Caan’s Dozen: 12 films you must check out to discover James Caan beyond Sonny Corleone in The Godfather

Few actors manage to get death scenes in films that become iconic enough to spawn tributes, rehashes or parodies that celebrate them. James Caan’s final scene as Sonny Corleone in The Godfather ranks high up among such sequences. Sonny’s dramatic toll plaza shootdown in the Francis Ford Coppola classic not only continues to be a template, the sequence even has the distinction of generating an equally remarkable spoof scene in the popular animated series, The Simpsons. What made the tribute doubly special was Caan lent his voice to the spoof sequence, too.

The legacy of being and dying as Sonny Corleone in The Godfather was so overbearing on his oeuvre that the film and the role mark automatic recall when you think of James Caan. He will always primarily be Don Vito Corleone’s hotheaded eldest son Sonny, almost invariably doomed to a tragic end given his violent and impatient disposition. For Caan, being Sonny in The Godfather meant crafting a calling card for life. It was a role that fetched him nominations at the Oscars and the Globes besides sundry other awards. It was so complete a performance that people often tend to overlook that Caan was fabulous in many other roles in a career span of over five decades and that his overall accomplishment was the reason for him to earn a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1978.

Caan was a bona fide star even beyond the legacy of Sonny Corleone, and he exuded a mix of suave looks and rugged athleticism. While watching Sonny Corleone in The Godfather lets you appreciate his intense screen presence despite limited footage, here are twelve other performances of James Caan that you must check out in order to truly admire his range as an actor. From the western action hero to the vulnerable drifter, from essaying Dostoyevskian existential crisis to being the comic villain, and from the classic romantic hero to the sci-fi action star, he has been there, done it all.

THE GLORY GUYS

A nomination at the Golden Globes in the category of New Star Of The Year for his role of a young army man, Private Anthony Dugan, saw Caan hit limelight with this early release. Based on Hoffman Birney’s 1956 novel The Dice Of God, the western drama had a screenplay by the legendary Sam Peckinpah and was directed by Arnold Laven. A fictionalised tale set against the backdrop of the Battle of the Little Big Horn of 1876, the film was about two cavalry soldiers who are a part of the battle against native Indians and are in love with the same woman.

EL DORADO

Pitted against contemporary greats John Wayne and Robert Mitchum in the western action drama, a budding James Caan stood his own playing an avenging cowboy named Alan Bourdillion Traherne, widely known as Mississippi. The Howard Hawks-directed film, based on Harry Brown’s novel The Stars In Their Courses, had Caan in a supporting role. However, his new-age acting approach and distinct screen presence ensured he stood out among bigger stars in the cast.

THE RAIN PEOPLE

Three years before The Godfather, this was the first time Francis Ford Coppola directed James Caan. The Rain People, an experimental road movie that explores the quirks of human nature, cast Caan in a vulnerable role as Jimmie Kilgannon, or Killer, a onetime high school star athlete who subsequently lost it all owing to injury and is now a drifter. The film is narrated from the perspective of a housewife (Shirley Knight) who leaves home after discovering she is pregnant and picks Killer as a hitchhiker on the way. The film has mostly deemed a failure critically and commercially upon release, though over the decades it has come to be accepted as a classic.

BRIAN'S SONG

The biographical drama has one of James Caan’s greatest roles, as Louis Brian Piccolo, an American football star who played as halfback for the Chicago Bears and died at age 26 from cancer. Caan’s searing portrayal of Brian Piccolo in the TV film fetched a Best Actor Emmy nomination. The narrative unfolds through the eyes of Brian’s teammate Gale Sayers, played by Billy Dee Williams, as director Buzz Kulik sets up drama through contrasting personality traits and racial backgrounds of the duo. An Entertainment Weekly poll in 2005 saw the film rank at number seven among Guy Cry flicks.

