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Scent of a Woman

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Films

                   Scent of a Woman
    A promotional film poster for Scent of a Woman.
     Directed by   Martin Brest
     Produced by   Ovidio G. Assonitis
                   Martin Brest
                   G. Mac Brown
                   Ronald L. Schwary
     Written by    Giovanni Arpino (novel)
                   Bo Goldman (screenplay)
      Starring     Al Pacino
                   Chris O'Donnell
                   James Rebhorn
                   Gabrielle Anwar
                   Philip Seymour Hoffman
                   Todd Louiso
      Music by     Thomas Newman
   Distributed by  Universal Pictures
   Release date(s) December 23, 1992 (USA)
    Running time   157 min.
      Language     English
                     IMDb profile

   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, and 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 and Honey") by Giovanni Arpino and from the 1974 screenplay
   for the movie Profumo Di Donna by Ruggero Maccari and Dino Risi. It was
   directed by Martin Brest.

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

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

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

Summary

   Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

   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 and impossible to get along with. Slade decides to
   visit New York City and 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, and only Charlie
   and 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, and
   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), Slade visits his relatives, where Charlie learns
   how Slade lost his sight. It is at this point in the film that 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 and sleep with
   a beautiful woman, and then commit suicide with his gun. Later, the sly
   Colonel tangos with a girl, and drives a Ferrari, with a very nervous
   and 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, and sticking by his side through thick and 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, and action, Charlie convinces Slade not to kill himself. It is
   here that Slade realizes that Charlie is a very brave and tough person
   at heart, and 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 and
   resorts to his powerful father to help him weasel out of this jam.
   Unfortunately, it is discovered that Charlie's vision is fine and 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
   and compelling speech of how "the great ship" of education and
   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, and the jury.
   Willis's statement that he saw three people set up the prank, and that
   they might have been "Havemeyer, Potter, and 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 and
   expulsions, and Slade going back home. However, no longer bitter, he
   acts very kindly to his relatives and seems to have a new "look" at
   life - as does Charlie.
   Spoilers end here.

Related articles

   Scent of a Woman (soundtrack)

Trivia

     * In order to get Charlie out of the hotel room Slade asks him to buy
       some aspirins and a Montecristo #1 cigar, a Cuban product banned in
       the US due to the Cuban embargo.
     * Pacino prepared for the famous 'tango' scene by taking Argentine
       tango lessons at DanceSport, a Manhattan dance studio located near
       Columbus Circle.
     * Slade notices the girl he will tango with a few minutes later by
       her smell. When Slade and Charlie talk to her, she tells them her
       name is Donna - which is the Italian word for "woman." The title of
       the original 1974 movie was Profumo Di Donna.
     * During the tango scene, Gabrielle Anwar's earrings disappear and
       reappear numerous times.
     * Reportedly to get Chris O'Donnell to cry during the attempted
       suicide scene Al Pacino took him aside and screamed at him 'drill
       sergeant' style.
     * Philip Seymour Hoffman considered his part in this movie as his
       "breakthrough role."

Box office

   In the US Scent of a Woman earned $63,095,253; internationally it
   earned ~$71,000,000.

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scent_of_a_Woman"
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