Jump to content

RIP James Caan.


invisible airwave
 Share

Recommended Posts

So long Santino

and  the "Thief" ( with it's great soundtrack by Tangerine Dream.)

RIP James.

 

Edited by pjbear05
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

RIP James. Great actor, saw him in "The Good Neighbour" recently, such an understated role but actors of his calibre always retain a presence on screen.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Caan had a unique way of delivering lines and making them his own, like this one from Eraser, where he was threatening a fellow bad guy: "You know, some people take things for granted, like the ability to chew solid food." RIP, James.

  • Like 4
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I don't want my brother coming out of that toilet with just his dick in his hands, alright?

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

The many roles that he refused are mind-boggling.  
 

Superman, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Apocalypse Now…..:ohmy:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Principled Man said:

The many roles that he refused are mind-boggling.  
 

Superman, One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest, Apocalypse Now…..:ohmy:

In a way, he dodged the bullet on the last one as good as it is just for it's well known troubled production judging by the Hearts of Darkness documentary Showtime made a few decades ago.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

43 minutes ago, invisible airwave said:

In a way, he dodged the bullet on the last one as good as it is just for it's well known troubled production judging by the Hearts of Darkness documentary Showtime made a few decades ago.


He had zero interest in hanging out in the Philippine jungle for days and days…..LOL

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, 1-0-0-1-0-0-1 said:

Caan had a unique way of delivering lines and making them his own, like this one from Eraser, where he was threatening a fellow bad guy: "You know, some people take things for granted, like the ability to chew solid food." RIP, James.

Part of another classic Ahnuld one liner when 

Spoiler

Caan is killed off at the end.  "They caught a train." :laugh:

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm sorry, to hear, see, and read this.  He was a gifted, and talented actor, who was in some classic, timeless, and great movies.  He will be missed, and remembered.  My condolences, and sympathies, to his family, and friends.  R.I.P., James.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/7/2022 at 1:26 PM, Principled Man said:

9d4d3cdc9359783fe4fbe1b6d6ff3b72--real-h

 

Brians-Song-585x468.jpg

 

Yup. That's what I thought of immediately when I heard. Early in his career, such a good movie. (Brian's Song, not Rollerball, although that was good in its own way. ) RIP, Mr. Caan- you will be missed.

Edited by blueschica
  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

[An article by David Von Drehle of The Washington Post]

 

On the evening of Nov. 30, 1971, American males got in touch with our feelings, thanks to a TV movie called “Brian’s Song.” 

 

It was the Tuesday after the long Thanksgiving weekend.  We’d celebrated the holiday in the manly way: dad in his jacket and tie and me in an itchy sweater, accompanying the womenfolk to church. We mumbled along as the congregation sang “Come, Ye Thankful People, Come,” because mumbling was more masculine than singing. Then we returned home to watch football while mom toiled in the steamy kitchen.

 

Did we offer to help? Ha! Males did not cook in those days unless they were outdoors, or French. The sole exception to this rule was the carving of the Thanksgiving turkey, a solemn task reserved for The Father — even if, like mine, he was neither a butcher nor a surgeon but simply worked at a warehouse. 

 

We might say today that carving the turkey was “a performance of masculine stereotypes.” So it was. But we had no words for such a concept because we weren’t in touch with our feelings. Dads carved turkeys. We knew this from pictures in our schoolbooks.

 

Equally rigid was the rule that Big Boys Don’t Cry. This Eleventh Commandment was a source of great concern to me. At 10 years old, I was most definitely a Big Boy, with a poster of an NFL lineman over my bed and a plastic ring from Woolworth’s on my girlfriend’s finger. But I was still known to cry sometimes. I secretly feared I was a crybaby.

 

On the fateful night, we took our customary places around the 19-inch TV screen. It seems unimaginable now, but back then, Americans had only three choices (apart from local programming and educational stuff). The obvious choice for manly males was the new movie on ABC. It was about football.


But it was not about football. “Brian’s Song” was a love story to the sound of crashing shoulder pads and trilling whistles, with a haunting theme song that soon filled the radio airwaves. It celebrated the real-life brotherhood between the gifted halfback Gale Sayers (played by supercool Billy Dee Williams) and the bantam fullback Brian Piccolo on the Chicago Bears football team of the late 1960s. James Caan played Piccolo. 

