Scent of a Woman
Encyclopedia : S : SC : SCE : Scent of a Woman
Scent of a Woman is a 1992 film which tells the story of a preparatory school student who takes a job as an assistant to an irascible blind, medically retired Army officer. It stars Al Pacino, Chris O'Donnell, James Rebhorn, Gabrielle Anwar, and Philip Seymour Hoffman.
The movie was adapted by Bo Goldman from the novel Il Buio E Il Miele ("Darkness and Honey") by Giovanni Arpino and from the 1974 screenplay for the movie Profumo Di Donna by Ruggero Maccari and Dino Risi. It was directed by Martin Brest.
It won the Academy Award for Best Actor (Al Pacino) and was nominated for Best Director, Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay.
Portions of the movie were filmed on location at the Emma Willard School in Troy, N.Y.
Plot
The film revolves around Charlie Simms (Chris O'Donnell), a student at a private preparatory school, who comes from a poor family. To earn the money for his flight home for Christmas, Charlie takes a job over Thanksgiving looking after retired Army officer Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade (Al Pacino), who is now blind. Slade decides to visit New York City and enlists the help of Charlie Simms to lead him on the trip. Whilst Charlie is leading Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade through New York, he is facing a very big problem at school. Fellow students have played a prank on the school principal, and only Charlie and George Willis Jr. (Philip Seymour Hoffman) know the identity of the culprits. As Willis claims that his poor eyesight prevents him from coming forward, the headmaster threatens to expel Charlie if he does not identify those who committed the prank.Slade takes Charlie around New York. After eating at a fancy restaurant with $24.00 hamburgers (the Oak Room), Slade visits his relatives, where Charlie learns how Slade lost his sight. It is at this point in the film that Colonel Slade reveals the real reason for his trip to New York: to eat at an expensive restaurant, stay at an amazing hotel, sleep with a beautiful woman, and then commit suicide. Later, the sly Colonel tangos with a girl, and drives a Ferrari, with a very nervous and worried Charlie tagging along. Charlie is a good person at heart, refusing to rat out his classmates over a prank, taking pity on Colonel Slade, and sticking by his side through thick and thin. Charlie's loyalty is not lost on the Colonel. Indeed, during the Thanksgiving scene, when one of Frank's relatives keeps calling Charlie by the wrong name, the Colonel violently throttles the young man, putting him in a choke hold until the man correctly says Charlie's name. Later, when Slade tricks Charlie into leaving the room to get aspirin, his sly plan fails when Charlie remembers that Slade was earlier armed with a military Colt .45 pistol (M1911). He comes back to the room to find Slade ready to commit suicide. After a few minutes of talking, yelling, and action, Charlie convinces Slade not to kill himself. It is here that Slade realizes that Charlie is a very brave and tough person at heart, and would not even let a worthless, bitter man take his own life.
Charlie returns to school, knowing that George Willis Jr. is betraying him to get off the hook. The Headmaster holds a courtroom-like meeting, where he questions George Willis, who complains of his poor vision and resorts to his powerful father to help him weasel out of this jam. Unfortunately, it is discovered that Charlie's vision is fine and he received no help from his parents. The Headmaster is on the verge of expelling him, when Colonel Slade, who enters the court during the Willis interrogation, delivers a magnificent and truthful speech of how "the great ship" of education and obedience is no more than a rat barge teaching rats to betray friends. When Slade says that "If I were the man I was five years ago I'd take a flame thrower to this place," he wins over the students, and the jury. Willis's statement that he saw three people set up the prank, and that they might have been "Havemeyer, Potter, and Jameson," is enough to tell the jury who the culprits were.
The story ends with Charlie being excused from any penalties and expulsions, and Slade going back home. However, no longer bitter, he acts very kindly to his relatives and seems to have a new "look" at life - as does Charlie.
Trivia
- Al Pacino was helped by a school for the blind in preparation for his role. He says he made himself look blind by not focusing his view on anything, and that using prosthetic contact lenses would "fake" his performance.
- During the disciplinary meeting, the headmaster tells Slade "You are out of order!", a famous line told to another of Pacino's characters in ...And Justice for All (1979).
- Director Martin Brest disowned the version of the film shown on airlines and television.
- The scene on the street where Slade falls over a garbage can was actually unplanned.
- In order to get Charlie out of the hotel room Slade asks him to buy some aspirins and a Montecristo no. 1 cigar, a Cuban product banned in the US due to the Cuban embargo. As this task is impossible it would keep Charlie away for a long time.
Box office
In the U.S., Scent of a Woman earned $63,095,253. Overseas, it earned $71,000,000, for a total of $134,095,253.External links
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.