Hey gang!
I know, I know. My subject of
choice seems pretty odd and specific. The weird thing is, I kept seeing
that Rollerball was on TV and debating if I should watch it. Then I saw
that Alien Nation was on and it sparked the idea to write about Caan in science
fiction films. So there you go.
I didn't choose his arguably most
popular role, Sonny Corleone, or the role I remember most fondly, Brian
Piccolo. But these were both fun movies to watch and dissect.
Hope you enjoy!
Rollerball - released in 1975
Wow, 1970's. You were amazing
and horrific, all wrapped into one neat package.
I am pretty sure I saw Rollerball in
the theatre...I would have been 11 years old when it came out. The more I
look back on the films I've seen, the more I absolutely love the fact that my
mom barely had any restrictions on what I watched. I mean, every once in
a while she'd try to make a stand (like when I was 9 and The Birds was on
TV...she wouldn't let me watch it which was ridiculous because 3 years earlier
I'd seen a triple feature of horror films) but mostly she probably either
wanted to get me out of the house or wanted a couple hours herself in an air
conditioned movie theatre. Anyway, I don't remember who I saw this with
(maybe my brother John?) but parts of it stuck with me.
Which parts stuck? The
Rollerball parts. It's touted as being this really violent look at a dystopian
future...but looking at this film in contrast to films being made today...it's
like a bedtime story. Albeit a weird bedtime story, but you get my
point. Think Hunger Games without the bow and arrow and all the tributes
just shoving each other.
I had a really hard time figuring out
the point of the conflict in this film. James Caan plays the best and
most famous Rollerballer, he totally kicks ass. He's a worldwide
hero. Rollerball has been created to eliminate war, so it's a very
violent game with few rules. It's kind of like Roller Derby meets
Quidditch. You skate around a track like a bat out of hell, some of the
players are on motorcycles to make it more dangerous and you have to throw a
little ball into a magnetic target. Caan's character is being rewarded for his
service by getting a TV special made in his honor, but he's also being asked to
retire. He (and I) can't figure out why they want him to retire so he
starts to look into the corporation (with the uninspired name "Energy
Corporation"). Eventually we find out that this form of sports
entertainment is also supposed to "demonstrate the futility of
individualism" (thanks Wikipedia....cuz I honestly wasn't gonna get that
on my own). In fact, even the coach yells "This wasn't meant to be a
game! Never!" So dramatic, that coach! The final battle
is a no-holds-barred blood fest. No penalties, no time limit, straight up
death to all. Naturally our man is the last one standing. Yay
individualism!
James Caan is a baby faced youngster
in this film. I think he's maybe supposed to be a Texan but unless he's
muttering (which he does quite a bit, actually...I guess that's his way of
playing a "Texan"), he sounds straight up NYC to me.
Ba-da-bing, y'all! He also has a total jew-fro. Rollerball was made
after Godfather (Sonny!!) so he was a pretty hot commodity. And he's good
in this, without a doubt, but it's no Brian's Song (does anyone remember that
TV movie about the football player who dies of cancer? I'll love James
Caan forever because of that role.) John Houseman is also in this film,
as the head of Energy Corporation. He has the most formidable eyebrows
ever! Seriously, I felt like their wiry hairs might reach through the
screen and wind around my ankle! I kept remembering him from the 70's TV
show, Paper Chase. It was about law students and he was the scary head
professor. He was wonderful.
The best surprise discovery in this
film is Richard LeParmentier. You may be asking: Sue, who is
Richard LeParmentier and why do you care? Well, let me enlighten
you. He has a small part in this film. But he's much better known
(and recognizable) as Admiral Motti in Star Wars. He's the dude that
Darth Vader chokes!!!!! Darth finds his lack of faith....disturbing.
Best. Role. Ever.
The aesthetic style of the 70's is
painful and in abundance. The font they use for everything from the
titles to the uniform numbers is bubbly looking, like how I used to write
letters when I was 11. And the outfits are all tight pants for the guys
and flowy caftans for the women. The women, by the way, are basically
concubines for the athletes. All the women. Maud Adams
(Octopussy!!) plays Caan's ex-wife who was "given" to an executive
because he wanted her. She had the biggest female role and it was like
two scenes. I was definitely having issues with how the women were
portrayed in this film. The sets were all 70's futuristic too. Everything
was white with glass or mirrored accents. There is a talking computer named
Zero and the design was a box with rows of glass circles looking into the
innards, which consisted of LED lights and tubes with bubbling water.
