Scent of a Woman

"Frank Slade has a plan. It includes a weekend of fast cars, the tango, high living and a loaded forty five. And Charlie is coming along for the ride."

1992 2h 36m EN

🙌

7.8

BANGER

★7.8TMDB · 4,122

Drama

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

Charlie Simms is 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, a cantankerous middle-aged man who lives with his niece and her family.

“Frank Slade has a plan. It includes a weekend of fast cars, the tango, high living and a loaded forty five. And Charlie is coming along for the ride.”

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Cast

Al Pacino
Lt. Col. Frank Slade
Chris O'Donnell
Charlie Simms
James Rebhorn
Mr. Trask
Gabrielle Anwar
Donna
Philip Seymour Hoffman
George Willis, Jr.
Richard Venture
W.R. Slade
Bradley Whitford
Randy
Ron Eldard
Officer Gore

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Martin Brest
Writers: Bo Goldman
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Clocks in at 156 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Made its money back 4.3× over at the box office.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

34 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Martin Brest, shot by Donald E. Thorin. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Thomas Newman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Harvey Rosenstock shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Al Pacino and Chris O'Donnell and James Rebhorn carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Frank Slade has a plan. It includes a weekend of fast cars, the tango, high living and a loaded forty five. And Charlie is coming along for the ride.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Martin Brest directs. Donald E. Thorin behind the camera. Thomas Newman scores. Harvey Rosenstock cuts. Made its budget back several times over at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

1Clocks in at 156 minutes — on the longer side of feature-length cinema.
2Made its money back 4.3× over at the box office.
334 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Directed by Martin Brest, shot by Donald E. Thorin. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Original score by Thomas Newman. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
6Editor Harvey Rosenstock shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
7Al Pacino and Chris O'Donnell and James Rebhorn carry the top of the cast.
8Marketing tagline: "Frank Slade has a plan. It includes a weekend of fast cars, the tango, high living and a loaded forty five. And Charlie is coming along for the ride.".
9IMDB entry: tt0105323 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
10Classified under 20 themes, including "vietnam veteran", "new york city", "blindness and impaired vision", "scholarship".
11Released under 24 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Donald E. Thorin
Original score: Thomas Newman
Editing: Harvey Rosenstock
Production design: Angelo P. Graham
Costume design: Aude Bronson-Howard
Makeup / hair: Joseph Coscia
Stunt coordinator: Peter McKernan Jr.
Runtime: 156 min · 2h 36m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $31,000,000
Box office: $134,100,000
Return: 433% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: Scent of a Woman (1992)

Awards

Academy Award for Best Actor

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Martin Brest

Stills · wallpapers

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Trailers & featurettes

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Peter McGinn2022-05-26
★ 6/10
Another one of those movies that I watched after it first was released but have only recently watched again. I must say I probably thought more of it some 30 years ago. Nothing against the actors. I think they all did a credible job. I just think two and a half hours was too long to spend with the Colonel (oops, sorry, Lieutenant Colonel). Even Slade himself admits that he has always been a screw-up, and it seems since the incident that led to his blindness he has gotten much worse, and suicidal to boot. Fair enough, at times he did seem to be a waste of skin, so suicide was a viable option. Lt. Colonel Frank Slade can be casually insulting or verbally abusive to any person that enters his orbit: friend or foe, family or stranger, it doesn’t matter. And he can be physically abusive for provocations that we mere mortals learn to swallow in silence or with some modicum of class. Yes, that is his style, but wait. That applies to men only, it seems. With women, whom he magically knows are attractive by their smell despite his blindness, he is courtly, charming, respectful with only occasional lapses of lewdness. So if he can be a normal human with attractive women, what is his problem with everyone else? Well, of course it doesn’t matter, because he is larger than life and the centerpiece of the movie. All of his moods and actions lead up to a speech he delivers at the end of the film, words that prove he is the hero of the movie. I would like to think that his time spent with Charlie was transformative for him and led to real character growth, but really, I don’t think that anything short of miraculously regaining his sight would have achieved that happy result.
CinemaSerf2024-04-15
★ 7/10
"Charlie" (Chris O'Donnell) is a hard-up student at the posh Baird prep. school where his bursary-funded status sees him looked down upon by many of his fellow, silver-spooned, colleagues. Their rather pompous principal "Trask" (James Rebhorn) is the victim of a rather messy and humiliating prank, and convinced that "Charlie" and his rather spineless pal "George" (Philip Seymour Hoffman) know whodunit, he decides to convene a meeting of the entire school to force confessions from the boys. Meantime, and always hard up for cash, "Charlie" is offered a job babysitting a blind man. Boy, is he in for a shock! His introduction to "Lt. Col. Slade" (Al Pacino) certainly opens his eyes. This man is a bully, not really any other word for it. He lost his sight fighting for his country, and initially appears as little better than an intolerant and foul-mouthed thug with quite a superiority complex and a penchant for bourbon. "Slade" and his new helper are destined for a luxury trip to New York for Thanksgiving. First class flights, a suite in the Waldorf and a $28 burger turn the young man's head but no so much as the confession his employer makes as to the purpose of the trip. What now ensues does follow a rather predictable path, but it's really the two characterisations that shine here. Pacino has, arguably, the easier part to play. His being the stronger, more forceful role as the epitome of the obnoxious. It's O'Connell who has to tread on the eggshells as he must reconcile his need for the cash, his dread of what awaits him back at school and a growing interest in this man of contradictions. By going to extremes so often, "Charlie" (and the audience) are introduced to a man who has standards he feels are long gone. Loyalty, dignity and maybe most of all - integrity. It's those virtues that he hopes to see in his companion - but will he? We are treated to a well written and delivered tour-de-force from Pacino here in what I think is easily his most emotional and visceral performance, and O'Donnell works well as the shy, introspective foil with whom he fences on an increasingly less one-sided basis. A disastrous trip to his family for turkey lunch is tempered by one of the best performed tangos you're ever likely to see on screen - and I found 2½ hours just flew by in a compelling and enthralling fashion. New blood in old veins, or vice versa, or both?