A Hundred Button Men on the Street, Twenty-Four Hours a Day: the James Caan (Memorial) Poll

I always vote in these things right away, but I will take the time to rewatch Thief before voting.

It is worth the rewatch! I’m voting for it, though The Godfather will, and likely should, win.

I actually suspect Thief will win going away.

The Rain People, which I finally saw this year: young, athletic-looking, yet also with innocent, trusting expression, is picked up by wife on the run, an Older Woman, maybe 30 at most, tries to get him to play motel games, but something is off. He's a college football star with a head injury and some get-lost pittance from his alma mater of sorts. They take an American Road Trip, as one does in movies of that era, and Coppola just kept them going and going, inspired by local color and characters to some improvised passages, truly winging it, and a bit pre-Apocalypse Now in a plaid rain people way--Caan said it turned out to be his most challenging work ever, but I think he does fine.

I wouldn't vote for this because it's just a cameo, but I just loved when he showed up at the end of Dogville.

I will be obv and vote Godfather but i love everything tiny thing about him in Elf, he had the gruff dad thing on lock in his 00’s career

I've probably seen The Gambler, or most of it, a dozen times. Lots of florid James Toback stuff in the script, but Caan is at the peak of his career, and there are a bunch of memorable supporting bits from Paul Sorvino, Burt Young, etc.--Vic Tayback, even.

Warner Archive has a ton of scenes from Freebie up on YT. The stuntwork and stunt staging is God-tier for 1974, while Caan & Arkin are so good together it's crazy they never teamed up again (although on IMDb it's claimed there was a sequel in the works with Arkin directing in place of Richard Rush, whom the pair apparently hated).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hkDK6QcUOGc

I love how they go straight from the sudden violence in the office to an absurd shootout between glass elevators. It's like something from The Simpsons or Family Guy.

And of course there's the most famous chase from film full of them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Q5xh5EdEaI

Voting for alternate-universe Uncut Gems:

After sandler first rejected us our instinct was to cast James Caan as Howard. Obvs it was always sandman’s part, but in the air somewhere is a version with jimmy caan… as seen here in 2011.. RIP pic.twitter.com/GeD3xlPWEe

— SAFDIE (@JOSH_BENNY) July 8, 2022

His Newsradio episode

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkXR-sj6Csc

this is def thief for me but i might vote for eraser bc as an arnold-obsessed kid i remember being transfixed by caan’s performance as the villain

eraser in fact features the jameses caan, coburn, and cromwell, murderers row of character actors with the initials jc

movie is total trash but fun for what it is

oooh! Now I'm tempted.

I may vote for The Yards.

In the not too distant future
Rollerball will not actually exist
But there will be wars

xps I legitimately miss the days of shit like Eraser

haven't seen nearly enough of his work, but going ahead and voting Thief. staggering movie, great marriage of performance, material and direction.

i believe the Freebie sequel may have morphed into The In-Laws.

(and re: Eraser, i have lately found myself turning to underthought 90s blockbuster bullshit for comfort watches. am currently 30 minutes shy of finishing The 6th Day, which is 2000 but i think belongs under the same umbrella.)

i have lately found myself turning to underthought 90s blockbuster bullshit for comfort watches

Ah, then I need to make a podcast plug -- my By-the-Bywater cohost Oriana has a great podcast with her husband called Mission: Recall which is about precisely that.

https://soundcloud.com/mission-recall-podcast/tracks

I just saw Honeymoon In Vegas and definitely will not be voting for it.

It's not iconic or anything, but every time I think of him, it's this scene in Bottle Rocket:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QojjhS7Rd7c

added Mission: Recall to my list, thanks! Oriana is great on BtB. the lineup seems to generally be of higher quality than your Erasers and 13th Warriors... Or, to bring in another Caan joint (that i haven't seen, but which doesn't seem to have any reputation at all), your Bulletproofs.

I am afraid of watching any movies pre-2006 because there will be a scene with a gas station and gas prices.

need a website to warn me of all gas station scenes

honestly I'd been wanting to re-watch Dick Tracy for a while and this is sufficient reminder to do so.

so much on this list I'm ashamed I haven't seen.

co-sign his appearance at the end of Dogville.

Obviously as a Godfather stan, he'll always be Sonny to me. Thief is good but I don't think his performance tops Sonny for me.

Mickey Blue Eyes was part of the glut of mafia comedys from the 90s which were really, really not funny. the one running joke, that Hugh Grant can't fake an American accent, isn't funny the first or the next 300 times. of note though, a TON of future Sopranos actors are in this one.

I love the way he says "up yours" to his boss in Elf. The Program was really good, remember the controversial scene of the players lying down in the middle of the highway and people copycatting it.

Rollerball is silly but also fairly prophetic.

Thief was a star turn for him.

I'd argue that he gave the best performance of the entire cast in The Godfather.

"we don't discuss business at the table"

"Did you go to college to get stupid? You really are stupid."

eraser in fact features the jameses caan, coburn, and cromwell, murderers row of character actors with the initials jc

"By the way Denton, my three daughters turned up dead. Here's your op bonus, one thousand credits."

