Scent of a Woman Reviews

I already saw this movie but, since it was a while back and since it was available on Netflix, I thought I might as well check it out again. Well, after all these years, I have to admit that it is not so bad at all and there is no doubt that Al Pacino gave here a really strong performance. Still, to give him the Academy Award for the Best Actor was such a lame way to make amends after snubbing him 4 years in a row in the 70’s when he was really at the top of his game (Indeed, back then, he was nominated but didn't win for ‘The Godfather’, ‘Serpico’, ‘The Godfather: Part II’ and ‘Dog Day Afternoon’). Concerning Chris O'Donnell, back then, he was considered as the next-best-thing, at the same level as Leonardo DiCaprio, but his career turned out to be only decent at best after all. Anyway, coming back on the movie itself, even though I have to admit that it was entertaining, the damned thing was too long though. Furthermore, the characters didn't really work in my opinion. I mean, Pacino did a such a great job that he delivered the most charismatic blind man that ever lived but I think it did backfire because he was actually so much more attractive and interesting than most average guys that actually can see. As a result, it is pretty obvious that he could seduce so many women if he wanted to so his depressive state was never really convincing to me. Concerning O'Donnell, sure he was playing a decent kid with a heart gold but I had a hard time to root for this guy who was basically an uncharismatic whiner. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit that it is still decent drama though and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Al Pacino’s work.

Es destacable que una pelícual me haya generado tantos sentiminetos encontrados como perfume de mujer como se le concoió en Colombia, un impacto muy grande sobretodo cuando la honestidad, la humildad y el aprecio se convierten en algo que se mantiene en la cuerda floja

What good acting and cast! such a touching sensitive story and one can learn about how eyes can make you blind...

Pacino FINALLY received the Oscar statue he so rightfully deserved in all the years he was in the acting business. It's nice to know the Academy finally came to their senses, and awarded him a Best Actor Oscar for this landmark role. This is one of his most memorable performances, and I'm sure when people think Pacino they think about his portrayal of the blind Colonel Slade. Hoo ha!

The movie itself is not, technically, great. Very good, but not great. The plot is quite predictable and driven via patented Hollywood devices. The courtroom climax contains one of Pacino's most powerful monologues. However, its outcome is melodramatic.

Personally, I thought the whole idea of Pacino being more perceptive of the world than any man or woman with perfect eyesight was far-fetched and sometimes more implausible than stunning. I'm sure there are blind men in the world who ARE in fact very perceptive to what goes on in the world, but few--if any--who can recall a whole history triggered simply by the sound of one's voice. How is he able to tell Chris O'Donnell has pimples? He's not handicapped by blindness; this guy has psychic powers! He doesn't need sight!

I do have to say that some of the most memorable lines come from this movie. Pacino says some original and wildly funny monologues involving subject matter I cannot discuss in this message. And of course there's the timeless quote: "Hoo ha!" Which later became a Pacino trademark.

"Scent of a Woman" is a somewhat flawed, but effective and entertaining film. It's a must-see for Pacino fans everywhere! It's not everyday you can catch a performance this powerful!

Scent Of A Woman is a very emotional story with a huge adventure and a huge impact on self discovery. That is where it is beautiful especially when Frank is driving a car, despite he is blind, he enjoys it and he tries his best to be like everyone else. Also, as he becomes closer to Charlie, he tries to help him and sort of behaves like his father. It is really emotional as Slade becomes close with Charlie, Slade cant seen Charlie and doesnt know what he looks like. Slade becomes quite angry with himself for being the way he is. It becomes from a hard going relationship to a very deep personal relationship. Both Slade and Charlie discover about themselves and they both a change of heart. Charlie goes from being a complete bad ass to a really nice hearted young guy after being with Colonel Slade. Because of Slades bitter attitude, he lost most of his family. He starts to get back with his family and meeting new people and because of this Slade becomes a whole new person again.


Al Pacinos performance is simply outstanding. It was his first and only Academy Award he won and this is probably one of his best that not many people might not have taken into consideration. He is mostly overrated for Godfather trilogy, Dog Day Afternoon, Scarface and Serpico. But in a way it is quite good. I love powerful characters who are very different who behave like normal people now. I love characters who are either retarded, deaf, blind, disabled, deformed etc. For example, Al Pacino as blind man Frank Slade, Dustin Hoffman as autistic Raymond Babbit, John Hurt as John Merrick and more. I mostly love it when characters like that are portrayed by such powerful actors and the greatest actors of all time. As far as the Frank Slade character is concerned, Slade is quite hard on the outside where he has that part of the army within him still but inside he is a really nice man with a big heart. Al Pacino very much deserved his Oscar in this film. Not his best performance though. His best performance is Michael Corleone particularly in The Godfather: Part II. Chris O Donnell delivers another outstanding performance as Charlie Simms. Charlie is a lonely young man who has no family. Chris portrays Charlie with such powerful emotion and with a lot of laughter too. I found it quite funny when he saw that beautiful woman in the restaurant and Pacino danced with her and he was quite shy. He is the one character in the film that made me laugh. He deserved his Golden Globe but should have had an Oscar nomination.


