
"Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in."
"Say hello to my l'il friend!"
"This entire courtroom is out of order!"
Very few actors have uttered, or shouted, as many quotable movie lines as Al Pacino.
An icon of cinema, one who helped redefine the American movie and bust the archetype of the leading man, Al Pacino's long, storied career has crackled with both intensity and charisma. Whether he's a cop, a crook, or a combination of the two, Pacino has always delivered powerhouse performances, bellowing lines with incredible quotable gusto.
A "G" short of an EGOT, Pacino's landmark work in the '70s made him an acclaimed household name, one that allowed him to remain at the top of his game, and at the peak of Hollywood royalty, for decades. The Godfather, Dog Day Afternoon, Heat, Donnie Brasco - Pacino is the perfect combination of subdued and wild. Calm and explosive.
We've compiled a short list of Al Pacino's 10 Best Movies, from Mafia bosses to compromised detectives to short-tempered Army vets to... Carlitos? It keeps us sharp, on the edge, where we gotta be.
Honorable Mention: Dick Tracy (1990)

Warren Beatty's bizarre passion project -- a wildly colorful live-action adaptation of 1930s comic strip Dick Tracy -- has gained a retro-appreciation over the past few decades, becoming a bit of a cult classic (for a large-budgeted IP grab). It didn't quite crack this list but we wanted to shine a spotlight on it for Pacino, who isn't usually one for comedy. Pacino grabbed his seventh Oscar nomination for his mirthfully manic portrayal of crime boss "Big Boy" Caprice. The actor was able to chew up the scenery in a different way, cartoonishly poking fun at his cold, calculating Godfather persona while going in a vastly different direction.
10. Carlito's Way (1993)

Between the two violent Brian De Palma crime operas where Al Pacino plays a latino, we're going with Carlito's Way.
Sure, there are plenty of Scarface lovers out there. Spencer Gifts is still in business for a reason. But Carlito's Way is the better film choice, following Pacino's Puerto Rican career criminal trying to escape his past after getting released from prison. Carlito's quest to tie up loose ends and skip town becomes a ticking-clock odyssey that's suspenseful and emotional, allowing Pacino to play a tough guy who's out of time. The '90s gave us Pacino in roles of redemption, crooks (even an aged Michael Corleone!) trying to get right and repent. Carlito's Way was the most stylish of the bunch, with some amazing De Palma set pieces. Sean Penn, Penelope Ann Miller, and John Leguizamo co-star.
9. Scent of a Woman (1992)

Al Pacino finally took home an Oscar -- after nine nominations over the course of 20 years -- for Martin Brest's Scent of a Woman, in a performance that would become a go-to for all Al Pacino impersonators in the decades following.
As the irritable, blind Army lieutenant colonel Frank Slade, Pacino's acting style would dial upwards, developing into an abrupt, occasionally over-the-top take on his usual trademark ferocity. This specific type of bellowing would follow him through the rest of his career, notably showing up in movies like Heat, The Devil's Advocate, and Any Given Sunday. Pacino had always been a formidable yeller, but Scent of a Woman took things to a whole new level.
Paired with Chris O'Donnell's anxious prep school student, Charlie, Frank becomes a whirlwind in the young man's life, giving him lessons in confidence, respect, and love. All with an errant "hoo-ah" or two.
8. The Insider (1999)

Pacino re-teamed with Heat's Michael Mann for the biographical conspiracy The Insider, about Big Tobacco whistleblower Jeffrey Wigand (Russell Crowe). The actor would play tenacious CBS producer Lowell Bergman in this universally acclaimed '90s flick that's equal parts absorbing and infuriating. Pacino gives a dynamite performance as a dogged crusader for justice, a blinding beacon of speaking truth to power. It's not just one of Pacino's best, but also one of Mann's, as the two seem to bring out the best in each other. The Insider cleaned up at the Oscars on the nominations front, but it got beat out in the major categories by American Beauty. Still, it stands as the better film, then and now.
7. Insomnia (2002)

Al Pacino and Christopher Nolan collaborated only once, for Nolan's only film remake (adapting the 1997 Norwegian film of the same name, starring Stellan Skarsgård), but it was a masterful retelling, with Pacino leaning in on a morally compromised cop facing his demons while working an out of town case in the sun-never-sets city of Nightmute, Alaska. Insomnia pits Pacino' sleep-deprived detective Will Dormer against a blackmailing killer played by Robin Williams (who does tremendous work as well) and it's a cat and mouse game that could bring Dormer's entire world down around him. It's an Oscar-winners trifecta, as Hilary Swank also co-stars. This was Nolan's first jump to studio filmmaking (and his first for Warner Bros.) and Pacino delivered a career best.
6. Serpico (1973)

