To celebrate Al Pacino’s 80th birthday, Be Reel zeroes in on one of the acting legend’s favorite archetypes—the ragged police detective. Today, we trace Pacino’s investigative methods all the way from iconic “Serpico” (1973) to controversial “Cruising” (1980) to charged “Sea of Love” (1989) to unimpeachable “Heat” (1995) to perhaps underrated “Insomnia” (2002), all the way to VOD schlock like “Hangman” (2017). It’s a trajectory that reveals Pacino’s groundbreaking subtlety transforming into meme-able gravitas and intersects with some of the absolute best directors of the last half-century. Join us; there’s definitely a gold shield in it for you.

BE REEL is brought to you by California College of the Arts’ Writing MFA Program. Learn more about their wonderful work at cca.edu/writingmfa.