The direction from Martin Brest was really good. I could tell that Pacino and O Donnell needed to do a lot of hard work with all the different actions that were going on. I thought the script was simply outstanding because as I said it is an extremely emotional and powerful script but at the same time it is quite a funny script too. This film can help people with learning about who they really are.


I have only seen three of the five 1992 Academy Award Best Picture nominees and after seeing Scent Of A Woman, Howards End and Unforgiven it is my favourite one of those five so far. It has achieved Al Pacinos most powerful performance but not his most famous performance though. It is one of the best of 1992 and one of Al Pacinos best as I have said repeatedly. The one thing that disappointed me about Scent Of A Woman was that I thought it was a bit too long. Despite of how long it was, it was still a really well written film that deserves its place as one of the most beautiful films based on self discovery and friendship.

''Out of order? Who the hell do you think you're talkin' to? I've been around, you know? There was a time I could see. And I have seen. Boys like these, younger than these, their arms torn out, their legs ripped off. But there isn't nothin' like the sight of an amputated spirit. There is no prosthetic for that. You think you're merely sending this splendid foot soldier back home to Oregon with his tail between his legs, but I say you are... executin' his soul!''

A prep school student needing money agrees to "babysit" a blind man, but the job is not at all what he anticipated.

Al Pacino: Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade

Scent of a woman is a masterpiece. First of all because Al Pacino creates a character he is in no way close to being in real life. He plays a retired lieutenant-colonel which is nothing, but a blind one. His blindness is the symbol, and result, of both a heroic career and a sad end because he was passed over for general. This mixture of so many emotions and feelings and frustrations is marvelously conveyed by the actor. His tone, his behavior, his general stand, his unpredictable reactions, his decision to leave this world and his second decision to stay can be read in the way he speaks, the words he uses, the expressions his blind face carries, his attitudes toward other people, etc.

He is a millionaire in layered emotions. But it is a masterpiece for so many other reasons that I am only going to quote a few. First it is a journey, the journey of a prep school teenager, a student on a scholarship mind you, from Oregon to Cambridge, Massachusetts, then to New York, a round trip with the colonel he is taking care of for the Thanksgiving long week end. This journey, and particularly the lap to New York and the subsequent events, are an initiation.
The young chap is to learn what principles are in life and that you have to stand by them, especially if you are poor and fragile in body and social status: then be strong in soul, mind and spirit. Your ethics are your only asset and power in life. He also has to learn how to understand his colonel companion and feel when he has decided to send him buy cigars while he is putting an end to his life and the gun loaded with his bullets are an impressive key to the solitary tower of growing up with death all around you.

''I'm in the dark, here!''

He saves that man with a crazy idea of a ride, for a blind man, to drive a Ferrari in the Bronx or somewhere under the Brooklyn Bridge, and with all the frills of such a ride including the cop who catches him speeding but does not realize he is talking to a blind man. But this film is also a story about the elite education these Ivy League prep schools provide the young men of today with to prepare them to be the leaders of tomorrow. There I will not hint too much at that side of the story. Let's say an act of vandalism which is a student prank and nothing more, leads the headmaster into menacing the two student witnesses, with the worst punishment going as far as trying to buy the cooperation of the poor student. The final disciplinary hearing is absurd in its logic. The three culprits go through because there is no clear cut witness, the rich one, with his father, pretends he did not have his contacts on but gives the three names with a maybe, and the poor one, Charlie by the way, refuses point blank to be a fink, a stool pigeon. And there the intervention of his suicidal colonel saves the day. That you will have to find out by yourself. In many ways it is a lot stronger than Dead Poets Society and the drama is avoided. It is better because it is the vision of a poor scholarship student and not the vision of one rich kid, in recent society and not in the 1920s or so.

The point of view makes it a lot more powerful about society and courage, even if less dramatic,this is a story about hope, the merging of young and old minds coming together. Scent of a woman is about living, the beauty of life and at times, when you believe you have nothing to live for, are the times when you have so many aspects and joys to carry life on. This is a story of hope and friendship.

''Well, gentlemen, when the shit hits the fan, some guys run and some guys stay.''