Al Pacino plays the top Formula One driver on the European circuit and Marthe Keller is the dying woman he falls in love with. As the film opens, Pacino's teammate dies in a crash, and he is determined to find out why before he races his car again. He decides to drive to the clinic where a survivor of the crash is recovering from a broken neck, to see if he can learn more about what caused it. It is there that he meets Marthe. He is vulnerable to her charms because he's clearly not getting along with his current significant other, who is more interested in spending his money than making him happy. Thus, when Marthe hitches a ride out with him the next day, Pacino finds her perplexing but irresistible. It is only after he learns that she has a fatal disease that he decides he loves her, and tries to become the man she wants -- one who enjoys life to its fullest.

Only Sydney Pollack could make a three-hanky weeper out of a Formula One racing movie. Then again, only Sydney Pollack would have cast Al Pacino as the driver. (Can he even reach the pedals?) I thought Pacino was uncomfortable in this role beginning to end, but never more than the several times he had to sing to Keller. Suffice it to say that there is no Grammy in his future, and he presents no threat to the vocal skills of the Rat Pack. In fact, he's not even ready to compete with the original cast of Star Trek.

Bobby Deerfield is professionally acted, photographed and directed, but it is only for those who love weepy love stories, and offers nothing for those who are not addicted to that genre. If dyin' woman weepers are your thing, you may enjoy this one as well, but I won't be watching it again anytime soon. 

Scoop's notes:

Over a beer or two, we film geeks like to debate silly matters like "what's the worst Al Pacino movie?" Bobby Deerfield used to be the odds-on favorite, but then the (usually) distinguished Mr. Pacino agreed to appear in Gigli and ended the debate forever.

Astoundingly enough, the source novel for Bobby Deerfield, "Heaven Has No Favorites," was written by Erich Maria Remarque, who is best known as the author of the most famous novel about WW1, "All Quiet on the Western Front." Remarque wrote "All Quiet," a fictional retelling of his own experiences as a front-line soldier, in 1929 when he was about 30. "Heaven Has No Favorites" would not come for another 32 years. In between their publication dates, many of his other books had become movies and Remarque had become a celebrity, as well as an American and a member of the beautiful people. He was once Marlene Dietrich's lover, then later became Paulette Goddard's husband. Although he was a noted intellectual, pacifist, and internationalist, it was not out of character for him to write either love stories or sports stories. He began his writing career as a sports journalist, and his works often included sentimental scenes. In fact, one of his books ("A Time to Love and a Time to Die") was made into a weepy-ass movie by the very king of the weepy-ass movies, Doug Sirk!

One of Remarque's most famous quotes:

"If things went according to the death notices, man would be absolutely perfect. There you find only first-class fathers, immaculate husbands, model children, unselfish, self-sacrificing mothers, grandparents mourned by all, businessmen in contrast with whom Francis of Assisi would seem an infinite egoist, generals dripping with kindness, humane prosecuting attorneys, almost holy munitions makers - in short, the earth seems to have been populated by a horde of wingless angels without one's having been aware of it."