 

Their friendship was the beau ideal of warrior comrades. Shared struggles ripened into mutual respect, then deepened into genuine trust and, finally, as Piccolo faced his early death by cancer, became something even more. “I love Brian Piccolo,” Sayers declared — in life and in the movie. It was a shocking statement to the wartime generation and its sons, boldly naming a feeling we craved despite its fearsome power.

 

Men cried that night for the young and beautiful dead, and for those who survived them and went on.

 

It had not always been true that big boys don’t cry. The literature of past ages is full of tears of joy, of sorrow, of pride, of wonder. Even the Bible pauses for this two-word verse: “Jesus wept.”  But there was a damming of the tear ducts among men who knew the love and loss of comrades from Ypres to Iwo Jima to Ia Drang.

 

And the bond between Sayers and Piccolo was something more in 1971, when the nation was aflame. Sayers was Black. Piccolo was White. Their brief and glorious friendship suggested that healing might be possible, even as Piccolo’s death at 26 warned of its evanescence.

 

“Brian’s Song” came at the start of a decade of magnificent filmmaking, but it was not a great movie. Only a powerful one. It was a statement of intense feeling that neither hid nor apologized for its heart. It was an argument in favor of caring, the case for giving a damn.


I tried not to cry during the final minutes, dutifully performing my masculine stereotype. But I failed. I’m not sure I’ve ever met a guy who succeeded. When I stole a guilty glimpse toward my father to see if he had caught me welling up, I saw glassy pools in his eyes. 

 

I don’t know that he cried very often after that. I, on the other hand, have been a river of tears. It’s a joke among my family and friends. Here’s a sunrise. Here’s a commercial for coffee at Christmas. Here’s a sappy old song on the radio. Dave’s probably going to weep. I’ve learned to stop apologizing.

 

Caan went on to play Sonny Corleone in arguably the best of those 1970s masterpieces, “The Godfather.” His performance earned an Oscar nomination. Yet for me and for millions of American males who were surprised by feeling on that long-ago November night, he was forever Brian Piccolo. Which is why, when news came of his death, I cried.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 7/8/2022 at 7:23 PM, blueschica said:

 

Yup. That's what I thought of immediately when I heard. Early in his career, such a good movie. (Brian's Song, not Rollerball, although that was good in its own way. ) RIP, Mr. Caan- you will be missed.

No way Becky, ROLLERBALL is kick ass! I 

 

Rollerball-1975-Szene-5-scaled.jpg

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

I know I'm coming into this way late, but I have always admired Caan's acting abilities even though he probably never received the same respect from film critics compared to the usual suspects, Pacino and Bob de Niro.

 

For me his best film was "Thief", directed by Michael Man back in 1981. A crime/thriller with Caan's character trying to go straight from a life of being a thief. 

This could have been just another bad-guy-does-good, but Caan's role was certainly far more rounded and engrossing especially with his personal confessions over coffee with his on/off girlfriend Tuesday Weld.

Even some of the more stoic film critics such as Rogert Ebert admired not only the film itself but also Caan's enthralling performance.

A film well worth checking out

 

hqdefault.jpg

 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Sonatine said:

I know I'm coming into this way late, but I have always admired Caan's acting abilities even though he probably never received the same respect from film critics compared to the usual suspects, Pacino and Bob de Niro.

 

For me his best film was "Thief", directed by Michael Man back in 1981. A crime/thriller with Caan's character trying to go straight from a life of being a thief. 

This could have been just another bad-guy-does-good, but Caan's role was certainly far more rounded and engrossing especially with his personal confessions over coffee with his on/off girlfriend Tuesday Weld.

Even some of the more stoic film critics such as Rogert Ebert admired not only the film itself but also Caan's enthralling performance.

A film well worth checking out

 

hqdefault.jpg

 

Saw that on some Starz channel many years ago.  One of the best directorial debuts ever.  My personal favorite from Mann is The Insider.

 

I had forgotten he was in this since it had quite a number of cameos like Dustin Hoffman.  I remember before finishing 3rd grade wanting those "I wast there first!" shirts those commercials advertised for so bad.  Now, they're being sold on eBay et al.  Here's my 9 year old self chance! :laugh:

 

 

Edited by invisible airwave
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...