Phil Spector, written and directed by David Mamet

Phil Spector, written and directed by David Mamet

Phil Spector is written and directed by David Mamet and stars Al Pacino

However, this is no Glengarry Glen Ross

Glengarry is an Absolute Masterpiece

Phil Spector only the other hand, in spite of its nominations and wins is a much lesser achievement.

From this viewer’s perspective at least.

Al Pacino is a super star now, but his acting has suffered a lot over the past decades and gone are the days of

The Godfather I and II

One can read about those glory days in the entertaining and insightful book on Hollywood called:

The Kid Stays in the Picture

The author, Robert Evans, has been an actor, producer and head of the Paramount Studio, the ultimate insider.

When he initiated the project of The Godfather, it looked like another failed picture on the Italian mafia.

Important people have objected to most aspects concerning this film that is probably the best ever made.

One serious objection regarded the unknown Al Pacino.

Indeed, he was such an unfamiliar entity that, when Robert Evans talked to another executive, that one did not know the name and told Evans to spell it…Al who?

When the agent called another studio to release him from the project he was working on, the same thing happened again…

Who? Al…spell it for me, will you…

In another phenomenal book on the film industry, we learn about Al Pacino as an established artist.

Adventures in the Screen Trade by the winner of two Academy Awards, William Goldman reveals a darker side.

When filming in very cold temperatures, Pacino made the members of the large crew suffer just because he was a star now.

That is the feeling one may get from the reading of the passage dedicated to that incident, which is not an isolated one.

Other stars are misbehaving on a regular basis: Dustin Hoffman on the set of Marathon Man is another example.

Phil Spector is evidently the hero of the film called by his name.

In addition, he is a rather obnoxious, arrogant, self-indulgent, unlikeable character.

This is probably the main reason why this viewer did not engage with this motion picture that has a repellent “hero”.

On the other hand, though, Phil Spector may be a victim of this annoying personality and innocent of the murder he is charged with.

This is a reason for audiences to follow the thread of the narrative and eventually empathize with the accused.

In spite or because of his flamboyance, his many wigs- are they wigs or is it “natural” hair, as in the case of another infamous, loathsome Donald?

Spector has some outbursts that offend, one of them targeting the acclaimed Sydney Poitier, whom the antihero calls a “white guy who is scared by the color of his skin”…words to that effect, not a quote though.

A woman dies in the house of this Wig Man and all the circumstantial evidence points towards him.

His explanation though may carry some weight- he says she took the gun into her mouth, he shouted at her to stop and as she moved it, accidentally shot herself.

Is this the truth?

Maybe