April 25 Al Pacino

Happy Birthday Al Pacino and Ella Fitzgerald.

To celebrate Al Pacino’s birthday I watched Scarecrow. It stars Al Pacino and Gene Hackman. I found the film boring. The two men meet on the side of the road in the Southwest. Al is just out of the Navy going to Detroit to see the child he never saw and does not know if it is a boy or a girl. He has a lamp gift wrapped to present to the child. Gene just out of prison is going to Pittsburg where his money is in the bank and going to set up car wash. He has a bad temper. Al is quiet and keeps himself amused. At first Gene doesn’t want anything to do with Al. They share the experience of the road.

The scenery is beautiful along the way. They get rides and hop trains. They cause a fight in a bar and are sentenced to a work farm. Al is assaulted, beaten up pretty badly. Gene beats up the man that beat Al. They get to Detroit where Al calls the mother of his child. She is upset that he just up and left when she was pregnant. With the boy sitting next to her she tells Al that the baby died when she was 8 months along and it would have been a boy. She also said the baby could not be baptized and it’s soul would be in limbo and it was his fault since he was not around. He decides not to go see her. He leaves the present by the phone. They go to a park where there is a large fountain (statues and several pools all combined). Al entertains some children by acting out Treasure Island. He picks up one of the children and he drags him into the water. The mother starts screaming and Gene sees what is going on. He goes to Al gets the child and hands him to his mother. Al climbs up on the statue and Gene drags him out. The water is very loud, but it sounds like Al is saying, “I have to find him”. Before Gene can get him out of the water he becomes limp with his eyes open. At the hospital Gene is told that Al is comatose and will be transferred to a state hospital. Gene thinking he is fooling tries to get him to wake up. Gene is dragged away and Al is taken to anther room. Gene leaves the hospital and goes to the bus station where he gets a ticket to Pittsburg.

The movie is a co-winner of the 1973 Cannes film festival grand prize. Maybe I am missing something. I like buddy pictures, I like road pictures, but this film seemed a little slow.