Although I always knew James Caan looked a little different from Sonny Corleone in The Godfather, I never realized just how much the movie did to facilitate this. Every movie in The Godfather trilogy has no shortage of memorable characters, but it is still striking to see just how much of an impression James Caan’s Sonny Corleone makes with such limited screen time. Playing the hot-headed Corleone brother, Caan brings the bravado and quick temper viewers expect in mafia movies, but is frequently shot down by his sensible brother Michael, his father’s consigliere Tom Hagen, and the godfather himself.
Of course, Caan’s character is memorably shot down in a more literal sense when his sister’s abusive husband, Carlo, organizes his assassination. After Sonny beats Carlo senseless for abusing his sister, he is shot to ribbons at a toll booth by Carlo’s hired goons. This results in the scene that proves The Godfather’s Michael was even scarier than Vito, as the young new godfather placidly accepts that he can’t get revenge for Sonny’s killing, only to have Carlo gunned down anyway afterward.
James Caan Wears A Dental Implant In The Godfather To Make Sonny Look More Aggressive
Caan’s Face Didn’t Quite Fit Sonny’s Character Without Some Prosthetic Help
Sonny is a pivotal part of The Godfather’s story, as his hot temper is contrasted with his calculating brother’s status as a cold-blooded killer. However, although Caan embodies Sonny’s swaggering machismo perfectly, the actor needed a little extra help to nail the character’s appearance. As surprising as it might sound, James Caan wore dental implants to play Sonny in The Godfather as this gave the character a more animalistic appearance. Caan’s earlier film roles had seen him star as more sedate characters like John Updike’s famous antihero Rabbit Angstrom in 1970’s Rabbit, Run.
Surprisingly enough, Caan wasn’t the only actor who wore a dental prosthetic to get into character in the adaptation of Mario Puzo’s classic mob epic.
Ironically, Caan followed The Godfather with a string of roles wherein he played similarly tough bruisers, such as 1973’s Slither, 1974’s Freebie and the Bean, and 1976’s The Killer Elite. Although gangsters, cops, and general tough guys were commonplace throughout the rest of the actor’s screen career, few of the late star’s subsequent roles were as brooding and intense as his part in The Godfather. While all The Godfather’s villains are memorable, Carlo having Sonny killed stands out as one of the original movie’s bleakest moments.
Caan Is One Of 4 Actors Wearing Dental Pieces In The Godfather
The Godfather’s Cast Required A Surprising Amount Of Prosthetic Makeup
Surprisingly enough, Caan wasn’t the only actor who wore a dental prosthetic to get into character in the adaptation of Mario Puzo’s classic mob epic. Famously, Marlon Brando’s Vito Corleone wore a substantial dental implant that rendered the surprisingly young actor almost unrecognizable as the dying mob boss. However, both Michael and Sollozzo’s actors also wore them for various purposes. Michael and Sollozzo’s implants are subtler, but they still affect the way actors speak and impact their appearances.
In contrast, Brando’s larger implant is immediately noticeable to a canny viewer. Since Brando was young when he shot The Godfather, playing an aging grandfather at only 47, he needed a lot of help to make his appearance more believable. This was where the movie’s use of dental prosthetics paid off handsomely, helping to shape the iconic appearance of Vito Corleone. However, Caan’s character from The Godfather relied on the same trick to make Sonny so memorably intimidating.
Prosthetic Or Not, Sonny Definitely Came Across As Aggressive In The Godfather
Caan’s Towering Performance Mattered More Than Any Piece of Makeup
Although Caan’s prosthetic loaned extra intensity to his famous performance, there is no doubt that his take on Sonny would have been memorable with or without this addition. Although Sonny’s defining characteristic is his anger, the character shows a lot of tenderness toward his family throughout the story and emerges as an unexpectedly complex figure. Even his beatdown of Carlo mixes empathy for his sister with his hair-trigger temper, showcasing a character who is morally righteous and heroic, but simultaneously more volatile and unstable than the quieter Micheal.
As Vito’s life comes to an end, the world of the mob is becoming a more ruthless, violent place.
While The Godfather Part II’s Fredo subplot fleshes out Michael’s other brother, Sonny is central to the success of the original movie’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 murder of Carlo in retaliation for Sonny’s death all prove that, as Vito’s life comes to an end, the world of the mob is becoming a more ruthless, violent place. This necessitates Michael adopting a different, more detached and violent persona from his warmer father.
Why Sonny Corleone Is Still James Caan’s Defining Movie Performance
The Actor’s Blend of Tenderness and Temper Was Memorably Intense
The late, great actor spent decades playing a wide variety of roles after The Godfather, but Sonny Corleone remains Caan’s most iconic role ever. This is due to the humanity that Caan imbues in a character who could have come across as either a simplistic good-natured bruiser or a one-note tough guy. Caan accesses the heart at the core of Sonny but doesn’t shy away from the fact that he is a violent, dangerous man at the same time.
Where Al Pacino’s performance as Michael reins in some of the actor’s more explosive, showier instincts in the role of a cold killer, Sonny gives Caan room to explore a tougher persona that ended up shading almost all of his future roles. There are echoes of Sonny in Rollerball’s Jonathan E, a veteran sportsman who also happens to be very competent at meting out brutal violence. There is something of Sonny in Misery’s Paul Sheldon, a seemingly harmless writer who eventually accesses a primal ruthless side when he must do so to survive.
Caan never left Sonny behind after The Godfather, and for good reason.
Even Caan’s comedic performances as a mob boss in Mickey Blue Eyes and Buddy’s beleaguered father in Elf carry some of Sonny’s snarling intensity, albeit played for laughs. Caan never left Sonny behind after The Godfather, and for good reason. Later additions to the actor’s oeuvre might have earned critical praise and box-office success, but The Godfather remains James Caan’s most memorable role ever, dental prosthetics and all.
