Al Pacino, a relative unknown, was cast as Michael Corleone. He is the shy young man who will eventually lead his troubled mob family. The GodfatherOther names were also considered for the crucial role. Warren Beatty. Dustin Hoffman. Jack Nicholson. Robert Redford. Martin Sheen. And one other person: James Caan, although he hadn’t put himself forward for the gig. “One night,” Caan Later, recalled, “I got a call from Francis…and I could tell in his voice that this was not his idea: ‘Jimmy, want you to come in and test…they want you to play Michael.’”
You can see Caan’s audition footage online, his Michael alongside Diane Keaton’s Kay. They’re two fine actors who are all wrong together in a movie considered among the greatest of the last 50 years. Caan and Francis Ford Coppola’s instinct was right: Caan shouldn’t play Michael. He HadSantino “Sonny” Corleone.
James Caan, who was 82 years old, passed away Wednesday. He leaves behind a legacy full of screen hard guys. Sometimes that reputation was irritating to him. “I just lost a couple of movies,”He Interview, 2011.. “They said we don’t want a tough guy. I said excuse me, I am an actor. That is what I do for a living. You know it’s frustrating. I said to my agent, if I am the last guy on the list they could possibly think for a particular role, those are the ones I want to go after. That’s the fun.”
He was his most memorable role. Caan was able to expand the possibilities of what a tough guy can be on screen as Sonny. The movie doesn’t work without a perfect Sonny, the older, more emotional brother who acts before he thinks, nearly destroying the family in the process. It’s Sonny’s failings that will bring out Michael’s strengths. It’s Sonny’s death that serves as the film’s emotional low point. It’s a performance that needed James Caan.
Caan had the advantage of working with Coppola before, on 1969’s The Rain People. Immediately, he tapped into Sonny’s pride and rage, giving audiences the prototypical eldest child who thinks he knows better than his siblings. Sonny is belittling Michael his child brother, who is too eager to make the decisions after Vito has been killed by his enemies. He displays a fake sense of confidence which reads like bluster. Because he was so confident in himself, his badabing gusto is what weak people mistake for strength made him scarier. The fact that Caan based Sonny off Don Rickles, a beloved insult comic, makes this performance even more impressive. (“It wasn’t imitating Don Rickles,”He Insisted last year. “It was having that drive, that thing, you know? I was just locked into that.”)
But if Sonny’s brashness is what hits you first — his aggressive manner as striking as the sleeveless T-shirts he favors — Caan figured out how to hint at the man’s vulnerability as well. Deep down, Sonny suspects he’s not as smart or levelheaded as Michael or Corleone consigliereTom (Robert Duvall) uses violence to hide his flaws. Sonny is more heartfelt than his siblings and lets his family’s love drive him. Caan illustrated that tough guys often blow up because they don’t know what else to do with their emotions — those big, scary things that tough guys aren’t supposed to have. Sonny wants to strike back because of what his dad’s enemies did to him. And when the piece-of-shit husband Carlo (Gianni Russo) of Sonny’s sister, Connie (Talia Shire), is physically abusive to her, Sonny reacts impulsively, beating the hell out of the guy: a wild animal unleashed. Such brazen behavior is what someone like Sonny does to protect his family — he’s not sophisticated enough to know any other way.
For years, there were rumors that that fight scene was personal, inspired by Caan’s animosity toward Russo. Paramount+’s most recent series actually confirms this. The Offer suggested that Russo had been a little too rough on Shire during the married couple’s onscreen altercation, prompting Caan to get back at Russo. Much like much else about the making The Godfather, such stories are now so legendary that it’s hard to separate fact from fiction. (For what it’s worth, Caan He claimed he had never had an issue dealing with Russo.)
But those rumors do speak to what was so beautiful, and ultimately tragic, about Caan’s portrayal of Santino. He’s a loyal, funny guy. He’s also a philanderer and an arrogant prick, someone so desperate to prove to his dad that he has what it takes to be a leader, unaware that everyone around him can tell that he lacks the constitution for the job. There’s a poignancy to Sonny’s pathetic delusions of grandeur that’s unique in The GodfatherA fragmented fairytale about America’s dream. This country teaches us that everyone can reach their potential if they just apply themselves — even a bunch of mobsters. But that dream’s a lie, and Sonny is living proof. He can’t overcome his shortcomings. He can’t outrun himself.
The GodfatherIt is so well-known that almost every scene has been made into a classic, endlessly quotable, and memed to death. And yet, Sonny’s violent execution, no matter how many times it’s referenced and parodied in the culture, never loses its shock. It is possible to close your eyes and still see it clearly. He’s going out to avenge his sister yet again — that’s when the ambush happens. Sonny’s body riddled with bullets at a tollbooth. The Corleones’ most powerful and seemingly indestructible Corleone is killed. Caan’s ability to give you a moment of terror is amazing. Caan’s greatness came from playing a seemingly one-dimensional blowhard whose hidden depths we only saw in glimpses, because Sonny never risks letting them out. Even Sonny can be scared.
For the film’s 50th anniversary, Caan was asked which GodfatherCharacter with which he is most closely identified. “I feel myself more like Kay,”He Please replyKay is innocent and sweetheart. She’s someone who doesn’t fully appreciate the insidiousness of the family she’s entered into. It’s unlikely that anyone would immediately notice such innocence in James Caan’s characters, even if he was in his best performance. His answer could change the way you see Sonny next time you’re watching him. The Godfather. Kay isn’t suited to lead the Corleones, and neither is Sonny — it takes something special, something extraordinarily dark in one’s character, to take on such a position. Perhaps Caan knew he didn’t possess that quality. And that’s why he’s is so brilliant in The Godfather: It is possible that one of our best tough-guy actors said to us that some guys are just fooling themselves.