At the 20th anniversary screening of classic Tom Sizemore flick Heat, Al Pacino revealed that his character moved and spoke in that way because detective Vincent Hanna “chips cocaine” habitually. Perhaps pressured over the edge by the demands of the job, the once idealistic Serpico-type resorts to the Bolivian marching powder to fuel his crime-fighting. So that’s why his eyeballs appeared so determined to burst free from his skull. It’s an enlightening bit of movie trivia that sheds new light on one of Pacino’s – if not cinema’s – most memorable performances.
Why every character in GTA 5 also acts like that is anyone’s guess. From the central trio to their families, friends, nemeses, employers, government handlers and unrelated bystanders, everyone in Los Santos acts like they are a) absolutely wired and b) overcome with sheer hatred for humanity.
It’s most obvious in Trevor, of course, who introduces himself by stomping a man’s head into the dirt until he’s dead, and later commits acts of interactive torture, sexually motivated kidnapping and murder in the most flippant terms – all while bellowing at passing traffic. It’s satire of the archetypal GTA player’s actions throughout the series: a one-dimensional hellraiser. And yet he’s also got hours of dialogue, a character arc, and is as central to GTA 5’s story as anyone or anything else.
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