SCENT OF A WOMAN

Scent of a woman  December 23 1992

★★★★★

Director: Martin Brest
Writer: Martin Brest
Music: Thomas Newman

Cast: Al Pacino, Chris O` Donnell, James Rebhorn

Running time: 156 minutes

This movie is about preparatory school student who takes a job as an assistant to an irascible, blind, medically retired Army officer. Charlie is a student at exclusive New England prep school unlike most of his peers, he wasn’t born to a wealthy family. To pay for a flight home to Oregon for Christmas, he accepts a temporary job looking after retired Army officer, whom Charlie discovers to be a cantankerous, blind alcoholic. Slade (Army officer) and Charlie have a trip to New York City. They both enjoy luxurious accommodations and dinner in New York. Slade spend all his money for trip because he planned to suicide after using all his money, but Charlie does not know if Slade is serious. Finally Slade try to suicide and Charlie save him. They enter a tense argument, but Slade backs down. They come back to England and Slade help Charlie having problem at school.

The primary reason I give five stars is Al Pacino and his character ‘Slade’. After this movie Al Pacino won an Oscar for Best Actor for his outstanding performance as Frank Slade. His acting is grand, deep and emotional. Also it shows gloomy character ‘Slade’ perfectly. My favorite part of this movie is the tango scene. I watched this movie 3 times so far. First time was when I was 15 years old and at that time I couldn’t feel anything special of this movie. However, through the tango scene, I can see Slade acts as though he doesn’t want to be treated as the proverbial blind man who needs a cane. Slade’s personality is expressed well through his tango.

This movie is a modern classic. Some find it too long, but I enjoyed every minute and didn’t actually notice 2 and half hours gone by.