James Caan died July 6. He and Coppola met at Uni, then was plenty on TV before Hawks cast him in El Dorado, then Coppola put him in The Rain People and then famously The Godfather. This was his comeback film after wilderness years - he was difficult to work with, walked off a film and was addicted to cocaine. I'm glad we watched this as his performance is good - he brings the right pathos.
He's accompanied by other good people in the shape of James Earl Jones (now in his nineties) and Anjelica Huston. With DB Sweeney, Dean Stockwell, Mary Stuart Masterson, Dick Anthony Williams, Lonette McKee, Sam Bottoms, Elias Koteas, Laurence Fishburne, Casey Siemaszko.
Written by Ron Bass (Black Widow, Rain Man), from Nicholas Proffitt's novel, it's a nicely balanced screenplay, as anti-Vietnam feeling is raging (it's 1968), Huston is a protestor, but all Caan wants to do is go back to Nam and help the soldiers. The pomp and ceremony of the military burials is a nice irony to the senseless loss of life. It's an elegiac film, and as it takes place largely in a massive cemetery, that's probably exactly the right word.
DP Jordan Cronenweth, editor Barry Malkin, music Carmine Coppola.
It's also a very interesting companion piece to Apocalypse Now; here there's no action except TV newsreel footage; the two films are linked by The Doors (here 'Break on Through').
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