4/7/2023 0 Comments Pacino patterno"Paterno," it should be noted, is assiduously disinterested in Sandusky as a character (the actor who plays him, Jim Johnson, has next to no lines), perhaps wisely sensing that the movie is already difficult enough to watch as it is. These days, anyone but his most loyal fans will more likely equate the late Paterno's name with the arrest of his longtime assistant coach Jerry Sandusky, who was charged with dozens of counts of sexual abuse of boys in the 1990s and 2000s - and is now serving 30 to 60 years in prison. Paterno, more lovingly referred to as "Joe Pa," coached the Nittany Lions for more than six decades, with 45 years as head coach and a record number of wins. Richards' screenplay winnows the story down almost entirely to the perspective of the title character and the swiftness with which his revered status vanished. Not so coincidentally, all three women also serve as rare voices of reason in a testosterone-induced world of college sports and perfect records.Debora Cahn and John C. Riley Keough, Kathy Baker and Annie Parisse deliver strong performances as Ganim, Joe’s wife, Sue, and his daughter Mary Kay respectively. Unfortunately, no amount of makeup or prosthetic noses can hold Pacino back for long, and his growl is so loud sometimes that it overpowers the vision of the wounded god Paterno became. In spite of these flashes of brilliance, or maybe because of them, Pacino can’t help being Pacino, and there are times when he is indistinguishable from the character. He barks at his family and advisors to stop talking about him like he’s not there, and in a rare moment of humor shouts “put me in the ground.” In a game against Nebraska, the first match up that occurred after the university pink-slipped Paterno, he is masterfully shown grappling with the rage of his exclusion and his guilt and shame all without dialogue. In a few inspired scenes, Pacino is stunningly convincing as a shuffling Paterno roaming around the house in pajamas trying unsuccessfully to control his fate. The latter focused on the odd relationship between the music producer and his lawyer Jennifer Lee Barringer (Helen Mirren) while he was on trial for murder.īut where Pacino slipped into both portrayals with the help of wigs and wacky accents, he is less at ease with his take on Joe Pa, delivering a performance of a man just as uneven as the film it is named after. Pumped by all the buzz that small-screen flick received, Levinson and Pacino reconnected for “Phil Spector” (2013). The first time earned Pacino an Emmy and a Golden Globe for his performance as well-known euthanasia practitioner Jack Kevorkian in “You Don’t Know Jack” (2010). This is the third time Levinson and Pacino have teamed up for HBO to spin real-life antihero tales. The end result is a film that clumsily tries to sympathize with Paterno instead of the young boys he chose to ignore until it was too late. Ganim’s role as a consultant on the film may have mucked up the process even more. Unsure if he wants to focus more on Paterno or newspaper journalist Sara Ganim - the reporter who broke the Sandusky story - Levinson constantly switches his gaze from one to the other. Instead what viewers get is director Barry Levinson’s well-intended but paroxysmal journey into legendary college football coach Joe Paterno’s fall from grace, fired by Penn State for his role in the Jerry Sandusky abuse scandal. He’s had an advantageous working relationship with star Al Pacino on both “Scarface” and “Carlito’s Way.” In his hands, the film could have been a “King Lear”-level tragedy about a sports legend whose singular focus led to his downfall. Watching HBO Films’ latest snatched-from-the-headlines project, “ Paterno,” one can’t help but wonder how different it might have been had Brian De Palma directed it.
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