Robert De Niro Or Al Pacino?!

The Godfather, The Godfather Part II, Dog Day Afternoon. Three of the best performances by an actor in three of the best films.

They’re both incredible but I always felt Pacino was more consistently good.

DeNiro is Taxi Driver is one of my favorite performances though and he was so handsome in it.

He even made Cybil Shepard seem like an actual good actress and not another blonde getting by on her sex appeal.

Both have aged terribly.

De Niro by a mile. Pacino's vanity has caused him to disfigure himself with awful plastic surgery and hair dye such that he is hard to look at anymore.

Pacino easily. De Niro killed his legacy and stopped caring about his craft beginning in the 90s when he started taking every movie role offered to him.

Both were pretty reliably great through the 70s, then less reliably good because of a lack of decent roles, or lousy choices, and overexposure. At their peak I think they were neck and neck.

De Niro

De Niro. I met him for less than a minute when he was filming "The Fan" and gave my sister an autograph, mildly hitting on her. Seemed like a nice guy and a fan of his work.

Neither are any good anymore. They’ve become caricatures of themselves in their old age, but in their youth, Pacino by a lot.

Pacino: Godfather, Godfather II and Dog Day Afternoon vs DeNiro: Godfather II, Taxi Driver and Raging Bull.

That's a hard call to make. Both have had their peaks around the same time, and I was happy that both were able to do Heat together, a solid heist film. It's hard for me to decide this one. I love both.

De Niro. Pacino did some excellent work,but he just didnt have the appeal Robert had. I didnt want to fuck Pacino,but I always wanted to fuck De Niro.

De Niro without a doubt when it comes to acting. The complete opposite, however, when it comes to the person. Not that I know much about De Niro outside his reputation for being difficult, but a friend of mine once worked on building a deck at Pacino's house, and according to him, Al couldn't have been nicer to everyone in his orbit, most especially the workers.

King of Comedy, Raging Bull, Falling in Love, Jackie Brown, so many more.... DeNiro

Al Pacino is supposed to be a lovely person and a very generous tipper. DeNiro is supposed to be a bitchy primary donna.

PRIMA Donna. Goddamn it autocorrect.

Found them both very sexy, in different ways, when they were young: for me, De Niro's peak attractiveness was in 1900, Pacino's in The Godfather.

PACINO

like a lot....

deniro had some great ones also.... but still...

I've enjoyed Pacino's movies more so I'll choose him.

They are both ghastly. Both made a career of playing "Eye-talian" to the hilt when it was fashionable to do so in Hollywood. That ship has thankfully sailed, with DeNiro's own twin ANALYZE THIS/ANALYZE THAT abominations being the one of the last gasps. Neither has much range and when Pacino did that SEARCHING FOR RICHARD doc in preparation for playing Shakespeare his limitations as an actor were painfully obvious. He thinks "histrionic" and "dramatic" are the same thing. I refer to them both as "over-the-top-wops." No way can either of them stand up to their British counterparts. If you like broad, hammy Italians who endlessly repeat themselves guess they're irresistible. They both did much to damage American acting.

R19 Have you seen De Niro in "The Last Tycoon" or "Bang the Drum Slowly" or "True Confessions" or "Marvin's Room"? He has a much greater range than you credit him with. Pacino too: "Panic in Needle Park" and "The Godfather", filmed a year apart, are totally different characters and performances, both magnificent.

DeNiro. His line readings alone are worth the price of admission. I never bought into the hype that he was the greatest actor in the history of acting and I don't think he did either. But he has given some memorable performances and is always trying something new unlike Pacino. Max Cady, Al Capone, Jake Lamotta, Vito Corleone, Travis Bickle, Rupert Pupkin, Jimmy in Goodfellas, and a comic riff on that character in Analyze This, Paul Vito. All different. All memorable. Some brillianty realized. My favorite Pacino character was Frank Keller in Sea of Love. Still is.

r19 is an acting wannabe whose only role was as an understudy in his elementary school pageant, so of course he will find fault with any actor who has achieved any degree of success. He was licking his lips over this thread, which allowed him to vent his pitiful rumblings about TWO acclaimed performers.

De Niro was lovely in Silver Linings Playbook

^^Whoops. Rupert Pipkin^^ King of Comedy. Yes, r23. Loved De Niro in SLP too.

At least DeNiro aged into an Italian grandfather. But Al Pacino...what roles can you play looking like that?

Did De Niro's head double in size as he aged?

[R22] Wholly your own projection and not even close. Methinks this estimation is closer to someone looking at you in the mirror.

De Niro, no hesitation in choosing that one. Maybe they were tied when they were young, but Pacino became a hammy caricature fairly quickly.

This settles it.

How's this for an original pitch? DeNiro plays a violent psychotic or mafioso (often but not always one and the same) in a crime drama with lots of religious imagery, moral ambivalence and macabre humor, under the direction of Martin Scorsese. Any takers?

He was funny in Meet the Parents. Not the follow up though which was really pathetic and stupid.

