Browse: Home / Attention Must Be Paid: John Cazale

Menu

Skip to content
  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login

The-SoluteLogo

A Film Site By Lovers of Film

Menu

Skip to content
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Long Reviews
  • News
  • Articles and Opinions
  • Other Media
  • Film on the Internet: BASKET CASE
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray
  • Taco Break: Overplayed But Still Funny
  • Celebrating the Living: Mercedes Ruehl
  • Attention Must Be Paid: Arthur Anderson

Attention Must Be Paid: John Cazale

Posted By Gillianren on January 26, 2019 in Features | 3 Responses

I am well known for not being an enormous fan of Classic ’70s Film. It is, and I’m being brutally honest here, a Guy Film Era. Still, even I will acknowledge that there are some amazing films that were released that decade. If you were going to list, you’d probably go with The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, of course. Dog Day Afternoon. The Conversation. The Deer Hunter. Maybe a few others, but any list would include those. And what all five have in common is a performance by John Cazale. He did some stage work, and he has a single TV credit on a show called N.Y.P.D., and that is all we have of John Cazale. But it’s better than we have from a lot of other people!

Al Pacino has said that he could’ve worked with Cazale the rest of his career, that Cazale was his acting partner. They first met while working as messengers at Standard Oil and were soon being cast together. They made three of Cazale’s movies together, and I strongly suspect that, if you were to ask Al Pacino today, he’d still say he misses working with him. How not? Not only are they three of Pacino’s most critically acclaimed movies, by all accounts Cazale was a genuinely nice guy, the kind you would still miss after decades.

It is also, my own prejudices aside, a place where I can really feel sorry for Meryl Streep. She and Cazale were in a relationship together. She was one of the people who worked to ensure that he would be cast in The Deer Hunter despite his illness, giving him one final performance for the ages. She said about five years ago that she’d never gotten over his death, despite having married shortly afterward and remained married since. I mean, I don’t expect her to remain true to his memory forever, but I do acknowledge that for her to say she’d never gotten over it doesn’t entirely surprise me. How do you get over losing someone like that?

He was never the lead, but he was never not remarkable, either. It was a series of powerful performances in service of other great performances. This is perhaps why he never got an Oscar nomination, though frankly he should’ve been nominated over a few of the others who got Supporting Actor nominations for the first two Godfather movies. (Each movie had three nominees in the category; Joel Grey in Cabaret beat James Caan, Robert Duvall, and Pacino for the first one; Robert De Niro beat Michael V. Gazzo and Lee Strasberg for the second one.) It’s hard to argue with a Chris Sarandon nomination for Dog Day Afternoon or Christopher Walken win for The Deer Hunter, and The Conversation mostly got shut out by being the same year as The Godfather Part II, but it’s enough to wish he’d had one more movie to be nominated for.

I mean, technically, there was. Footage of Fredo Corleone appears in The Godfather Part III. I don’t remember the context, but it’s considered that every movie in which Cazale appeared was nominated for or won Best Picture. It’s an amazing career. I’d like to believe that he could have kept going with it, had he not gotten lung cancer that then metastasized to his bones. He was extremely ill during the making of The Deer Hunter, and they initially didn’t want to cast him. His castmates fought for his casting, and it is to all of our credits that they did.

My record isn’t anywhere near as great as his, but it still would be awful nice of you if you’d consider supporting my Patreon or Ko-Fi!

Posted in Features | Tagged Attention Must Be Paid, John Cazale, tribute

About the Author

gillianmadeira@hotmail.com'

Gillianren

Gillianren is a forty-something bipolar woman living in the Pacific Northwest after growing up in Los Angeles County. She and her boyfriend have one son and one daughter, and she gave a daughter up for adoption. She fills her days by watching her local library system’s DVD collection in alphabetical order, watching everything that looks interesting. She particularly enjoys pre-Code films, blaxploitation, and live-action Disney movies of the ’60s and ’70s. She has a Patreon account at https://www.patreon.com/gillianren

Related Posts

Don't mess with a Mercedes Ruehl character!Celebrating the Living: Mercedes Ruehl→

You, too, can hear this image once you know the voiceAttention Must Be Paid: Arthur Anderson→

Look at that face!Celebrating the Living: Stephen Rea→

She's the one on the rightAttention Must Be Paid: Edith Evanson→

  • Comments
  • Popular
  • Most Recent
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleWonderful piece, Sam. It's made…
  • j*****@yahoo.com'
    mr_apollo on Year of the Month: Mon OncleFellow heretic here. I've never…
  • n***********@gmail.com'
    Ruck Cohlchez on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEI wouldn't have called it…
  • j***********@gmail.com'
    Son of Griff on LIFE ITSELFGlad to hear back from…
  • n*********@gmail.com'
    Jake Gittes on Film on the Internet: AN AMERICAN CRIMEThis is the single most…
  • “The End” of SAVAGES

    33814 views / Posted November 10, 2014
  • What the fuck did I just watch? SPHERE

    27447 views / Posted March 19, 2015
  • The Untalented Mr. Ripley: The Craft of Standup Comedy and the Non-Comedy of TOM MYERS

    25060 views / Posted June 26, 2018
  • Scenic Routes: SHOWGIRLS (1995)

    20093 views / Posted November 20, 2014
  • Yvonne, or: CASABLANCA In One Character and Three Scenes

    11136 views / Posted August 21, 2014
  • Film on the Internet: BASKET CASE

    March 22, 2023 / ZoeZ
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray

    March 21, 2023 / Greta Taylor
  • Taco Break: Overplayed But Still Funny

    March 20, 2023 / Tristan "Drunk Napoleon" Nankervis
  • Don't mess with a Mercedes Ruehl character!

    Celebrating the Living: Mercedes Ruehl

    March 19, 2023 / Gillianren
  • You, too, can hear this image once you know the voice

    Attention Must Be Paid: Arthur Anderson

    March 18, 2023 / Gillianren

Last Tweets

  • Film on the Internet: BASKET CASE - https://t.co/ncsoMwqyRT, 8 hours ago
  • New on DVD and Blu-Ray - https://t.co/M5EgBdApIf, Mar 21
  • Taco Break: Overplayed But Still Funny - https://t.co/U2QP75rwcu, Mar 20

©2014 - 2016 The-Solute | Hosted, Developed and Maintained by Bellingham WP LogoBellinghamWP.com.

Menu

  • Home
  • Who We Are
  • About
  • Privacy
  • Contact Us
  • Login
Do NOT follow this link or you will be banned from the site!