Psycho or Sociopath
Was Tony a psycho or sociopath?
No answer in close to 5 years?!
Actually, it strikes me that no thread so far brings up the the astonishing breadth of Tony. He is boss, convincing, fearless, subordinate in the beginning, confident, and just the opposite.
The whole story made me ponder if he had any other chance in life; a little like what the officer told him in the beginning and towards the end.
He was astonishingly a stout family man, and yet didn't mind going to the whores himself. A split personality?
To me he also comes across as someone with a desire of self-destruction. He is clever enough to know that he can't succeed on long run; like his boss. And yet, he doesn't get a grasp on life and stability. It seems he's driven to move on, move on, move on - until infinity or until death catches up with him.
This, to me, is the really good side of this movie, that made it seriously difficult for me to evaluate. Certain scenes *are* childish, certain scenes exist for their existence, as if the movie would fail without mass shooting.
Pacino does much less in the psychological department than this one, despite of clear weaknesses.
In a nutshell: Of course the man is a madman from the beginning. The movie is very good in slowly peeling his skins, until we end up at the core of someone with few alternatives to what he would do anyway. He also is a sociopath, some of his sentences reflect this; mostly his behaviour. He can barely react to others in a normal way. Just check how he treats his sister. His secretary shows us another clear picture of an essentially insecure person, who can only fill the void in himself and in his relationships with brute force.