Scent of a Woman

Scent of a Woman (1992) is probably the best drama movie I’ve seen so far. I never liked a drama movie until I saw this film in 1997, 5 years after the movie was released. I used to think drama movie is a waste of time and really boring especially those in the Oscar list….. and Al Pacino got an Oscar for this movie! So I thought this movie fulfill all the criteria of being a boring one….

I was never aware of the existence of this movie until it was aired on a local TV channel, RCTI, in 1997. It was a Friday night movie, played on 9:30 pm. I was about to go to bed after preparing my books for school on the following day (yes, students still go to school on Saturday that time), and this movie suddenly appeared on TV. I saw Chris O’ Donnell in the opening credit. I saw him before playing Robin in Batman Forever and Batman and Robin, so I thought I’d just see his older movies for a few minutes. I was never attracted to any Al Pacino’s movies, so I did not care that he was in it.

Planning on watching it for just 15 minutes, I was dragged by the story and watched it for 2 hours! The point that I decided to stay on watching was the scene when Chris O’Donnell met Al Pacino for the first time. Al Pacino, as a visually impaired retired lieutenant colonel, has a very unusual personality and character that I’ve never seen in any other movies. His character has negative aura that make me dislike him, very rude, without manner. On the other hand, Chris O’Donnell, who was a high-ego superhero as Robin, is the other way around. Chris is very low profile, subtle, well mannered, and as the temporary caretaker for Al Pacino, he seems awkward and confused dealing with this retired colonel who always screams out loud when he speaks.

I never watched Al Pacino in his other movies at that time, I never watched Godfather. So, seeing him for the first time in this role was something refreshing for me. I kept watching this movie because I was interested in how the two characters deal and communicate with each other. The story got more interesting when Pacino took O’Donnell to New York without any preparation and he just followed the lieutenant not knowing what was going to happen. Interestingly, what is supposed to be O’Donnell taking care of Al Pacino became otherwise, Al Pacino is actually the one guiding O’Donnell, his caretaker, in a philosophical way.

O’ Donnell character is interesting; he had to overcome two problems. First, dealing with this “don’t know how to handle” lieutenant, and he has his own problem with friends in his school, whether to report them to principal for their misbehaved conduct or being expelled from school. As he accompanies the lieutenant, he’s also struggling with his own personal problem. As the story goes, the lieutenant, who’s been giving O’Donnell nothing but trouble, somehow becomes a father figure to O’Donnell. The lieutenant has this hidden wisdom that he sees O’Donnell personal problem from a different view.

The film ends greatly in an unexpected way, Al Pacino delivered great speech, this is one of the best speeches I’ve ever seen. Speeches are usually delivered in sport movies as the coach motivates his men, somehow it has become generic. The speech given here is even more powerful than those. Later after I saw the movie, I searched on internet to know exactly the word by word in English.

This is one of great lines in the film during Al Pacino’s court speech:

“There was a time I could see. And I have seen, boys like these, younger than these, their arms torn out, their legs ripped off. But there is nothing like the sight of an amputated spirit. There is no prosthetic for that!!”

Scene of Al Pacino's speech:

In addition, there's a scene where Al Pacino wanted to tango with a young lady. His visually impaired condition did not stop him from dancing!

The scene where Al Pacino does Tango with Gabrielle Anwar is one of the most memorable scene I’ve ever seen.