On Saturday Marcia and I watched “Scarecrow” starring Gene Hackman and Al Pacino. (Yes, our “Pacino-Fest” is nearing it’s end … still need to watch “Serpico”.)
The movie was done in 1973, between Pacino’s appearances in the first two part of “The Godfather”. It follows Max (Hackman) and Frances, aka Lion (Pacino) as two drifters thumbing their way from the western US to Pittsburgh and Detroit. Max has money in Pittsburgh to start a car wash after serving six years in jail, and Lion is heading to Detroit to see the child he has never met after spending five years at sea. They decide to team up, even going as far as being partners in the car washing business, but in Denver, while visiting Coley (Max’s friend or sister), they end up facing an event that tests their friendship.
Marcia and I joke around, thanks to MST3K’s comments about Hackman, that “he is good in anything.” Since we have been on this Pacino kick, even though we never heard of the movie, we wanted to give it a try. It wasn’t the best way to spend a Saturday afternoon, but could have been worse.
One plus is not having the typical happy Hollywood ending. Another interesting aspect was watching Pacino not be Pacino. His character, at times, is downright goofy.
The story as a whole wasn’t bad. It became character studies in most respects. Both did pretty good. It’s not like Hackman and Pacino (especially back then) weren’t good actors. But I can see why this didn’t attract the attention they had hoped.
One shocking revelation was seeing the scenes in Detroit were actually filmed in Detroit. There is a great shot of the actors jumping out of a box car near the old train station. And the big scene of Pacino traipsing through the James Scott Memorial Fountain on Belle Isle. Those could have easily been filmed elsewhere.
June 25th, 2008 at 7:03 pm
Just had to say that Gene Hackman “is good in ANYTHING”
Even the “Lowes” commercials.
The movie did get better towards the end. It was interesting (and kind of amusing) that it was Hackman’s character that was the one that was rougher and cursing more, rather than Pacino.