The one actor Al Pacino and Robert De Niro agree is the greatest of all time: “A force unto himself”
While there’s no consensus answer on which actor can be definitively called the greatest of all time, any debate isn’t worth having, and no list is worth the paper it’s printed on, unless both Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are included.
Plenty of performers are in with a shout at being considered the ultimate cream of the crop, but never have more contenders and pretenders emerged at the same time than during the ‘New Hollywood’ era, which marked the breakthrough period for more all-time greats than any other era in cinema history.
Beyond De Niro and Pacino, there’s Jack Nicholson, Gene Hackman, Dustin Hoffman, Anthony Hopkins, Paul Newman, Michael Caine, Paul Newman, Robert Duvall, and many more, all of whom rose to prominence in either the 1960s or 1970s, and they’ve all got at least one Academy Award, a handful of classic films, and are considered among the best to ever do it.
Between the two Godfather stars alone, they’re responsible for many of American cinema’s most unforgettable and iconic performances, ranging from their work as Corleone family members in Francis Ford Coppola’s first two seminal gangster epics, Taxi Driver, Serpico, Raging Bull, Dog Day Afternoon, and their long-awaited and decades-in-the-making confrontation in Michael Mann’s Heat.
There’s also the small matter of a combined three Oscars from 18 nominations, five Golden Globes from 30 nods, and the rest of the accolades they’ve gathered during their legendary careers. With that in mind, if Al Pacino and Robert De Niro are willing to go out on a limb and name one actor as the greatest ever, then how could two icons possibly be wrong?
You might have an inkling of where this is heading, and if you did, congratulations; you’re right, and it is indeed Marlon Brando. Of course, they’re far from the only pair of powerhouse performers to think so, with the method man stating a stronger claim than most in the ‘best of all time’ stakes, and De Niro was adamant that there was nobody who could hold a candle to the man who changed acting forever.
Martin Scorsese’s original muse called him “a force unto himself,” suggesting that nobody could come close to doing what Brando did: “He was in his own orbit.” It wasn’t until 2001’s The Score that they finally worked together, despite both winning Oscars for playing the same character, and even though the On the Waterfront icon was up to his usual disruptive tricks, De Niro got to work with his hero.
As for Pacino, his first encounter with his fictional father was typically bizarre, since Brando was sitting in a hospital bed eating chicken stew, which he’d somehow managed to spill everywhere, to the extent that his hands were covered in the stuff. Still, since he was such an admirer, he was nonetheless terrified at coming face to face with the man he called “the greatest living actor” of his time, and a “larger than life” personality.
It’s hardly breaking from tradition or deviating from the norm for an actor to call Brando the pinnacle, but if he’s De Niro and Pacino’s shared pick, then maybe he is.