I worshiped them both as a young actor. Dog Day Afternoon and The Deer Hunter are both still in my top 5 favorite movies and those performances haunt me. De Niro in Raging Bull - that's a performance that comes along every 50 years, maybe. The jail scene can still make me burst into tears when I watch it. Pacino has nuance, but he has gone rather bombastic in his old age. But he's done some interesting roles in the last decade. Bobby D - I think of Samuel Jackson's line after he shoots him in Jackie Brown. "What happened to you, man? You used to be beautiful!" But you're right, he was wonderful in SLP and so he can pull out a good performance if the writing is there. It's just that the meaty complicated roles are long gone for both legends.

De Niro was so charming and cute as a young man. Talking way back like 1970 Hi Mom. He was a relaxed performer. There were a lot of actors like that from 65 to 75.

As to OP's question, they both got great for a while but they are hardly the only ones and this isn't a competition.

I don't care for either one now, but I have enjoyed some or De Niro's past work.

With the exception of a couple performances, both of them have been phoning it in for the past 20 years. They remind of Jon Lovitz's character on SNL. I'm an ACTOR!

Are you talking to me?.....

If I had to pick one, it would be De Niro. He never gave the hammy, bombastic performances that Pacino has done over the years.

As for them "phoning it in"...well, they're older and even great actors don't get a lot of good roles as they age. And I assume they prefer to keep working rather than retire, so they do movies that aren't of particular note. It's work, and I'm sure they're paid well for it.

Bobby. He gets it: screaming is not acting; and acting is not screaming.

DeNiro had much more range in his heyday. Yeah, he'll take anything now, but he was game to try anything and stretch himself back in the day. Pacino could be gripping as he was in Dog Day Afternoon, but he tended toward ham early on.

R38 YOU'RE OUT OF ORDER!!!!!!

I love both of them and cannot wait to see "The Irishman."

Pacino was good in Angels in America as Roy Cohn. A well-deserved Emmy win (along with Streep).

Sciatica Sciatica !!!!! pacino rocked that movie and many more.

i even like liked deniro's the good Shepard which was widely panned. and LOVED him as Rupert Pupkin..

"Rupert Pupkin: Well I'm sorry. I made a mistake. Jerry Langford: So did Hitler.

Sandra Bernhard was also excellent as Masha: [to Langford] I've got so much to tell you I just don't know what to begin with. Are you okay? [Langford mumbles, as he is bound and gagged] Good. Tell me if you're not. I guess you're wondering why I do stuff like this. I think it's because I'm a Leo, but my shrink says I'm pathologically rebellious and self-destructive. You don't think I'm self-destructive, do you? [Langford mumbles again] I knew you wouldn't. That's 'cause you're the only person in the world who really understands me.

oh man, you are so right....angels in america: incredible movie....i am sick of streep but the 3 roles she played, one as a rabbi were great...her as ethel greenglass Rosenberg was spot on...... emma thompson as The Angel was delicious:

Angel: [To Prior] The stiffening of your penis is of no consequence!

and pacino as con...don't anyone tell me he is not an actor's actor.

Roy Cohn: [delirious, under the impression that Belize is the Angel of Death] Can I ask you something, sir?

Belize: "Sir"?

Roy Cohn: What's it like? After?

Belize: After...?

Roy Cohn: This misery ends?

Belize: Hell or heaven?

Roy Cohn: [laughs]

Belize: Like San Francisco.

Roy Cohn: A city! Good! I was worried... it'd be a garden. I hate that shit.

Belize: Mmmm. Big city. Overgrown with weeds, but flowering weeds. On every corner a wrecking crew and something new and crooked going up catty corner to that. Windows missing in every edifice like broken teeth, gritty wind, and a gray high sky full of ravens.

Roy Cohn: Isaiah.

Belize: Prophet birds, Roy. Piles of trash, but lapidary like rubies and obsidian, and diamond-colored cowspit streamers in the wind. And voting booths. And everyone in Balenciaga gowns with red corsages, and big dance palaces full of music and lights and racial impurity and gender confusion. And all the deities are creole, mulatto, brown as the mouths of rivers. Race, taste and history finally overcome. And you ain't there.

Roy Cohn: And Heaven?

Belize: That was Heaven, Roy.

Roy Cohn: The fuck it was!

DeNiro. Pacino is such a fucking ham. An Italian Sean Penn.

I don’t think DeNiro aged horribly; he’s aged naturally.

I love that story, R12!

I love “Sea of Love”, R21! Thanks for mentioning that.

Saw it for the first time recently and was amazed at how good both the movie and Pacino were.

Frank Keller is a great character and Pacino carries the whole film marvelously.

They were both excellent in “Heat”—an amazing film.

They had great material to work with and hit it out of the park.

That movie makes me love them both equally.

Al Pacino

I'm going with De Niro but its a hard choice.

Falling In Love (1984) is lousy movie but Robert Deniro was SO good looking in it I would have happily had the affair with him and kicked Meryl out of the way.

Ich kann nicht wählen.

De Niro hands down....

That picture looks a shot of two crazy uncles that were hellers in their youth and wrapped a few cars around light poles.

R55 LMAO

De Niro. For all the junk films there are 10 gems.