later another for "Milk." But soon Penn would fritter that goodwill away, too. He barely works nowadays.

All that taken, I think I just may like Sean Penn best in Carlito's Way than in anything(oh, with the exception of his early comedy triumph as Spicoli.) Penn's got a distinctive look in Carlito, a distinctive voice, and he plays very well with Carlito as the "best friend who is no friend at all."

Still, Penn wasn't big enough in 1993 to get up above the title with the resurgent Pacino.

And that poster stands as evidence.

[–] haberdasherer (88) 6 years ago

One of the reasons that Carlito's Way works so well, and is as resonant as it is, I feel, is that so many of the characters are losers, doomed from the off to end up in a bad place or with a bad deal, either because of self-destructive behaviour (Penn), toxic masculinity (Lequizamo) or being caught in a cycle of crime and recrimination (Pacino). It plays out almost like a Shakespearean tragedy.

There is often a good deal of ego and vanity tied up in how big actors play a character and it's pleasing to see so little of it on display with Pacino and particularly Penn in this movie.

In fact, ego is shown to be the cause of so much of the awfulness on display in the movie.

[–] bigbadwolf666 (4707) 5 years ago

To be honest I never thought Penn was that Oscar worhy. If anything it should be Pacino with three Oscars. They just gave it to Penn, probably for political reasons. I think his best was Sam. Also he is worthy in this role as he is so far from himself but still didnt think his character was all that compared to some. Like Benny Blanco to me was HUGE!