Do you know Al Pacino’s career by heart? We bet you that you don’t know anything about this film of which it is the headliner!
The year is 1985. Al Pacino stars in Hugh Hudson’s Revolution, the story of a Scottish emigrant in the midst of the American Revolution of 1776. The film cost $28 million and grossed just $346,000 on American territory. A total flop, which pushes Pacino to move away from the cinema screens and to return to the theater.
It was in this context that he produced The Local Stigmatic, a television film adapted from the eponymous one-act play by Heathcote Williams. When he was at the Actor’s Studio, Pacino played the leading role and the themes of the play have always fascinated him. He therefore decides to finance the filming out of his own pocket, and once again takes on the leading role.
AJD Productions
The story starts with a pretext: an Englishman bets on a dog race but is given bad information and loses his money. He is moved by his friend, then both begin to talk about their lives.
In order to prepare, Al Pacino and fellow comedian Paul Guilfoyle take completely cartoonish and off-base Cockney accents, which will be heavily blamed on the film. Moreover, The Local Stigmatic listens to talk too much, the staging not particularly trying to highlight neither the actors nor the action.
The latter is also quite complex to follow as the subject is diluted, but the fact is that the story remains quite fascinating to follow: we want to understand where the story is going and we are caught up in spite of a rather disjointed scenario.
AJD Productions
Satisfied with not being accountable to anyone, Pacino took his time with the editing and took four years to obtain a version he was satisfied with. This theatrical adaptation will only be shown during private screenings organized by the actor and he has given a copy to the Museum of Modern Art which can only distribute it with his agreement.
Only its presence in a video box explains why a copy reached Youtube.