9. James Caan Had His Skin Pulled Off For The Godfather
Let's be honest: The Godfather is a bit of a slog. 200 minutes and most of that is Marlon Brando stroking a cat and inventing mumblecore (at least, that's how we remember it). When director Francis Ford Coppola actually remembered to include some of the characteristic violence that comes part and parcel in a story of the mob the murderous, nasty mob though, he went the whole hog with it. And the long build up probably helped make the scene where James Caan's Sonny Corleone gets riddled with gun fire all the more shocking and effective. A bunch of standing around in dark rooms, talking in comedy accents, then BOOM! More gore than you can shake a Texas chainsaw at. It's an amazing, breathtaking scene, and not just because it comes out of nowhere. There's also the rather impressive fact that James Caan looks like he's actually being gunned down by multiple assailants; part of that is the actor's performance, and part of that is the innovative special effects that still hold up to this day (and you can't say that about many films made in 1972). To accurately portray the complete decimation of Sonny's body, James Caan had fishing wire attached to bits of fake skin all over his face, so that when he stepped out of his car and the triggers were pulled, the crew would yank all these prosthetics off, let the fake claret fly, and create the illusion that the bullets were actually tearing through Caan's body. Yeesh.
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
