Thursday, Jul 24, 2008
In "The Way of the Gun," veteran badass James Caan shows whippersnappers Benicio Del Toro and Ryan Phillippe exactly how it's done.
Sep 8, 2000 | At one point in "The Way of the Gun," the Jim Thompson-esque neo-noir film from writer/director Christopher McQuarrie, which opens Friday, James Caan's character, Joe Sarno -- a mobster in the employ of shady Southwestern tycoon Hale Chidduck (Scott Wilson) -- has to put the smack down on younger colleagues Jeffers and Obecks (Taye Diggs and Nicky Katt). These coldblooded, gun-toting pups are full of contempt for the scarred, savvy Sarno. But Sarno gives them something to think about, telling them, "The only thing you can assume about a broken-down old man is that he's a survivor."
That line sums up Caan's character in the film, starring Benicio Del Toro and Ryan Phillippe as a murderous, gunslinging twosome who kidnap a surrogate mother pregnant with Chidduck's son and hold her for ransom. But it also defines Caan himself -- a gray-haired Hollywood survivor who all but walks away with this first film by Oscar-winning screenwriter McQuarrie ("The Usual Suspects").
"That's my favorite line from the film," says Caan during a recent interview. "I just wanted to convey, without even mentioning it, that this guy's been to war. That's how Joe Sarno was for me. You can kinda go through one war and feel lucky that you didn't get hurt. You can go through two, and still come out all right. But go through 10 wars, and you go through some stuff."
Though the focus of the action is on desperadoes Parker (Phillippe) and Longbaugh (Del Toro), it's Caan who's most convincing in his role as the world-weary crime warrior. Phillippe's grown a beard to hide his baby fat and Del Toro walks through the flick with the street cred garnered from his past roles, but Caan is the real deal -- a former leading man and hell-raiser known as much for his '70s romps in the Playboy Mansion as for his Oscar-nominated performance as the hotheaded Sonny Corleone in "The Godfather."
Looking trim and very much the ex-jock (he played college football back in the day for Michigan State University), Caan, a veteran of more than 50 feature films, describes his character Sarno in language that seems applicable to himself -- a 60-year-old with the sort of musculature men half his age would envy. Sitting on the edge of his seat, dressed in a wrinkled blue-and-white-striped shirt and faded jeans that make him look like some grizzled construction worker, the line between Caan and Sarno seems particularly blurry.
"If you go into the jungle, man, certain animals gotta make a lot of noise before they kill. It's like guys in a bar who're trying to convince you and themselves that they're going to kick your ass. But the guy who comes up to me and says, 'Listen, do me a favor. Don't do that again because otherwise I'm going to have to peel the skin off your head. Please.' You don't want to fuck with him, excuse my language. When a lion walks through the jungle, he don't make noise. When he decides to kill, he goes, 'Whack!' and he kills. That's Joe Sarno," Caan explains in his native Queens accent.
Caan's a gregarious fellow -- quick to laugh and rarely at rest, even in his seat. But he retains the feral intensity of his salad days, when he was considered one of the biggest box-office draws in Hollywood, bringing to life classic antiheroes in films like "The Gambler," "Rabbit Run" and "The Godfather" as well as embodying more conventional male roles in "A Bridge Too Far," "Thief" and the 1971 TV movie "Brian's Song," for which he received an Emmy nomination.
Like other actors of his generation, Caan went through a slump in the '80s, his low point being the execrable "Alien Nation," which he has repeatedly slammed in interviews. But the '90s saw a Caan resurgence, beginning with his lead in the Rob Reiner adaptation of Stephen King's novel "Misery" and continuing with smaller, but memorable parts in films such as "Honeymoon in Vegas," "Bottle Rocket" and last year's "Mickey Blue Eyes."
With a character part in the upcoming, critically acclaimed film "The Yards," and his meaty, scene-stealing performance in "The Way of the Gun," Caan's name once again has a certain cachet -- as a legendary figure willing to work with first-time directors and an actor's actor with as much wisdom as his character Sarno has flesh wounds.
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