I agree with that completely. Dog day afternoon is one of my favorite pacino performances if not my favorite. But people really only know him as Michael corleone rather than sonny wortzik it seems. I always thought de niro was great in midnight run, the fan, cape fear and deer hunter too. Pacino was also great in Carlito's way. I thought De Niro was great in his new movie silver linings playbook too. I think he won the oscar for it but I'm not sure. I know he was at least nominated. I felt he should've won. But De Niro was also extremely versatile as an actor. Some other actors I feel that are great are jack Nicholson, Denzel Washington, marlon Brando and so on. I think Jonny Depp is really something special. He can play pretty much any role at a high level.
What people, you? I think you're either underrating Pacino or overrating Deniro. I completely agree with you on Deniro i prefer him too , but can you point towards his versatility compared to Pacino?
In all honesty i wouldn't say either are incredibly versatile. Not many actors are. My favourite actor ever, Humphrey Bogart played more or less the same character in every movie.
One versatile actor that popped into my mind right away was Gary Oldman, Sid Vicious, Leon villain, Dracula, Beethoven, Commissioner Gordon,etc.
