Whilst Al Pacino's astonishing performaces have established him as one of the greatest actors of our time, Andrew Yule reveals that he has spent most of his life at war with himself. A traumatic childhood, years of grinding poverty and an inability to sustain relationships with, amongst others, Jill Calyburgh, Tuesday Weld and Diane Keaton have lead to a turbulent, unstable private life - a life nearly destroyed by an apparently hopeless alcohol addiction.

International success after The Godfather only served to intensify the crushing personal pressures on Pacino, and he has since had to live with some of the worst career moves in the history of Hollywood. Combining intensive research with extraordinarily frank interviews with Pacino's closest friends and associates, Andrew Yule strips away the wall of secrecy behind which the reclusive star has hidden and paints a startlingly intimate portrait of a truly remarkable personality.