Scent of a Woman

Charlie Simms is a scholarship student at a private prep school who needs money to get home to Oregon for the holidays. He takes a short Thanksgiving job caring for Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, a retired Army officer who lives with his niece and her family. Slade is blunt, bitter and legally blind, and he prods Charlie with insults and challenges that reveal character and conviction. As the weekend unfolds, social pressures at the school collide with the colonel's volatile personality, testing Charlie's sense of right and wrong and shaping an uneasy bond between them, shaped by loyalty, truth, sacrifice and quiet humor.

Released in 1992, Scent of a Woman was directed by Martin Brest. The screenplay was adapted by Bo Goldman from work credited to Giovanni Arpino and Ruggero Maccari, updating the story for an American setting with big-screen performances.

Al Pacino's portrayal of Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade earned him the Academy Award for Best Actor, a major highlight of the film's awards run. His turn is often cited as one of the defining performances of his career and was recognized across several industry honors. It earned further critical attention.

The movie lodged a few vivid images in popular culture, notably the tango sequence with Gabrielle Anwar and Pacino's distinctive mannerisms. The character's 'Hoo-ah!' exclamation became widely associated with Pacino, and the film's courtroom climax is frequently referenced in discussions of moral courage and performance acting.

Critics praised Pacino's performance even when opinions varied on other elements, and viewers gave the film a vote average of 7.776/10 from 3,776 votes. Major themes include duty versus desire, integrity under pressure, social class differences and the costs of honesty, all threaded through an intense character study.