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Al Pacino voted Greatest Film Star of All Time. (1 Viewer)

Joshua_Y

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Well...Pacino is definately in my top 5...but I think Nicholson should be #1...never given a bad performance ever...and same can be said for Pacino...
 

Morgan Jolley

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I have to second Meryl Streep. I haven't seen many movies with her in them, but in each one she comes off as a REAL person, not an actor. Pacino and De Niro are also able to do that extremely well. As is Jack Nicholson.
 

Seth Paxton

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Well, Steve, I agree with your points, but then what it makes me think is why even bother asking those people for an "All-Time" list if they aren't capable of it.

I mean Chaplin and Bogart at the very least have to be there because they are so hugely iconic at this point. Okay, Monroe left off for less acting ability, Dean left off for too few films, some of the others left off for not being movie star types (great actors but a bit less timelessly iconic), fine.

But Chaplin and Bogart fit every requirement, popular, iconic, great actors, box office draws, classic hit films. It's not like people of today don't at least know about Casablanca. In fact I would expect more people to know Bogart than Audrey Hepburn or Cary Grant.


But its not scientific nor based in any kind of decent reasoning, so anger is certainly not called for. More like a "blah" response I guess. :)
 

Cary T

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Nevermind the Ewan McGregor, Samuel L. Jackson, and Brad Pitt being on the list. What the hell is Robin Williams doing here. I think Williams created this list on his own and slip himself at #19 unnoticed. Good one Mr. Williams, your best joke yet :laugh:
 

John^Lal

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yes, many omissions :frowning: thats what happens when you get something voted on by any random movie viewer, whether they are pop culture film viewers of film buffs like many of us. should be called "the most popular actors of all-time" because it has plenty of credit for that
 

John^Lal

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in defense of Brad Pitt, he is one of my favorite actors right now (as in currently acting) and think that he should have won for his role in 12 monkeys.
 

Matt<>Broon

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Well I think pretty much everything that needs to be said has been here.. It's a good indication of who is currently popular but little interest beyond that.

It was also based on a mere 25,000 votes which is the tiniest proportion of people even on a small island like the UK.

It's the same with film of course, if you ask directors, cinematographers or 'film as art' buffs what the best films of all time are you get a radically different list to the one you'll get if you ask the average guy in the street. I didn't see Ordet or 8 1/2 in top 100 film list CH4 did, yet many people will tell you that these are nearly unsurpassed classics.
 

JonZ

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I like Pacinos 70s work.
I love Scarface and Carlitos Way but havent been impressed with much else in the past decade or so.

I guess these guys never saw Devils Advocate - talk about overracting, I found it unwatchable.

Orson Welles and/or Toshiro Mifune deserve the top spot IMHO
 

Alex-C

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whoa...whoa...whoa, Pacino beat out Andrew McCarthy, Jason Bateman, Ralph Macchio and Elizabeth Berkeley ????

where was this vote held...Broward County, Florida ????
 

JakeMcM

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I wouldn't be too upset guys, its more or less a poll, not an actual award, or something that encompasses more people, or places. Personally though I don't mind seeing young actors on all time lists if they are truly talented, I think sometimes that people in generally (me included) get overly nostalgic about actors and films when it comes to ranking them. An unbelievable film takes many, many years to climb the ranks because of this. I mean some films and actors were great in their times, ahead of their times, stars, and icons but it doesn't mean that they are unbeatable or untouchable by films/actors in the present or not to distant past.
 

Lew Crippen

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Leaving out completetly my view of who was omitted that should have been on the list and who was on that should not have been, what I find to be the most striking omission on the list are female actors in general.

Only two women? And none at all in the top 10—just one entry at #13 and one at #20.

This imbalance alone is enough to invalidate the poll, imo.
 

Steve Christou

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Come on Lew your wife prob put you up to posting that eh, she holding a rolling pin in her hand? I kid I kid.:D

It's a perfectly valid very important poll, wink wink, I'm just miffed that Vin Diesel has been left out, ain't nobody seen Fast and the Furious or XXX??

btw A similar poll conducted last year by the same company came up with The Empire Strikes Back as the greatest film in history, is true, take that mister Citizen Kane! :p)
 

Jay E

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That list gave me a good laugh! We all know that cinema started with Star Wars.
 

