Which James Caan movie should we watch to celebrate his life?

by philg

James Caan has died. I’m wondering if we should watch some of his lesser-known movies to celebrate his achievements. From Wikipedia:

In 1977, Caan rated several of his movies out of ten – The Godfather (10), Freebie and the Bean (4), Cinderella Liberty (8), The Gambler (8), Funny Lady (9), Rollerball (8), The Killer Elite (5), Harry and Walter Go to New York (0), Slither (4), A Bridge Too Far (7), and Another Man Another Chance (10).

Should we try to see that last one, a French Western(!)? It is available streaming on Amazon “ScreenPix”.

And, of course, we can’t mention anything related to The Godfather without reminding ourselves “A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a thousand men with guns.” (from the book, not the movies?)

A post-1977 film that seems like a good candidate is Misery, about a strong independent woman. For me, the movie is tainted by its association with Stephen King (I’m not a fan of the horror genre to begin with), but it features Kathy Bates and she won an Oscar for her performance.

What other James Caan movies are essential (like marijuana in California and Massachusetts)?

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16 thoughts on “Which James Caan movie should we watch to celebrate his life?”

  1. “Elf”! Caan was ok in it, but it’s funniest Christmas movie, worth watching every year. Fun trivia: the scene where Will Ferell runs around he streets of NYC dressed like an elf were ad-lib’d, the people weren’t actors, and their reactions were genuine and unscripted.

  2. Unpopular opinion: “The Godfather” was an overrated film that glamorized violence and the mafia.

  3. “Thief” – 1981 is reputed to be a pretty good movie but I’ve never seen it. I’ll watch it tonight in memoriam, because it’s an old-school Guy cisgender heteronormative movie without a lot (or any, I think!) of CGI. Just good old fashioned testosterone, real special effects, and of course it’s also got Willie (Ol’ Smoky) Nelson in it!

    • Also features Tuesday Weld and a thermal lance.

      … Uhm, not sure where I was going with that. Anyone want to step in?

    • @MattyH:

      I’m not a Tangerine Dream “dedicated aficionado” but I did once help them set up a show at a University and I enjoyed their performance a lot. It was a packed house and they had a great sound engineer – a very demanding job especially considering the space they were performing in. Mostly we lugged boxes and cables around, he did most of the real work and I think it was a great performance. At the time he used an Annie Lennox song to test his setup – which makes a lot of sense because of the way her albums were produced at the time.

      I listen to TG from time to time. They’re not for everyone all the time, though.

      “Thief” may not be a “Great Film” but I think Caan acted it well, kept it moving, told a good story, and I was surprised to learn they had done (most of) the music.

    • Off topic, but one interesting detail is the case diameter of most of the men’s wristwatches in the film. Even though Caan’s character brags about his gold watch, it seems small by today’s fashion standards. The “big bling” thing has puffed up the size of a lot of men’s wristwatches to absolutely HUGE dimensions. Invicta comes to mind but there are lots of others – I think too many. In terms of fashion, it’s strange to see all these macho guys in the movie wearing watches that are – in terms of their case size – quite a bit smaller than what’s ‘fashionable’ today.

      A 44-46mm watch is BIG and you need at least a 7-3/4″ wrist to pull it off well (trust me.) And then it just goes over the top and people walk around with these giant monsters on their wrists. This Invicta is 51mm and it’s not the biggest and baddest hombre in the valley.

      https://invictastores.com/invicta-reserve-venom-2-52-carat-diamond-men-s-watch-w-mother-of-pearl-oyster-dial-51mm-gold-35560

  4. > “A lawyer with a briefcase can steal more than a thousand men with guns.” (from the book, not the movies?)

    OK I did a little searching since I cannot rely on my exact memory of the last time I saw the movie, which was ca. 1982 (after my father thought I was old enough to handle it.):

    The line is in the movie script but I cannot find a video clip of it being actually SAID, at least not any free versions on YouTube, etc. Perhaps there was a lawyer somewhere who didn’t want that clip published, or maybe I just suck at search.

    But here it is in the movie script:

    https://tinyurl.com/yck4bhse

    “INT. NIGHT: DON’S OFFICE (SUMMER 1945)
    DON CORLEONE looks, and then moves HAGEN into an embrace.
    He straightens his arms and looks at TOM deeply.
    DON CORLEONE
    Remember my new Consigliere, a lawyer with his briefcase can steal more than a hundred men with guns.”

    On the other hand, it may have been worded differently in the book. According to goodreads.com it was written:

    https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/510379-lawyers-can-steal-more-money-with-a-briefcase-than-a

    “Lawyers [plural!] can steal more money with a briefcase than a thousand men with guns and masks. [!!!]”
    -Don Vito Corleone”

    Now it’s really a quandary! Were “masks” actually in the book? I don’t have it! It would be fascinating to know what that line was as it actually appeared in the book and the movie.

    Step up, Godfather Soldiers, and tell us what’s what! Lol.

  5. El Dorado…a classic western starring John Wayne, Robert Mitchum and of course Caan. Great fun.

  6. Comes A Horseman is a really good one. A pissed-off Jane Fonda, an evil Jason Robards and a beautiful performance by Richard Farnsworth make it worth your while. Freebie and the Bean is funny as hell and a classic. I’m surprised he only gave himself a 4 on that one.

  8. Misery is very good.

    It’s not a horror movie. It will make you squirm, not scream.

  9. The Killer Elite is TERRIBLE. It’s like a bad episode of “Archer” set in Dirty Harry-era San Francisco.

  10. I’m not a horror fan either, and King has drifted off into other mass-market genres as well. Not sure he is even writing them, they are so generic. Maybe he has one of Google’s writer-bots?
    I’m probably getting the second tier as library freebies on Libby.
    BTW, a worthwhile $1.99 ebook is “How Democracies Die” (whoops, back to $6.79 for Kindle but free pdf at booksfree.org).

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