Readers of a certain age will remember the sheer nuclear impact of Michael Mann’s Heat on its release in 1995. Not only was it formally ambitious and wildly influential, but it also represented the first time that Al Pacino and Robert De Niro had ever shared a screen.
This, more than anything, was the film’s big draw. Two men, each justifiably thought of as the greatest actor to ever work in the medium, bristling against each other in real time. Their scene together in the diner was billed as the greatest spectacle in cinema since King Kong climbed the Empire State Building. Pacino v De Niro was Fischer v Spassky. It was Einstein v Bohr. It was Foreman v Ali. There was genuinely no way to overstate how momentous the pairing was.
Anyway, they’re selling coats now.
Yesterday the Hollywood Reporter announced that Robert De Niro and Al Pacino have just combined forces for “their first-ever joint brand campaign” on behalf of upmarket outerwear brand Moncler. In other words, if you enjoy the sight of octogenarians hugging in puffer jackets, this is essentially your Christmas.
So far the campaign consists of some black and white photos of De Niro and Pacino, and a YouTube video of two empty chairs soundtracked by a cover of Lean On Me while the actors, in voiceover, growl warmly about long walks and nice chats. Because a Moncler coat isn’t just a coat, it’s an “expression of friendship, connection and human warmth”.
And signing both Robert De Niro and Al Pacino for the campaign is undeniably a big get; or at least it would have been, were this 1995 and Heat had been their only previous pair up. Because, since then, it’s fair to say that their quality control has drifted a little. The readers who were excited by Heat may also remember just how disorientating it was when they chose, of all the projects in the world, to team up once more for 2008’s Righteous Kill. That film, a generic cop thriller co-starring 50 Cent and directed by the man who made Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, immediately vapourised any sense of excitement about De Niro and Pacino ever sharing a screen together.
Not even a third joint appearance on film, in the much more prestigious environs of Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, could salvage the wonder all that much. Now, that may have been because the pair of them spent a lot of their time onscreen swaddled in nightmarishly unconvincing CGI de-ageing technology, which meant that they were less De Niro and Pacino and more two plasticky androids, but that’s really beside the point.
Also, it should probably be mentioned that the Moncler campaign would have had a lot more impact had this been their first forays into advertising. However, that is far from the case. Pacino has previously played golf on top of a grand piano to advertise Sky Broadband (in his autobiography he blames this on an accountant who mismanaged his money and lost him $50m) while in 2019 De Niro starred in a Warburtons advert where he got to deliver the immortal line “Bolton bakes best bagel? My butt” (he has offered no explanation for this; perhaps he just really likes bakeries).
However, can you really begrudge them for this latest venture? Aside from the – presumably very large compensation – it’s important to remember that Robert De Niro and Al Pacino are now both in their 80s. Despite the creative missteps they may have made in the past, they remain two extremely beloved figures in the world of film. While it’s true that they’re both very good actors, the photos for the campaign show what seems to be genuine warmth. They’ve got decades of history behind them, and that’s perfectly evident.
Plus, even though the script for the YouTube video could be lifted and dropped wholesale into an advert for a building society that airs during Countdown, it’s worth pointing out that the pair of them sell the absolute hell out of it. There’s a chance that the wider campaign will be about two old friends in the winter of their lives, sincerely reminiscing about their years together. If that’s the case – and if the viewer is able to remove the cognitive dissonance that comes from knowing that this is all just to flog some coats – then it promises to be incredibly moving. All that, plus it’ll knock Righteous Kill from the podium of their best onscreen moments. Honestly, what’s not to like?
