Al Pacino’s Scent of a Woman Remains Current and Relevant even after 20 years

Al Pacino, aged 82, has eight Oscar nominations to his credit. But just one role brought him the Best Actor award. In 1992, he played a remarkable character- the blind, cantankerous and high-spirited army officer Frank Slade in Scent of a Woman. 20 years of looking back at this Pacino film highlights the evergreen appeal that a heartfelt story of friendship can hold. Martin Brest’s film rides on the interaction of two people, not in love nor at war, but joined together by empathy. Before it was commonly done, this film also highlights unresolved challenges of mental health that trauma victims live with.

Scent of A Woman is adapted from the Italian novel Il Buio e Il miele by Giovanni Arpino; and the Italian movie that it inspired, Profumo di Donna (1974). made in 1974. Martin Brest makes this story all American by placing Lt Col Frank Slade and his caretaker Charlie Simms (Chris O Donnell), a young student in a renowned prep school in New York City . What begins as a challenging situation for the young man, Charlie ( played by Chris O’ Donnell) who is saddled with caring for the unpredictable lieutenant colonel Frank Slade leads to an empathetic bond between the two.

The army man is dealing with despondency and bitterness brought on by his blindness. Charlie can help him find a reason to live by sharing his own struggle. He might soon be expelled after a special committee hearing, just as he is about to find colleges and take his first steps towards an independent future, because he isn’t willing to reveal the names of classmates that pulled a nasty prank. His head master has offered him a bribe in the form of a recommendation letter to Harvard if he names the pranksters. To complicate matters, there’s a co- witness, a rich kid George (Philip Seymour Hoffman), who is also ambivalent. Charlie is torn because he doesn’t want to betray his fellow students but he is also scared of expulsion. Charlie’s financial situation, given that he is working as a caretaker to buy an air ticket home, is not the same as Frank’s. Their exploration of New York City, almost a living character in this film, while they talk about their difficulties and conflicts, leads to the film’s applauded climax. Fond of finer things in life, Frank entices a young lady to do the tango with him at a restaurant by identifying her scent, a memorable scene laced with melancholy. It also features one of Pacino’s finest, most effective monologues about the values of loyalty and courage. (Link below)

Having set a benchmark (along with his contemporary, Robert De Niro) in crime dramas, Pacino had more or less stopped counting on winning the Oscar. This drama offered him a chance to go beyond a stereotype while giving him room to deliver his signature booming angry and powerful dialogues. To play Frank Slade, who loses his eye sight after a traumatic incident, he took the assistance of a blind school in New York. An achievement of his performance is the mannerism that he adapts of looking un-focused and away from a person in his vicinity. Characters that have dealt with loss of eyesight or blindness have adapted this form from his performance ever since. To remain in character he walked with a cane on set, and during the filming process, around New York.As the film’s intriguing title indicates, Frank Slade can catch a woman’s perfume, identify it and then woo her; sometimes with conversation and at other times, with a dance. He imagines the woman and her beauty, often getting details wrong. Emphasis on the ’scent’ of a woman directs attention to Frank’s loneliness and despondency; having lost his eyesight, the ‘scent’ of a woman and therefore, a beautiful life, lingers in his memory even as his world is enveloped in darkness. In scenes where he uses bombast to cover up for his desire to commit suicide, Pacino delivers a level of unpredictability and despair that sets his performance apart.

Before Scent of A Woman, Brest had made Midnight Run (1988), an underrated comedy that featured the unique relationship that a kidnapper can develop with his victim. The Al Pacino starrer is a deeper, emotionally engaging exploration of a similar relationship with a moral heart. Pacino was also nominated for Best Supporting Actor for his explosive, frustrated turn as a salesman in Glengarry Glen Ross (1992) in the same year. With Scent of A Woman he brought out his poignant side for the camera.

Before the era of being woke, this film shines a light on the unresolved mental conflict that trauma victims deal with on a daily basis. The tendency of certain individuals to be suicidal or self-destructive emerges from deep-rooted depression, one that their social conditioning forces them to conceal. Frank Slade is irascible, and bombastic, often papering over his gaps in emotion with a Hoo-Ah (a common battle cry for American armed forces). At the back of his mind, his sole aim is to end his life as he simply can’t bear the darkness around him. When he finds Charlie helpless he finds redemption in batting for this younger man, thereby giving him a reason to carry on.

Watching Scent of A Woman will remind one of human values in a universe that revolves around social media, especially at a time when cinema is looking back to the past to make its most effective stories.

(Views expressed in this piece are those of the author, and do not necessarily represent those of OTTplay)

(Written by Archita Kashyap, she has tracked cinema, music, and entertainment for a long time. She loves stories in any format and believes that OTT is the next change-maker that will bring the best stories for everyone.)

Watch Scent of A Woman here.