The mention of Freebie and the Bean led me to Busting - Freebie was held back from release so that it didn't overlap with Busting, which in turn went on to be the direct inspiration for Starsky and Hutch. I had always thought of mismatched buddy cop films as a 1980s phenomenon, but no, they were a 1970s thing as well, viz Hickey and Boggs etc. I guess the 1980s buddy cop film was just a modernised take on the same idea, with musical montages and floppier suits.

This made me wonder if Caan had ever co-starred with Elliott Gould, who was another one of those 1970s actors who was in lots of films without ever becoming a massive star. And they did, they were both in Harry and Walter go to the New York. And for that matter A Bridge Too Far, but from what I remember the James Caan scenes in that film felt as if they were shot by a different unit and spliced into the rest of the film. The standard narrative is that Caan had the looks and talent to be a kind of Clint Eastwood / Steve McQueen type but never quite broke through, but he has an interesting filmography and worked consistently. Like a hairer Robert Duvall. Thief was great but he had a gift for comedy as well.

I realise at this point I've completely mixed up The Killer Elite with The Osterman Weekend. They're totally different films. It's odd to think of Sam Peckinpah releasing a film in the same years as Blade Runner and Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan but he did.

Caan had the looks and talent to be a kind of Clint Eastwood / Steve McQueen type but never quite broke through

He seems to have turned down a lot of roles that might have vaulted him up into a higher showbiz tier. He also turned down a role starring in a TV series, saying, "I want to be an actor, not a millionaire." Interesting guy.

Possibly worth noting that Caan's brother was a producer on Thief and The Gambler.

Paul Schrader on Facebook:

My only memory of James Caan. 1978. I was in Vegas on a Sunday with Jim Toback playing the sports book. Last game of the day. There was 6-8 of us in Caan's large MGM suite. We were all clothed except Caan who was naked. Don' know why. He was in great shape. Maybe that was the reason. We'd bet opposite sides of the game (I believe Cinci was playing). My bet was smallish, Caan's largish. James Caan became increasingly upset with my increasingly vocal cheering. Words were exchanged. Next thing I know he has his hands on me. My reaction was to respond but at the last moment sanity intervened. "I'm not going to get in a fight with a bulked up naked actor in his suite surrounded by four of his thuggish buds"--it occurred to me. So I split and headed for the airport and watched in the lounge as Caan's team beat the spread.

Speaking of...I wonder if, after a few days, some less than salutary stuff will come out. After The Godfather, the first thing I've always thought of when I think of him is how he pretty much defined a certain kind of '70s actor who lived at the Playboy Mansion. Always assumed, perhaps unfairly, that there wasn't a whole lot of distance between him and Sonny in the mid-'70s.

lmao this quote

“I used to say marriages were like tornadoes,” he told the Guardian at the ripe age of 59. “There’s all this blowing and sucking at the beginning; and at the end, you always lose your house. But, hey, I’m maturing.”


https://nypost.com/2022/07/08/james-caan-lived-a-full-life-sex-drugs-and-the-playboy-mansion/

He had the Playdude Treehouse ON LOCK

https://frinkiac.com/meme/S16E02/709585.jpg?b64lines=Cg==

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84x8UEe9FBo

Joseph McBride has a great JC story up on Facepalm.

Hi!

http://thedissolve.com/features/forgotbusters/454-eraser-is-the-most-schwarzeneggerian-movie-arnold-/

Seems like I've mentioned this before, but in '96 I had to make up some credits in Summer School, and every morning at check-in my assigned seat was next to this kid who was always reading _the novelization of Eraser_.

I’ve never seen Misery. Is it any good?

Yes.

Misery is great - one of my favorite King adaptations.

Right on. I’ll get to it.

Another one I've never watched a second time...remember it as gory and pretty good (but not Carrie or Dead Zone-level good), and I think my introduction to Kathy Bates, who I've to come to view as an excellent actress.

It's not iconic or anything, but every time I think of him, it's this scene in _Bottle Rocket_:

📹🕸

Clemenza, just letting you know that I already voted in this poll and cannot vote again.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

I did rewatch Thief (finished today), but voted for The Godfather. Thought it was okay, but Caan seemed secondary to the cinematography--had that neon, early-'80s Bladerunner look down--and the score. I was actually confused as to why he had to set fire to everything near the end.

When James Caan is your t-ball coach … pic.twitter.com/yoecDGiqSV

— Super 70s Sports (@Super70sSports) July 16, 2022

oh man that rules

“There’s chocolate all over this ball”

More info:

My friend Josh Zuboff sent this photo and info….
“Here’s a pic of my 1983 T BALL TEAM with Coach Jimmy Caan. “Coach Jimmy” as he preferred. Scott (his son) is the one kneeling front right”. (That’s also businessman & producer Steve Bing standing on the right who passed in 2020. pic.twitter.com/gG2oeEAq07

— Vintage Los Angeles (@alisonmartino) July 16, 2022

(Steve Bing = colossal p.o.s. though)

"In 2001, Bing sued billionaire Kirk Kerkorian for invasion of privacy. Bing alleged that convicted criminal private investigator Anthony Pellicano took Bing's dental floss out of his trash to collect his DNA."

screened THE GAMBLER last night, caan was sooo good

He was--posted about it above. Heavy-handed in a way that California Split (same year) never is, but I think Caan would have been a better AA nominee than Hoffman in Lenny (and I bet better than Albert Finney in Orient Express, although I've never seen that). Stay very, very far away from the remake with Mark Wahlberg.