Steve Christou

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For those who love lists (like moi) here is the top 20 greatest movies of all time as polled by Channel 4 last year.

1) Star Wars (1977) / The Empire Strikes Back (1980)
2) The Godfather (1972) / The Godfather P.II (1974)
3) The Shawshank Redemption (1994)
4) Pulp Fiction (1994)
5) Some Like it Hot (1959)
6) Gladiator (2000)
7) It's a Wonderful Life (1946)
8) Blade Runner (1982)
9) Schindler's List (1993)
10) Goodfellas (1990)

11) Psycho (1960)
12) Jaws (1975)
13) Apocalypse Now (1979)
14) One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
15) The Matrix (1999)
16) Casablanca (1942)
17) The Usual Suspects (1995)
18) Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon (2000)
19) Citizen Kane (1941)
20) Raging Bull (1980)
 

Mark Leiter

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Please forgive the length. Sometimes I just don't know when to shut-up and my editor has the night off. :)

I belive this list is the way it is for the same reason that when a "random pole" was conducted asking who was the greatest President was (of the USA), Bill Clinton and GW Bush ranked 3rd and 4th (i won't say which) right behind Lincoln and Washington. If somebody at the mall suddenly shoves a mic in your face and asks you some out-of-the-blue question. Most people will pretty much spit out the first actor (or president) they can name off the top of their head. I would suggest that if these same people were given that same question making sure they understood there was a difference between "the best" and "their favorite" actor and given reasonable time to think about their answer. I believe the result would have included some of the great names mentioned already.

One person I would have mentioned and whom I have a lot of respect for is Sir Laurence Olivier. His reputed feat of having performed the title role in Hamlet on stage thousands of times to me remains the greatest of acting achievements.

I have been blessed with a very limited opportunity to be on stage one night I was watching Tom Hanks on “Inside the Actors Studio”, one thing he said really struck me. It went something like this; in film, everything the audience sees is all about the director and the editor, the actor has a relatively reduced role. When a movie is being made a director will instruct his actors to perform a scene (generally out of sequence) over and over. Then weeks after the entire shoot he will go through with his editor and pick the one shot they like best. The scene itself is just an illusion. Spliced together from many different takes long after the Actors have done their job and have left heading off to their next project. But, when a theatrical production is being put on you still have the director giving you great guidance, there is still a stage manager, lighting technicians, sound tech etc… and there are still hours upon hours of rehearsals( where the real creativity takes place) to go through. But in the end of all that preparation on opening night, the only one left is the actor. And it is the actors’ responsibility to make sure everything goes right. And if it doesn’t (which happens every time) it is the actors’ responsibility to make sure the audience never knows.

That is why I have an enormous respect for names like Kevin Spacey, John Cusack and Nathan Lane. Because they have well known names they don’t have to work the stage but they chose to, at great finanical risk, working there anyway. That to me is something worth respecting.

Getting back to the discussion at hand brings to mind a much more comllicated question. How do you judge art? And in the same context. How would you then judge the artist? How can that possible be even fair? I think one can say they like this movie or that one. But in the end its un-fair to add either a good or bad label to an artist that made it. Not to mention the fact that there would have been hundreds of professionals involed in the making of such a film.

But, even putting all that aside. There is just too much luck involved in which actor "makes" it and which dosen't. I’ve yet to hear a single Actor that admitted he made it because of a sound business plan. To me it belittles the thousands of other actors out there that strive their entire lives to perfect their craft. With no hope of ever reaping any substantial rewards. They do it for no other reason than that they have to. Most would do it for free and be glad for it. There are hundreds of them in every city. One has to just go out to the local civic theatre or 501c3 and see some real creativity. I would say I have the most respect for those individuals. The true artists.
 

Lew Crippen

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Come on Lew your wife prob put you up to posting that eh, she holding a rolling pin in her hand?
:laugh:


Actually I really love to see the results of polls like this. This really just demonstrates that the Poms are as culturally challenged as ourselves.
 

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