Oooh, future-y!! And you know, that's what makes a computer
run...bubbling water and lights. I'm contracting at Apple...I know this
shit. I heard Dave the Computer was just coming off his 2001 fame and got
really into drugs, otherwise they would have cast him. :)
The circle is actually a big visual
feature in this film. Buildings are circular, circles are design accents,
the goal and ball are both circles. I'm assuming this is to hammer home
the futility idea? Everybody just keeps going round and round? Or
maybe it just looks cool.
Norman Jewison directed this
film. He directed Moonstruck, Fiddler on The Roof, Thomas Crowne
Affair. He was big on the arty shots in this film (a man's back muscles
while working out, Caan's hands through a glass sculpture, lots of shots of
cityscapes) and apparently showing sweaty faces is part of his cinematic
style. I guess it conveys tension. There were definitely a lot of
sweaty faces in this film and it made me tense because I wanted to wipe them
all down. So, that's a win, right?
(Oddly, James Caan is drinking what
looks like a mimosa in one shot, so why not? Let's pair mimosas with this
brutal depiction of a dystopian future!)
Alien Nation - released in 1988
Now we see James Caan 13 years
later. He's aging pretty well, but he certainly isn't baby faced
anymore. This film costars Mandy Patinkin, just a couple years after
Princess Bride. We can't see how he's aging because he's in full alien
makeup.
This film is basically a buddy cop
movie, the twist being one is a cranky veteran cop and the other is a
wisecracking black kid from Detroit. Oh wait, no, that's 48 Hrs.
He's a cranky veteran cop and the other is a crazy, suicidal but brilliant cop
who's wife died...oh wait, no, that's Lethal Weapon. Cranky veteran and
Chinese cop? Nope, that's Rush Hour. Okay, so I thought
perhaps...maybe....just a bit....this film is a tad derivative. This in
no way means I didn't like it. I'm a big fan of buddy cop movies.
So for reals, James Caan is cranky as fuck and kind of a loser. He
hateshateshates the aliens that landed in the "near future" (1991,
heh), who have come to our planet and are fully assimilated. So one of
these aliens kills his partner and he gets paired with Mandy who plays Sam
Francisco (ha!), who's the first alien to become a detective. Caan
volunteers to be his partner because he thinks he can use Mandy to help get the
aliens who killed his partner, but in the end he becomes a mentor and friend to
Mandy who is a good and upstanding citizen and a really good cop. There
is nothing that is original or innovative about this movie, but it's a nice
friendship film. I think it was successful because James Caan is a good
actor and Mandy Patinkin is a great actor. Even covered in alien makeup.
Mandy's character loves being on
Earth; getting opportunities he wouldn't have had on his planet, being able to
give his family the best possible life. I imagine this is how my father
felt when he came to America. Mandy gets this truly inspired little
speech which I think applies as much today as ever: "You humans are
very curious to us. You invite us to live among you in an atmosphere of
equality that we've never known before, You give us ownership of our own lives
for the first time and you ask no more of us than you do of yourselves. I
hope you understand how special your world is, how unique a people you humans
are. Which is why it is all the more painful and confusing to us that so
few of you seem capable of living up to the ideals you set for yourself."
Heady stuff for a goofy buddy film.
(My drink pairing suggestion is a big
glass of spoiled milk if you are an alien or a glass of Smirnoff over ice if
you're human.)
My takeaways:
#1 - I read that James Caan has been
up and down in his choice of roles. I'm particularly glad he chose to be
Buddy's dad in Elf.
#2 - I think Caan's real skill is
being in films with really great actors. Because he's good. But he
plays well with others that are great.
#3 - His son, Scott Caan, is on
Hawaii 5-0 (is that still on?) and looks quite a bit like him from his
Rollerball years. I'm not sure why this is a takeaway but it is.
xoxo...hashtagSueslife
