Actors and Acting Styles

Actors and Acting Styles:                                                                                                                                                                               There are many elements that contribute to the creation of a great film. All great films normally have in a great director, a great script, and most importantly great actors. Today we will examine the work of three brilliant actors so that we can determine their acting style. James Caan is one of the co-stars of  Francis Ford Coppla’s 1972 hit film “The Godfather”. In the movie Caan played the oldest son (Sonny) of the Corleone crime family boo, Don Vito Corleone. His hot temper and emotion filled decision making would be his undoing fairly early in the film, however, not before the movie goers got the chance to see what kind of man that Sonny was. The character Sonny was a man’s man, he was violent, reckless, and very hot tempered. However I was also very protecting as scene in this clip (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OEhiTHJ0EA) (Pinto, 2012) where he is consoling his sister after she was beaten by her husband,  in the next scene you see him beating the man, telling him that he would kill him if he ever hit his sister again. James Caan in my opinion is a personality type actor. Mr. Caan always seems to portray the same type of characters. The roles he picks are usually a tough guy, no nonsense type of characters. In the TV show “Los Vegas” Caan played a security director of a casino. Every week he was dealing with some crazy guest, or having to beat down some cheating gambler. Al Pachino is another exceptional actor who would seem to be a personality type of actor. His role as Michael in the godfather film showed a calm, cool, and collected man who was smart and very violent. This can be said of most of his other roles that he has played. In Scarface he played a smart Cocaine dealer that kills any and every one that gets in his way. Mr. Pachino has even played the role as the devil in the film called the “Devil’s Advocate”. I this film the same calm control and violence was seen in the film. Robert Duvall can be labeled as personality actor as well; however our Couse book has him listed as a character actor. The book defines character actors as “actors that able tofit invisibly into a wide variety of disparate characters, adapting to the needs of each script and    director they work with”. (Goodykoontz & Jacobs, 2011)                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Pinto, R. (2012) The Godfather – Pelea Sonny Coreone y Carlo Rizzi. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OEhiTHJ0EA                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  Goodykoontz, B. Jacobs, C.P. (2011) Film; From Watching to Seeing. Bridgepoint Education Inc. San Deigo, CA