Al Pacino
Dog Day Afternoon
(1975)
Frank Pierson (screenplay), P.F. Kluge (based upon a magazine article by), Thomas Moore (based upon a magazine article by)
Won 1 Oscar. Another 13 wins & 19 nominations.
A man robs a bank to pay for his lover's operation; it turns into a hostage situation and a media circus.
Heat
(1995)
Michael Mann
9 nominations.
Hunters and their prey--Neil and his professional criminal crew hunt to score big money targets (banks, vaults, armored cars) and are, in turn, hunted by Lt. Vincent Hanna and his team of cops in the Robbery/Homicide police division. A botched job puts Hanna onto their trail while they regroup and try to put together one last big 'retirement' score. Neil and Vincent are similar in many ways, including their troubled personal lives. At a crucial moment in his life, Neil disobeys the dictum taught to him long ago by his criminal mentor--'Never have anything in your life that you can't walk out on in thirty seconds flat, if you spot the heat coming around the corner'--as he falls in love. Thus the stage is set for the suspenseful ending....
Insomnia
(2002)
Hillary Seitz (screenplay), Nikolaj Frobenius, Erik Skjoldbjærg
1 win & 10 nominations.
Two Los Angeles homicide detectives are dispatched to a northern town where the sun doesn't set to investigate the methodical murder of a local teen.
Scarface
(1983)
Oliver Stone (screenplay)
Nominated for 3 Golden Globes. Another 3 nominations.
Tony Montana manages to leave Cuba during the Mariel exodus of 1980. He finds himself in a Florida refugee camp but his friend Manny has a way out for them: undertake a contract killing and arrangements will be made to get a green card. He's soon working for drug dealer Frank Lopez and shows his mettle when a deal with Columbian drug dealers goes bad. He also brings a new level of violence to Miami. Tony is protective of his younger sister but his mother knows what he does for a living and disowns him. Tony is impatient and wants it all however, including Frank's empire and his mistress Elvira Hancock. Once at the top however, Tony's outrageous actions make him a target and everything comes crumbling down.
Serpico
(1973)
Peter Maas (book), Waldo Salt (screenplay), Norman Wexler (screenplay)
Nominated for 2 Oscars. Another 5 wins & 9 nominations.
The true story about an honest New York cop who blew the whistle on rampant corruption in the force only to have his comrades turn against him.
The Godfather
(1972)
Mario Puzo (screenplay), Francis Ford Coppola (screenplay), Mario Puzo (novel)
Won 3 Oscars. Another 23 wins & 27 nominations.
When the aging head of a famous crime family decides to transfer his position to one of his subalterns, a series of unfortunate events start happening to the family, and a war begins between all the well-known families leading to insolence, deportation, murder and revenge, and ends with the favorable successor being finally chosen.
The Godfather: Part II
(1974)
Francis Ford Coppola (screenplay), Mario Puzo (screenplay), Mario Puzo (novel)
Won 6 Oscars. Another 9 wins & 20 nominations.
The continuing saga of the Corleone crime family tells the story of a young Vito Corleone growing up in Sicily and in 1910s New York; and follows Michael Corleone in the 1950s as he attempts to expand the family business into Las Vegas, Hollywood and Cuba.
The Godfather: Part III
(1990)
Mario Puzo, Francis Ford Coppola
Nominated for 7 Oscars. Another 5 wins & 13 nominations.
In the final instalment of the Godfather Trilogy, an aging Don Michael Corleone seeks to legitimize his crime family's interests and remove himself from the violent underworld but is kept back by the ambitions of the young. While he attempts to link the Corleone's finances with the Vatican, Michael must deal with the machinations of a hungrier gangster seeking to upset the existing Mafioso order and a young protoge's love affair with his daughter.
The Insider
(1999)
Marie Brenner, Eric Roth, Michael Mann
Nominated for 7 Oscars. 23 wins & 58 nominations total
Balls-out 60 Minutes (1968) Producer Lowell Bergman (Al Pacino) sniffs a story when a former research biologist for Brown & Williamson, Jeff Wigand (Russell Crowe), won't talk to him. When the company leans hard on Wigand to honor a confidentiality agreement, he gets his back up. Trusting Bergman, and despite a crumbling marriage, he goes on camera for a Mike Wallace (Christopher Plummer) interview and risks arrest for contempt of court. Westinghouse is negotiating to buy CBS, so CBS attorneys advise CBS News to shelve the interview and avoid a lawsuit. 60 Minutes (1968) and CBS News bosses cave, Wigand is hung out to dry, Bergman is compromised, and the CEOs of Big Tobacco may get away with perjury. Will the truth come out?
The Recruit
(2003)
Roger Towne, Kurt Wimmer, Mitch Glazer
2 nominations.
A brilliant young CIA trainee is asked by his mentor to help find a mole in the Agency.