Method Acting Analysis
Method acting, it’s a dramatic technique in which actors identify as closely as possible
with the character played by correlating experiences from their personal lives to the character.
The father of method acting was actor and director Lee Strasberg. Along with other colleagues
they adapted the teaching of Stanislavsky for their American acting students. Method acting took
off in the 1940’s and 50’s behind the performances of Marlon Brando under the direction of Elia
Kazan. After it’s period of success in the mid-20th century, method acting continued to be used
by many famous actors; Newman, Pacino, Monroe, and De Niro to name a few. Al Pacino and
Robert De Niro both acted in Michael Mann’s Heat, in the coffee scene their characters are seen
interacting with each other for the first time. In my opinion, Robert De Niro is the better method
actor in this scene.
Method acting involves movement, emotions, and improvisation. In this scene Pacino and
De Niro are sitting facing each other, but camera only shows their upper torso body since they’re
sitting. While their hands are rarely shown in the scene, when shown De Niro moves his hands in
a certain way a person would do when responding to something or acknowledging something
being said to them that they find is right. The emotion conveyed in method acting is suppose to
be or at least look realistic, De Niro does this a slightly better than Pacino. This is due to...
