The Story: When I first saw this speech from Scent of a Woman, written by Bo Goldman, adapted from the Italian film Profumo di donna, it bothered me. Col. Frank Slade, the alcoholic, depressed, suicidal vet that Charlie Simms has been "baby-sitting" the past weekend seems to be excoriating and devaluing whistle-blowing. I believe in "snitching." I believe that it is that sort of independent thinking away from "lock-step" procedures that keeps those in power from abusing their authority...and actually endangering the Public in the interest of their bottom line. I think blind loyalty, "huddling the wagons," and the "we do things internally" mentality only perpetuates incompetence, if not malfeasance, and grows the "Old Boy Network" way of doing things that always seems to lead to major crises. That Congress has recently enacted to withdraw protection for "whistle-blowers" burns my bacon. Of course, that bunch of "old boys" would want to enact such legislation for their money-lending cronies. They want to cover their assets.But, a close examination of Goldman's screenplay reveals more. That's not what Slade is saying (and sometimes bellowing) here; what he is saying is that Charlie Wills did not tell tales out of his self-interest. Indeed, he risked everything in order to not expose the privileged creeps who pulled a prank on the Headmaster and were only too willing to let the kid with the least advantages (Charlie) take the fall. This "I'll sacrifice others if I can get something out of it" attitude is what The Speech is all about. Selfishness and self-interest—the "what am I gonna get out of it/what's in it for me" mind-set is what Slade is railing against. Yes, the jerks who pulled the prank are jerks. They should be exposed, probably. But the Headmaster dangled a recommendation for college advancement in front of Charlie to encourage his talking—corruption at The Baird School starts at the top. There is no "doing the right thing" unless there is payback. And once that offer—for good or ill—has been made, any talking on Charlie's part will be tainted by self-interest, the quid pro quo—the very thing that makes up so much of the unofficial (and unwritten) plea-deal infrastructure of what constitutes our legal system today, and corrupts much of it.
This is a message I can get behind.
Because sacrifice and doing things in the public interest are pretty much dead in America. Public servants are public grifters, with cushy jobs, health insurance and benefits fit for a King...all denied to its constituents. There is no free lunch in the Usery Selfishness of Avarice, unless you're part of it And the only Golden Rule is the bastardization of it (quoted, mostly, by bastards): He who has the gold, makes the rules.
Where's my flame-thrower?*
And Al Pacino. Sure, he's easy to make fun of when he gets "flamboyant" (this role did win him a too-long-delayed Oscar), but he took a pretty flat text, gave it a rhythm and cadence, and threw in a couple of screaming sections that just don't seem to be called for in the screenplay. Here, it's the singer, not the song. There's only one other instance, I can think of where this largess paid off so beautifully, and that was in a little-seen film called City Hall** (written by a committee of great writers...including Bo Goldman) in which Pacino plays a big-city mayor. At one point, he's called upon to speak at the death of a little girl, an innocent by-stander, in a racial incident. Pacino starts the speech, but at some point, the audience of extras—unbidden, mind you—started to do call-outs, "Amen's," "Right-on's," and "Yes's" and Pacino's response—Pacino, the actor, not the character he was playing—was to amp up the performance to preacher-level, leaving holes for the mourners, building their responses, creating an active, living (and spontaneous) interaction that energized and electrified the scene. It comes "this" close to being funny, but it is amazing to see. Pacino is good. And he's good because he risks.
The Set-Up: Charlie Simms (Chris O'Donnell) spends Thanksgiving holiday from his prep school, Baird, by care-taking an irascible, blind, retired colonel (Al Pacino) for a vacationing family. But, who's care-taking who? The Colonel takes Charlie on a flight to New York, a swank Manhattan apartment, and then conspires to commit suicide. Meanwhile, Charlie must face the consequences of not naming names of several Baird students (Philip Seymour Hoffman, Matt Smith, Nicholas Sadler, Todd Louiso) who pranked Headmaster Trask (James Rebhorn) and his new car. The Headmaster holds out a letter of recommendation to an Ivy League School as an inducement for talking, but withholds what he would do if Charlie refuses to co-operate. At the hearing (which Slade has crashed), Charlie hears what his punishment will be.
Action! (Hoo-yah!)
Scent of a Woman
Words by Bo Goldman
Pictures by Donald E. Thorin and Martin Brest
Scent of a Woman is available on Universal Home Video.
**
* Sorry about getting all-Kozinski there, but the situation gets worse every year. And if you think I'm being un-American or anti-commerce: 1) screw you, you're an idiot, and 2) the same sort of corruption has existed in ever Communist Government ever installed (at the point of a bayonet) on this Earth. Every system of government can be corrupted, depending on the people who run it. And unfortunately, most of them come in looking to feather their own nests.
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