i was watching scarface yesterday with my spanish friend. i kept telling her how good pacino was in the movie, and how i think he pulled off the accient reasonably well. my friend on the other hand thought that it was pacino's worst perfomance. and that his accent was awful. my friend is not cuban, my friend is ecuadorian. but my friend says she knows cuban accents and that it was really off. what do you guys think?

Well i have heard a lot of back and forth with that some of my friends fell like your friend but i think he did a great job for someone who is not cuban.

I also think it was a great perormance,who else could have played that role better than pacino.

That is expected though. I think anytime you see someone portraying something they are not, but you are- you will see it as bad.

The guy was great in the part and for the most part had the accent down pat!


Don Cardi

I thought it was his best performance. The accent, his manerisms, and everything about him I just thought was so authentic. No matter how many times I watch it, I still have to convince myself that that's Al Pacino up there.

Yes, I agree. It's funny that you should put it that way. Earlier I was watching Frankie and Johnny and I was thinking of all of Pacino's movies and what roles was he really the most convincing, where you actually had to remind yourself that it was Al Pacino. Scarface is most definately one of them.

Don Cardi

wasnt tonys dad an american?it may have affected his accent but thats just something al pacino would say to someone who asked.

It's not that tough to compare Tony's accent to a real Cuban one... You don't have to personally know a Cuban, yourself. Desi Arnaz was Cuban, there's your example of the authentic accent right there. Granted, he'd been in America longer than Tony had, but that's the gist of it.

I think Pacino did a pretty good job. He slipped at some parts, but all in all, it was good.

Well asking for the authenticity of a Cuban accent from an Ecudorian is like a Georgian critiqing a Virginian accent. LIKE THEY WOULD KNOW.

Yes, like Latin America, southern accents are very different and individualistic unique(lol) compared to each other.

From Cuban accents I've heard here and there, Pacino's acting, mannerisms, accent, etc. are spot on.

There are different accents among different areas within a given country. If you're from one city or region you may have a different accent than someone from another city or region. It's noteworthy that Cubans that arrived in the U.S. after Mariel (1980 onwards) not only speak Spanish different than the Cubans from the original migration wave (circa 1960-1966), but some also even look a different "type." So many people left that unfortunate country that even the traditional ethnic mix was altered and the culture itself was affected accordingly. Pacino's take on the "Cuban" accent is just as valid as Robert Duvall's Cuban accent in "Wrestling with Ernest Hemingway," which, by the way, is another fine performance.

after scarface he never lost his accent.
in donnie brasco he had it.

Where did he slip exactly? in your opinion that is?

A Lot of latinos were mad because some Italian
was playing a cuban

They were also mad b/c they felt that the movie was showing Cubans in a negative light

They should be proud of scarface, cubans I mean, it would be great to have your ethnicity attached to such a classic film.

Tell that to the English after Braveheart & The Patroit, or even more recently with Jews after The Passion of the Christ

It's true a lot of Cubans did not like Scarface because they felt it gave Cubans a bad name . The story is about a drug dealer that did what ever he had to to get to the top. and don't get me wrong I love the movie it's a classic but I can see how people would be bothered by this movie. rember in the movie his own mother tells him " It's cubans like you the give a bad name to our people"

Pacino slipped at the part were he tells elvira, "I want you to be the mother of my children." You can clearly tell he had no accent whatsoever. If you own the movie watch that part and tell me what u think.

Intenzo, yes that is very true. But by the same token should Italians be mad at Godfather or Goodfella's movies? Italians can also claim that those movies give them a bad name, and many have in the past. Should Jewish people be mad at Once Upon A Time in America? Should the Irish be mad at Sleepers? I think that it is ridiculous when an ethnic group gets mad about the portrayal in these kinds of movies. That is exactly what they are, movies! All groups in this world have bad apples amongst them, but that does not mean that ALL of those people from the ethnic groups are what they are portrayed as!

Don Cardi

Not to mention that with the exceptions(like former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, but he lost to George Pataki so ya whatever ) here and there, Italian-Americans apparently dig movies like the first two THE GODFATHER films and GOODFELLAS.....you know, because they are good movies

Why should someone get angry about a movie or tv series? Cant people just sit down and enjoy a movie for what it is?

It woz a bit tricky 4 me 2 get wot he woz saying because if the action but now coz ive seen it so many time it so much easier to understand him

It woz a bit tricky 4 me 2 get wot u woz saying because if the spelling but now coz ive read tha post so many time it so much easier to understand it

That's a good question DS. I'm Polish-Irish and I just can't comprehend getting offended by things like this. I like "dumb polock" jokes, I think they're funny. I like gangster movies with Irish people in them. There's nothing wrong with it. It's not a judgement of the entire culure (well, I guess the jokes are but they're harmless), it's just the portrayal of on Irishman, or Italian, or Cuban, etc. doing bad things. It's an entertaining movie, end of story for me.

I thought the accent was good. One of my friends always though Pacino was cuban.