OPINION - Editorial

James Caan

"Nice college boy, eh? Didn't want to get mixed up in the family business. Now you wanna gun down a police captain, why, because he slapped ya in the face a little bit?"

Strange as it might be to think of it, three men were nominated for the Best Supporting Actor in 1973 from the same movie. James Caan as Sonny, Al Pacino as Michael, and Robert Duvall as Tom. None of them won. (Joel Grey took it for "Cabaret," which is being released again for a one-night performance at the McCain Mall theater next weekend!)

"The Godfather" took its share of awards that year, but the votes must've been split in the Supporting Actor category.

James Caan died last week. And the images kept flooding back. Of Sonny's death on the causeway. Of the ankle-breaking scene in "Misery." And more than a few shots in "Brian's Song" and "Funny Lady." Not to mention an underappreciated movie made back in the 1980s with Sally Field and Jeff Bridges called "Kiss Me Goodbye." (A movie that James Caan said was one of the worst experiences he had making a film. Apparently there's no accounting for our tastes.)

But as we thought over his career, we kept thinking about this: A lot of young people today will only remember him as the dad from "Elf."

We know how to fix that. Fire up "The Godfather" one more time today:

"Tom, this is business, and this man is taking it very poy-sonal."

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