Scent of a Woman The Movie

Scent of a Woman The Movie

Scent of a Woman is a 1992 film which tells the story of a preparatory school student who takes a job as an assistant to an irascible blind, medically retired Army officer. It stars Al Pacino, Chris O'Donnell, James Rebhorn, Gabrielle Anwar, & Philip Seymour Hoffman. It is a remake of a movie made by Dino Risi in 1974, Profumo di donna, in which Vittorio Gassman played one of his best known roles.

The movie was adapted by Bo Goldman from the novel Il Buio E Il Miele ("Darkness & Honey") by Giovanni Arpino & from the 1974 screenplay for the movie Profumo Di Donna by Ruggero Maccari & Dino Risi. It was directed by Martin Brest.

It won the Academy Award for Best Actor (Al Pacino) & was nominated for Best Director, Best Picture & Best Adapted Screenplay.

Portions of the movie were filmed on location at the Emma Willard School, an all-girls school in Troy, N.Y.

Contents
Plot summary
The film revolves around Charlie Simms (Chris O'Donnell), a student at a private preparatory school, who comes from a poor family. To earn the money for his flight home to Gresham, Oregon for Christmas, Charlie takes a job over Thanksgiving looking after retired U.S. Army officer Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade (Al Pacino), a cantankerous middle-aged man who is now blind & impossible to get along with. Slade decides to visit New York City & enlists the help of Charlie Simms to lead him on the trip. Whilst Charlie is leading Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade through New York, he is facing a very big problem at school. Fellow students have played a prank on the school principal, & only Charlie & George Willis, Jr. (Philip Seymour Hoffman) know the identity of the culprits. After threatening both students with expulsion, Headmaster Trask asks Willis to exit the office. At this moment, he tries to bribe Charlie by assuring him admission to Harvard, if he names those who committed the prank. Charlie tells him nothing, & Trask warns him that he must be honest or suffer the consequences.

Slade takes Charlie around New York. They stay at the Waldorf-Astoria. After eating at a fancy restaurant with $24.00 hamburgers (the Oak Room at the Plaza Hotel), Colonel Slade reveals the real reason for his trip to New York City: to eat at an expensive restaurant, stay at an amazing hotel, dance & sleep with a beautiful woman, & then commit suicide with his gun. They then visit the Colonel's family, & Charlie learns how Slade lost his sight. Later, the sly Colonel tangos with a girl whose perfume captivates him (hence the title of the movie), & drives a Ferrari, with a very nervous & worried Charlie tagging along. Charlie is a good person at heart, refusing to rat out his classmates over a prank, taking pity on Colonel Slade, & sticking by his side through thick & thin. Charlie's loyalty is not lost on the Colonel. When Slade tricks Charlie into leaving the room to get a cigar, his sly plan fails when Charlie remembers that Slade was earlier armed with a military Colt .45 pistol (M1911). He comes back to the room to find Slade ready to commit suicide with his gun. After a few emotional minutes of talking, yelling, & action, Charlie convinces Slade not to kill himself. It is here that Slade realizes that Charlie is a very brave & tough person at heart, & he would not even let a worthless, bitter man, like himself, take his own life.

Charlie returns to school, knowing that George Willis, Jr. is betraying him to get off the hook. The Headmaster holds a courtroom-like meeting, where he questions George Willis, who complains of his poor vision & resorts to his powerful father to help him weasel out of this jam. Unfortunately, it is discovered that Charlie's vision is fine & he received no help from his parents. The Headmaster is on the verge of expelling him, when Colonel Slade, who enters the court during the Headmaster's opening speech on "a Baird man," delivers a provocative & compelling speech of how "the great ship" of education & obedience is no more than a rat barge teaching rats to betray friends. When Slade says that "If I were the man I was five years ago I'd take a flame thrower to this place," he wins over the students, & the jury. Willis's statement that he saw three people set up the prank, & that they might have been "Havemeyer, Potter, & Jameson," is enough to tell the jury who the culprits were. The three young men are placed on disciplinary probation for the prank, but Willis is given no recognition.

The story ends with Charlie being excused from any penalties & expulsions, & Slade going back home. However, no longer bitter, he acts very kindly to his relatives & seems to have a new "look" at life - as does Charlie.

Cast
Actor Role
Al Pacino Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade
Chris O'Donnell Charlie Simms
James Rebhorn Mr. Trask
Philip Seymour Hoffman George Willis, Jr.
Gabrielle Anwar Donna
Richard Venture W.R. Slade
Bradley Whitford Randy
Rochelle Oliver Gretchen
Tom Riis Farrell Garry
Nicholas Sadler Harry Havemeyer
Todd Louiso Trent Potter
Ron Eldard Officer Gore

Production details
Pacino prepared for the famous 'tango scene' by taking tango lessons at DanceSport, a Manhattan dance studio located near Columbus Circle.
Reportedly to get Chris O'Donnell to cry during the attempted suicide scene Al Pacino took him aside & screamed at him 'drill sergeant' style.
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Reception
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Box office
In the US Scent of a Woman earned $63,095,253; internationally it earned ~$71,000,000.

Trivia

In order to get Charlie out of the hotel room Slade asks him to buy some aspirins & a Montecristo #1 cigar, a Cuban product banned in the US due to the Cuban embargo.
Slade notices the girl he will tango with a few minutes later by her smell. When Slade & Charlie talk to her, she tells them her name is Donna - which is the Italian word for "woman."
Philip Seymour Hoffman considered his part in this movie as his "breakthrough role."

In One bit Slade drives a Ferrari or something as a blind man, which of course was a cool scene, and also the opening music is great in my view, brilliantly evocative, of the thing, the movies portrays the life of this rich area and in some way condemns the comparitive wealth in some way. And says how life can be enoyed by all.

What would the Scent of a man be about, maybe farting, ho ho ho. I cam say that as I am a man.

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