Al Pacino followed up his star-making role in The Godfather with Sidney Lumet's classic cop vs. corruption case, based on NYPD detective Frank Serpico's real life whistleblowing on his dirty racketeering peers.
A critical and commercial success, Serpico won Pacino a Golden Globe and cemented him as one of his generation's most talented performers. Gritty and thought-provoking, Serpico is teeming with social realism, all anchored by Pacino and his riveting achievement as a cop on the edge, obsessed with putting things right.
5. Donnie Brasco (1997)

Featuring an excellent, subdued performance by Al Pacino as aging bagman "Lefty" Ruggiero, Mike Newell's Donnie Brasco is a nuanced portrait of organized crime. Based on the real life exploits of undercover FBI Agent Joe Pistone (Johnny Depp), the film resists most gangster cliches and instead shows us a flailing Pistone, drowning under the pressure of living two lives, and a hopeful Lefty, who sees this new "Donnie Brasco" kid as his ticket back into a higher rung on the ladder.
The two form an unlikely, and doomed, friendship while Pacino proves that he can dial it back and break your heart with a stealthily graceful performance. In fact both leads, known for going over the top, play it rare and real here.
4. Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

Al Pacino's run of films in the early 1970s is a thing of beauty. He followed up The Godfather Part II, re-teaming with director Sidney Lumet, with the brilliant, bravura Dog Day Afternoon. Chronicling the real-life Brooklyn robbery and hostage situation led by John Wojtowicz and Salvatore Naturile in 1972, Dog Day Afternoon is an erratic, emotional gut-punch of a movie with a quirky sense of humor. Pacino is a roller coaster of energy and panic, giving an outstanding performance that would stand in stark contrast to his reserved machinations in The Godfather movies. Dog Day Afternoon is dramatic, slapstick, and revelatory all in one crazed package.
3. The Godfather (1972)

With Francis Ford Coppola's The Godfather, Al Pacino became an instant movie star, with the film itself becoming one of the most acclaimed and important genre-defining films in history. It redefined the modern gangster movie and the templates and tropes established within its near three-hour runtime are still used today. Easily transcending both crime stories and family dramas, The Godfather is a captivating, brutal chronicle of American life featuring Pacino's slow burn transformation from reluctant family outsider to full-fledged Mafia boss.
A true sensation when it opened, The Godfather garnered Pacino his first Oscar nomination and a fast track to stardom. Young Michael Corleone was never supposed to inherit the family business from patriarch Vito and it's that abhorrent ascension that creates an unquestionably great saga.
2. Heat (1995)

Though both Al Pacino and his exceptional contemporary Robert De Niro were both in The Godfather Part II, it took Michael Mann's Heat to bring them together. Even if it was just for one memorable clarification-slash-confrontation.
The story of a hero cop too obsessed with catching crooks to hold down a decent home life and a master thief who's starts realizing, perhaps too late, the value of love and interpersonal connection, Heat is a hypnotic, action-packed journey into the hearts and minds of tough guys driven by codes, honor, revenge, and other masculine intangibles that prevent them from achieving true happiness. Pacino, as LAPD Lieutenant Vincent Hanna, is a pit bull of explosive energy, refusing to let up in any aspect of his professional career. Especially when he's pitted against heist-master Neil McCauley (De Niro). Heat is a phenomenal watch with a talented ensemble. Val Kilmer, Tom Sizemore, Amy Brenneman, and Diane Venora also star.
1. The Godfather Part II (1974)

We've arrived at yet another bonafide masterpiece of cinema here with The Godfather Part II. There's some debate, among FatherFans, over which of the first two Godfather films is the best, but Part II is usually seen as a fuller film experience, with Pacino's Michael Corleone now in absolute control of his crime empire while having to still deal with violence, betrayal, and heartbreak. He's a man pressured to act and yet haunted by his choices, forever with his immortal soul in peril. Heavy is the head that wears the crown, and Pacino lets us feel it all here.
One of the greatest American movies ever made, and a prime example of how a sequel (that's also part-prequel) can match, or surpass, the original, The Godfather Part II is a pioneering triumph that stands as Al Pacino's greatest film.
What is your favorite Al Pacino movie? Did we list it? Did we leave it out? Vote in our poll and let's talk below! Hoo-ah!