Just saw a screen-test of De Niro as Sonny and he would've made this movie even more perfect. James Caan doesn't look remotely Italian or related to Michael and Fredo, he just looks like a typical Jew with his jewfro. His performance was fine but there's a disconnect there with his appearance.
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Dunno, man... Caan rocked hard. Do you have a link to the screen test? I haven't seen it.
As gangbusters as De Niro is/would have been, I love Caan in that role. Plus, De Niro turns in such a brilliant work-of-art performance in Part II that I'm glad he wasn't the oldest boy in this flick or it would have cut us off from that masterpiece turn De Niro did when he got to play young Vito.
You took the words right out of my mouth, mate (about both Caan and De Niro)
I'm sure De Niro would have been just as brilliant as Sonny too but for the same reasons you've stated, I'm glad Coppola et al "didn't make him an offer he couldn't refuse"
I've heard De Niro was offered one of the smaller roles, but he turned it down for something else. Wikipedia says "Paulie Gatto"; I don't even remember the part. De Niro took a role in "The Gang That Couldn't Shoot Straight" instead. Haven't heard of that, either.
Whatever. It all worked out brilliantly in the end. As a whole, The Godfather has perfect casting. Pacino, Caan, Duvall, Brando, Keaton, and the wonderful John Cazale. All the supporting players are great, too (Abe Vigoda!)
Loved Bruno Kirby in Part 2 as the young Clemenza. Too bad Kirby, Cazale and Joe Spinell died so soon. Richard Bright (who did the whole trilogy as Al Neri) is also gone. Gastone Moschin and Abe Vigoda passed away fairly recently. Moschin's Don Fanucci was a character everybody loved to hate, and he served to make De Niro look so cool, but you should check him out in the Italian caper-comedy film from the late 1960s called Sette volte sette (Seven Times Seven)... he was hilarious!
shareI'll check out Seven Times Seven.
Yeah, a lot of these guys died way too young. We mourn the loss still, but at least Abe Vigoda got to live through a whole bevvy of his own death announcements.
As a whole, The Godfather has perfect casting.
I've seen families with similar "black sheep" (or is that "fair sheep"...?) who are biological siblings but don't really look it. I've seen it enough times that Caan's appearance doesn't throw me. Also, like Keaton in Batman, he might not naturally look the part, but he nails the nuances of the character so firmly that he overrides any discrepancy with his looks.
By perfect casting, I mean every actor nails their part, I have a hard time picturing other actors in those roles (because of how good they were), they have chemistry together, and they "embody" those people. Maybe Sonny's got light hair. So what? I didn't think he looked so out of place.
The thing Caan gets most right is the violence lurking underneath Sonny at all times. It's palpable and makes the guy scary.
So, I'm sticking with "perfect casting", even if we disagree there.
Just type in De Niro screen test for the Godfather in YouTube.
De Niro turns in such a brilliant work-of-art performance in Part II that I'm glad he wasn't the oldest boy in this flick or it would have cut us off from that masterpiece turn De Niro did when he got to play young Vito.
Here I might agree. If we weren't going to get The Godfather Part II, De Niro, Brando, and Pacino would have been epic.
Caan still nailed that part, though. I'm not sure De Niro would have been "better". Just that it would have been cool seeing all those legends on screen at once. Of course, they weren't all legends at the time, but that's another matter.
Not too sure. I do think he was ironically more suited to play Sonny than a young Vito which in my opinion is De Niro's most overrated performance ever, despite his going on to become a great very accomplished (and well deserved) actor.
shareLOL De Niro
Mr. Bullwinkle film flop...i'm bankrupt
Al Pacino, John Cazale, and Marlo Brando look nothing alike either. Jews are no more likely to have a "fro" than Italians or anyone else descended from Mediterranean countries.
And what exactly does an Italian or Jew look like?
There was an old joke in Hollywood that American Indians were always played by either Jewish or Italian actors.
Brando, Pacino and Cazale all looked similar enough in ethnicity that you wouldn't question it.
https://www.thevintagenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/qdej3nei.jpg
Caan just sticks out like a sore thumb.
Interesting. In that pic, Caan and Brando have the same nose and same chin. Never noticed that before.
Carlo would have beat up Sonny in that film.
shareI disagree with the OP. James Caan kicked ass in this role! Without De Niro, Part II would have sucked. Also, Caan won Italian of the year TWICE in NY.....And, he’s not even Italian....Enough said!
shareI am not a fan of Caan, but you 100% correct about him in the film. DeNiro was great as the cool-headed Vito.
shareInsiders say De Niro was front runner for the part but after Caan’s screen test, bing! De Niro walked out with nothing but his dick in his hand.
shareI dunno. In those days DeNiro excelled at playing complex characters with many layers... and Sonny Corleone was a very uncomplicated guy. He was all about fighting, fucking, and family, and I thought Caan got it right. No doubts or indecision or emotional depth, just a guy who knows what he wants and goes after it with all the testosterone a man can have.
But yeah, they could have at least dyed his hair a darker color, made some attempt to make him look like the actors who played his brothers. I mean if the Aryan Brando at the height of his powers didn't mind changing his appearance to look more Italian, why couldn't Caan?
Recall that Coppola had worked with James Caan on an earlier, rather minor movie called "Rain People," which also had Robert Duvall in it.
Thus, Coppola himself was sort of looking for the "protection" that casting "friendly actors" gives you. Caan and Duvall were guys Coppola could count on if the studio came after him(and they did, suggesting they might fire him -- ironically it was Brando who backed Coppola up.)
In the book, Sonny was presented as big and brutal, and somewhat described like Sly Stallone -- who wouldn't be castable for a few more years. Brando vetoed Burt Reynolds for the part -- Reynolds was too much the "Brando lookalike" for his taste at the time.
Caan was also cast because he was short, and thus wouldn't tower over "brother" Pacino.
And: there is also screen test footage of Caan as MICHAEL, talking to the real Diane Keaton in a version of the opening wedding scene discussion. Caan made more sense for Sonny -- tough, angry, energetic.
And yet, for all of that, I think we can figure that Copolla cast Caan AND Duvall because they worked with him before, he liked and trusted them and each of them was close ENOUGH to the roles they would play.
PS. Personally, I think Robert DeNiro was too "inward" and (at that time) plain-looking an actor to play Sonny well. I think it took DeNiro years to overcome the kind of dumb personality he projected in Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. He lucked out playing Young Vito Corleone because he didn't say too much and we all had Brando as the "model."