“Give me your hand Charlie; this is the start of your education.”

-Al Pacino



Scent of a Woman was rated four out of five stars. In my honest opinion four out of five stars is quite accurate. This movie is for an older audience. Younger children wouldn’t understand this movie at all; it’s too deep for them to comprehend what’s being said.


The director of this film was Martin Brest who also directed Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run, Gigli, Meet Joe Black, and Going in Style. The stars of Scent of a Woman are Al Pacino and Chris O’ Donnell. Al Pacino played Lieutenant Colonel Frank Slade, a blind man who wants to die living his life to the fullest. Chris O’ Donnell played Charlie Simms, a poor boy who is on scholarship at a rich prep school.

Charlie needs a Thanksgiving weekend job, so he can save up enough money to go home to Oregon for Christmas. He ends up getting a job to take care of a blind Lieutenant colonel. What Charlie doesn’t realize is that Colonel has the whole weekend planned. He flies them out to New York and takes Charlie to multiple different places. When they get back, Charlie has to go to a meeting at his school because he is facing expulsion. Colonel shows up at Charlie’s meeting and saves him from getting expelled.


I personally loved the part where Colonel walked in on Charlie’s meeting and gave this whole speech about how he is disappointed about how they run their school. My favorite line was when Colonel stood up and yelled, “I’ve seen boys younger than these with their arms torn off and their legs ripped off, but there ain’t nothing like the sight of an amputated spirit.” I thought that line was the most moving line in the entire movie. How Colonel is explaining that if they expel Charlie he shouldn’t go home feeling as if he did something wrong and that the school is the one who made a bad decision.


I really enjoyed this entire movie. Some parts were slightly predictable, but others took me completely by surprise. I loved how this movie played out and it had an amazing ending!