There are some major movie stars that have had so much written about them over the years that you really feel there is simply nothing left to learn (but still, if it’s about Marilyn Monroe, you can bet your bottom dollar there’ll be another offering in the offing any time soon). Then there are actors like Al Pacino. We’ve seen him in a bucket load of movies and he’s been around for decades. We probably think we know him too. But do we, really? Sonny Boy (a childhood nickname that stuck) is Pacino’s autobiography and it tells the actor’s story comprehensively and entertainingly.
And it’s not just the anecdotes and recollections that paint a picture of the man. The way he tells those stories also reveals insights into his character and life experiences. For instance, it’s probably fair to say that grammar hasn’t been a top priority… We actually learn this in the very first line, when he writes, “I was performing since I was just a little boy.”
To be honest, this is rather refreshing as it seems to hint that there wasn’t a ghost writer involved here or, if there was, their influence was minimal… and you certainly hear Pacino’s familiar voice as you read the lines.
And as he continues, revealing his early, somewhat delinquent, years and the narrow escape he had from serious trouble and a potential early drug-related death – an escape he credits to the influence of loving grandparents – the importance of elegant sentence construction recedes rapidly. As a reader and film lover, you’re just happy he survived the challenges of growing up in a Bronx tenement, roaming the streets with his beloved mates Cliffy, Bruce and Petey.
It was family and discovering his love for acting that rescued him from the fate awaiting many of those friends and Sonny Boy takes us through this discovery and his subsequent career in a fairly linear fashion.
For established or emerging actors, there’s plenty here about the Method, his experiences with Lee Strasberg and the Actors’ Studio and how he approaches a part. His breakthrough roles in films like Panic in Needle Park and, of course, The Godfather are all detailed and there’s a good balance between the details of that film career and his personal life, including his relationships with the other performers who have been his friends (Elizabeth Taylor, John Cazale, De Niro) and romantic interests (Jill Clayburgh, Tuesday Weld, Diane Keaton among them).
But he also reveals the long love affair he had with alcohol, his lack of financial nous (leading to him going broke in the 1980s) and how the aforementioned Keaton pretty much singlehandedly hauled him out of that particular hole. Not that he really learned much from the experience – by 2011 he was broke again, spending without examining where his money was going and at the mercy of a man he describes as ‘crooked’.
“But I never despaired. I remember saying, ‘Well, I’m alive.’ There was something about it that was liberating… I went into a sort of survival mode, which I can do. I’ve lived a life that’s provided me with the ability to survive. So what do you do? I went to work.”
So if you’ve ever wondered about some of his choices in recent years (looking at you, Jack and Jill), well, a man has to eat.
Read: Book review: Dropping the Mask, Noni Hazlehurst
It would be fair to say that he hasn’t always been the most reliable person, but he certainly seems to be admirably honest about the times he let people down. However you come away from Sonny Boy, it’s likely that you’ll feel you know a whole heap more about what Al Pacino is really like. And, in the end, there’s not much more you can ask of an autobiography, is there?
Sonny Boy, Al Pacino
Publisher: Penguin Random House
ISBN: 9781529912623
Format: Hard Cover
Pages: 370
Publication: 15 October 2024
RRP: $55