CINDERELLA LIBERTY

James Caan played a quintessential lover in the romantic drama, directed by Mark Rydell and screenplayed by Daryl Ponicsan from his novel of the same name. Caan played a US Navy sailor who falls in love with a sex worker, Maggie (Marsha Mason). An uncomplicated drama highlighted by the play of emotions, the film allowed Caan to exhibit his charisma as a romantic lead.

THE GAMBLER

Caan’s performance as a gambling-addicted English professor fetched him nomination in the Best Actor (Motion Picture — Drama) category at the Golden Globe Awards. His character, Axel Reed, loves discussing Fyodor Dostoevsky with his students, and the film’s director Karel Reisz and writer James Toback set up a narrative that allowed Caan to essay a protagonist who hopelessly cannot avoid losing grip on his life. True to the Dostoevsky tenet of existentialism, Reed finds purpose in being authentic to himself given his circumstances. So, while he is an erudite gentleman in class, he morphs into a hungry predator at the gambling table. Caan’s balancing the two traits of Reed underlines his immense potential as an actor.

ROLLERBALL

Harshly reviewed upon release, sci-fi sports drama, as well as Caan’s performance in the film, have gone on to attain cult following over the years. Released in 1975, the Norman Jewison directorial imagines a dystopian future in 2018 when society has turned excessively aggressive and the destructive streak in people is suppressed by distracting them with a popular and violent sport called rollerball, involving roller skates, metal balls, motorbikes and no-holds-barred physical attack on opponents. Caan plays the star player Jonathan E., though certain corporate bigwigs who run the game mysteriously want him retired. The actor adds a rugged edge to the nightmarish milieu in which the story unfolds. His Jonathan is at the same time humane enough to seem authentic and outlandish enough to belong to the bizarre world of the tale. The screenplay is adapted by William Harrison from his short story, Roller Ball Murder.

THIEF

The neo-noir heist thriller marked the feature directorial debut of Michael Mann, and was based on Frank Hohimer’s novel The Home Invaders: Confessions Of A Cat Burglar. Caan breathed life into his role of Frank, a safe-breaker torn between a criminal’s life and the idea of settling down with the woman he loves (played by Tuesday Weld). The legend around this film pertains to how Caan adopted a method approach for the role, spending time with the Chicago police and even interacting with criminals to get into the boots of his character.

MISERY

The film marked Caan’s comeback after almost a decade in wilderness. The Rob Reiner directorial, based on a Stephen King bestseller of the same name, has Caan playing popular novelist who, after a road accident, wakes up bedridden. His nightmare begins when he realises he is actually being held captive by an obsessed fan (Kathy Bates). While Bates won an Oscar for her role, Caan’s performance is remembered for the effortless support he added to the narrative, which subtly sets up a milieu of menace for his character.

HONEYMOON IN VEGAS

Andrew Bergman’s rom-com cast James Caan as a comic villain, in the role of Tommy Korman, a gambler who spots a young couple (Nicolas Cage and Sarah Jessica Parker) in Vegas and feels the woman looks like his dead wife. So, he decides to challenge the man in a card game in order to swindle and win a weekend with her. Caan balances the intimidating air about his role with the undercurrent humorous tone of the script.

BOTTLE ROCKET

Wes Anderson’s unforgettable indie flick cast Caan as Mr Henry. Although the crime comedy narrated the story of misadventures of three friends with plans to pull off a robbery (played by Owen Wilson, Luke Wilson and Robert Musgrave), Caan’s presence as the elderly Mr Henry, who always reserves a wise tip or two for Owen Wilson’s bumbling protagonist, added to the wit and drama.

ELF

Elf is an early directorial of Jon Favreau, who would go on to make two Iron Man films and The Jungle Book among other hits, and the film has one of the funniest screen appearances of James Caan. The Christmas fantasy story casts Will Ferrell as Buddy the Elf and Caan as Walter Hobbs, a struggling publishing house owner who is actually Buddy’s birth father. Walter is unaware of Buddy’s existence, and when he comes to know the truth he isn’t pleased. The film is about how Walter gradually has a change of heart.

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