YMMV / Scent of a Woman

• Catharsis Factor: Seeing Frank choke out his obnoxious nephew at the Thanksgiving dinner for ruining the day for everyone, especially Frank and Charlie, ^note the latter of whom provoked him to react due to his Malicious Misnaming of calling him "Chuckie" twice even after the colonel orders him not to do it, in spite of all of the vicious (but not all entirely untrue) things he said about the former. The man does have a flippant attitude, is an alcoholic and did use extremely poor judgment in juggling live grenades, which caused his blindness, but a holiday isn't the right place to air grievances with him or to call him a blind asshole or brag about God punishing him, especially when his own father, Frank's older brother, and other family members keeps pleading with him to stop is this to many people who have that one prick family member/frenemy who always goes too far and you wish you could hit but can't due to alienating family relations or facing potential legal trouble.
• He Really Can Act: Chris O'Donnell deserves some love here for holding his own against Al Pacino and making their relationship and the mutual benefit entirely believable.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: George Willis Jr. is a boisterous, cajoling rich kid who is stocky, round-faced, and wears his blonde hair chin-length, with a comb-over to the left. The resemblance to a certain US businessman-turned-President became funnier when in 2017 Chris O'Donnell revealed that Trump did demand a scene in the movie if they were to film at the Plaza Hotel which he owns, but it was cut out immediately after filming.
• Mainstream Obscurity: "Hey, it's that film where Al Pacino finally won an Oscar! Hey, it's that film that robbed Denzel Washington (Malcolm X), Clint Eastwood (Unforgiven), and Robert Downey Jr. (Chaplin) of the Best Actor Oscar!" This is done all the time, unfortunately. As talented as he is and all the nominations he received throughout the years, Al was repeatedly snubbed by the Oscars, and while the film has gotten a better reputation in the years since its release, many were surprised that he finally received his award for this film.
• Memetic Mutation: The movie, and in particular Al Pacino's catchphrase "Hoo-ah!" and other verbal tics, have gone on to become staples of meme culture through both supercuts and it being lampooned on an episode of The Critic.
• Moment of Awesome: There are plenty of moments, including Col. Slade's tango, his driving, the fact he manages to talk a cop out of a ticket without the man ever realizing he's blind, the standoff between Slade and Charlie and the meeting before the council, especially both the "FUCK YOU, TOO!" and for getting Charlie off (and the whole school giving them a standing ovation).
• One-Scene Wonder: A younger Gabrielle Anwar plays Donna, who does a memorable tango dance with Col. Slade.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • Chris O'Donnell would go on to play Robin in Batman Forever and Batman & Robin.
  • Philip Seymour Hoffman would have a 20-year, very diverse career until his death in 2014.
  • Gabrielle Anwar would go on to play Fiona Glenanne on the TV series Burn Notice.
  • Bradley Whitford, who plays Slade's nephew here, would become more widely known following his work as Josh Lyman on The West Wing.
  • June Squibb would also gain wider recognition two decades later when she earned an Oscar nomination for her performance in Nebraska!.
  • Frances Conroy (who, around this point, was more focused on theatrical work) would eventually gain great critical acclaim as Ruth Fisher in Six Feet Under.
  • Ron Eldard, who plays the officer who pulls Slade over when he's driving the Ferrari, would go on to appear in many films (Deep Impact, House of Sand and Fog) and TV shows (ER, Justified).
• Tear Jerker:
  • Frank and Charlie in the standoff, with the latter trying everything he can to convince the former not to kill himself. Even after wrestling the gun from him and talking him down, it still does not undo his eventual total blindness, something he is painfully aware of.
    "I'm in the dark here! DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND?! I'M IN THE DARK!!"
  • Even the scene before is pretty sad; throughout the film until that point, Frank was so full of life and piss and vinegar, yet that morning he's so low and depressed, he has to be woken by Charlie and he devises a plan to send the kid on errands. Thank God he ends up coming back soon.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Randy, Frank's nephew, is supposed to be portrayed as a petty, spiteful jerk. But while he isn't an angel and he's frosty from the start (and for good reason, seeing Frank's history with his family and how his shenanigans ended up making him blind), he only starts making jabs at the colonel when he doesn't stop insulting him, as well as making passes at his wife (judging by her nervousness, not for the first time), making a show out of misnaming her, or using her as a proxy to poke fun at Randy's supposed sexual ineptitude. Interestingly, Frank only goes ballistic when when Randy starts insulting Charles by intentionally misnaming him; he seems otherwise to take the insults to himself in stride, or even be in agreement.

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