I Never Realized The Godfather Changed James Caan's Face To Turn Him Into Sonny Corleone

Though I all the time knew James Caan seemed a bit completely different from Sonny Corleone in The Godfather, I by no means realized simply how a lot the film did to facilitate this. Each film in The Godfather trilogy has no scarcity of memorable characters, however it’s nonetheless putting to see simply how a lot of an impression James Caan’s Sonny Corleone makes with such restricted display time. Taking part in the hot-headed Corleone brother, Caan brings the bravado and fast mood viewers anticipate in mafia motion pictures, however is ceaselessly shot down by his smart brother Michael, his father’s consigliere Tom Hagen, and the godfather himself.

After all, Caan’s character is memorably shot down in a extra literal sense when his sister’s abusive husband, Carlo, organizes his assassination. After Sonny beats Carlo mindless for abusing his sister, he’s shot to ribbons at a toll sales space by Carlo’s employed goons. This leads to the scene that proves The Godfather’s Michael was even scarier than Vito, because the younger new godfather placidly accepts that he can’t get revenge for Sonny’s killing, solely to have Carlo gunned down anyway afterward.

James Caan Wears A Dental Implant In The Godfather To Make Sonny Look Extra Aggressive

Caan’s Face Didn’t Fairly Match Sonny’s Character With out Some Prosthetic Assist

Sonny is a pivotal a part of The Godfather’s story, as his sizzling mood is contrasted along with his calculating brother’s standing as a cold-blooded killer. Nonetheless, though Caan embodies Sonny’s swaggering machismo completely, the actor wanted a bit additional assist to nail the character’s look. As shocking as it would sound, James Caan wore dental implants to play Sonny in The Godfather as this gave the character a extra animalistic look. Caan’s earlier movie roles had seen him star as extra sedate characters like John Updike’s well-known antihero Rabbit Angstrom in 1970’s Rabbit, Run.

Surprisingly sufficient, Caan wasn’t the one actor who wore a dental prosthetic to get into character within the adaptation of Mario Puzo’s basic mob epic.

Paradoxically, Caan adopted The Godfather with a string of roles whereby he performed equally powerful bruisers, comparable to 1973’s Slither, 1974’s Freebie and the Bean, and 1976’s The Killer Elite. Though gangsters, cops, and common powerful guys have been commonplace all through the remainder of the actor’s display profession, few of the late star’s subsequent roles have been as brooding and intense as his half in The Godfather. Whereas all The Godfather‘s villains are memorable, Carlo having Sonny killed stands out as one of many unique film’s bleakest moments.

Caan Is One Of 4 Actors Carrying Dental Items In The Godfather

The Godfather’s Solid Required A Stunning Quantity Of Prosthetic Make-up

Surprisingly sufficient, Caan wasn’t the one actor who wore a dental prosthetic to get into character within the adaptation of Mario Puzo’s basic mob epic. Famously, Marlon Brando’s Vito Corleone wore a considerable dental implant that rendered the surprisingly younger actor nearly unrecognizable because the dying mob boss. Nonetheless, each Michael and Sollozzo’s actors additionally wore them for varied functions. Michael and Sollozzo’s implants are subtler, however they nonetheless have an effect on the best way actors converse and impression their appearances.

Al Pacino as Michael Corleone and Al Lettieri as Sollozzo in The Godfather.

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In distinction, Brando’s bigger implant is straight away noticeable to a canny viewer. Since Brando was younger when he shot The Godfather, taking part in an ageing grandfather at solely 47, he wanted quite a lot of assist to make his look extra plausible. This was the place the film’s use of dental prosthetics paid off handsomely, serving to to form the enduring look of Vito Corleone. Nonetheless, Caan’s character from The Godfather relied on the identical trick to make Sonny so memorably intimidating.

Prosthetic Or Not, Sonny Positively Got here Throughout As Aggressive In The Godfather

Caan’s Towering Efficiency Mattered Extra Than Any Piece of Make-up

Though Caan’s prosthetic loaned additional depth to his well-known efficiency, there isn’t a doubt that his tackle Sonny would have been memorable with or with out this addition. Though Sonny’s defining attribute is his anger, the character exhibits quite a lot of tenderness towards his household all through the story and emerges as an unexpectedly advanced determine. Even his beatdown of Carlo mixes empathy for his sister along with his hair-trigger mood, showcasing a personality who’s morally righteous and heroic, however concurrently extra unstable and unstable than the quieter Micheal.

As Vito’s life involves an finish, the world of the mob is changing into a extra ruthless, violent place.

Whereas The Godfather Half II’s Fredo subplot fleshes out Michael’s different brother, Sonny is central to the success of the unique film’s story. Carlo attacking his sister, Sonny’s subsequent beating of Carlo, the bloody assassination that Carlo plans as a reprisal, and Michael’s eventual homicide of Carlo in retaliation for Sonny’s loss of life all show that, as Vito’s life involves an finish, the world of the mob is changing into a extra ruthless, violent place. This necessitates Michael adopting a special, extra indifferent and violent persona from his hotter father.

Why Sonny Corleone Is Nonetheless James Caan’s Defining Film Efficiency

The Actor’s Mix of Tenderness and Mood Was Memorably Intense

The late, nice actor spent many years taking part in all kinds of roles after The Godfather, however Sonny Corleone stays Caan’s most iconic position ever. That is because of the humanity that Caan imbues in a personality who may have come throughout as both a simplistic good-natured bruiser or a one-note powerful man. Caan accesses the center on the core of Sonny however doesn’t draw back from the truth that he’s a violent, harmful man on the identical time.

The place Al Pacino’s efficiency as Michael reins in a few of the actor’s extra explosive, showier instincts within the position of a chilly killer, Sonny offers Caan room to discover a harder persona that ended up shading nearly all of his future roles. There are echoes of Sonny in Rollerball’s Jonathan E, a veteran sportsman who additionally occurs to be very competent at meting out brutal violence. There’s something of Sonny in Distress’s Paul Sheldon, a seemingly innocent author who finally accesses a primal ruthless facet when he should accomplish that to outlive.

Caan by no means left Sonny behind after The Godfather, and for good motive.

Even Caan’s comedic performances as a mob boss in Mickey Blue Eyes and Buddy’s beleaguered father in Elf carry a few of Sonny’s snarling depth, albeit performed for laughs. Caan by no means left Sonny behind after The Godfather, and for good motive. Later additions to the actor’s oeuvre may need earned crucial reward and box-office success, however The Godfather stays James Caan’s most memorable position ever, dental prosthetics and all.