James Caan

Made films the shows talk about.

Counted as other. The films the hosts said they were tied to, which the two lists below run through too: Rocky (1976); Fantastic Four (fan-casting game, no film). Count them as actor (11 films) instead.

Draws on

What the speakers say they, or a film of theirs, drew on. Each is a speaker's account: “the maker said so” when they report the maker's own words, “the host's read” when the read is theirs.

Chuck Wepner: 1 line

  1. people (people) · through Rocky (1976), which they were tied to as floated for Rocky: Chuck Wepner ⇒ Rocky (the host's read). Stallone watched Wepner take a beating from Ali for 15 rounds and was inspired to write Rocky in 3.5 days.
    “He's watching Webner Ali in 75, which was the real life version of this.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Rocky’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:19:58 · Chris Ryan (0.50 sure it was them)

The Longest Yard: 1 line

  1. lineage (lineage) · through Rocky (1976), which they were tied to as floated for Rocky: The Longest Yard ⇒ Rocky (the host's read). Longest Yard arguably started the big-event beats, but Rocky is what made the sports-movie recipe stick.
    “which I guess you could say longest yard started it, but once Rocky did this.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Rocky’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:06:09 · Chris Ryan (0.45 sure it was them)

Drawn on by

What the speakers say drew on them or a film of theirs, marked the same way.

Creed (2015): 2 lines

  1. lineage (lineage) · through Rocky (1976), which they were tied to as floated for Rocky: Rocky ⇒ Creed (the host's read). Merchant says Creed repeated Rocky's trick of making you care about the character before the fighting.
    “when they rebooted it with Creed, I think they did the same thing”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:46:07 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  2. lineage (lineage) · through Rocky (1976), which they were tied to as floated for Rocky: Rocky ⇒ Creed (the host's read). Creed closely follows Rocky's structure, but opens with Creed obviously able to fight, unlike Rocky's grim opening bout.
    “in Creed, which very closely follows some of the structures of rocky.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Rocky’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:38:15 · Chris Ryan (0.45 sure it was them)

Fighting with My Family (2019): 2 lines

  1. craft (craft) · through Rocky (1976), which they were tied to as floated for Rocky: Rocky ⇒ Fighting with My Family (the maker said so: Merchant in this interview). Merchant says you cannot make a sports movie without watching Rocky and all its sequels.
    “make any kind of sports a movie without watching Rocky or indeed all of the Rockies”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:45:46 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)
  2. craft (craft) · through Rocky (1976), which they were tied to as floated for Rocky: Rocky ⇒ Fighting with My Family (the maker said so: Merchant in this interview). Merchant calls Rocky a template because it beds in character so you root for him before the fight, a lesson he applied.
    “a template in the sense that it really beds in character”
    The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting With My Family’ | Interview (Ep. 130) · 0:46:00 · Stephen Merchant (0.95 sure it was them)

(the modern sports movie): 1 line

  1. lineage (lineage) · through Rocky (1976), which they were tied to as floated for Rocky: Rocky ⇒ (the modern sports movie) (the host's read). Rocky created the sports-movie prototype and the modern underdog.
    “created the sports movie prototype, like just period.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Rocky’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:05:47 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)

Bull Durham (1988): 1 line

  1. lineage (lineage) · through Rocky (1976), which they were tied to as floated for Rocky: Rocky ⇒ Bull Durham (the host's read). Bull Durham took the Rocky motto a level further in how a sports movie is written.
    “how can we take that rocky motto and actually go the next level with how we write a movie”
    The Rewatchables · ‘The Natural’ With Bill Simmons and Mallory Rubin · 0:25:51 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)

Cinderella Man (2005): 1 line

  1. lineage (lineage) · through Rocky (1976), which they were tied to as floated for Rocky: Rocky ⇒ Cinderella Man (the host's read). Rocky set up the idea that a victory transforms the supporting cast too, as in Cinderella Man where he fights for Giamatti.
    “by the time you get to like Cinderella man, you realize that he's not just fighting for him, he's fighting for Giamatti.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Rocky’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:28:11 · Chris Ryan (0.45 sure it was them)

Mark Wahlberg: 1 line

  1. career (career) · them, directly: James Caan ⇒ Mark Wahlberg (the host's read). Wahlberg wanted to be Caan but is only half there, and remade The Gambler.
    “Wahlberg probably wanted to be James Khan, but he's 50% there.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Thief’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 0:20:21 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)

Raging Bull (1980): 1 line

  1. theme (anti-genre) · through Rocky (1976), which they were tied to as floated for Rocky: Rocky ⇒ Raging Bull (the maker said so). Scorsese shot in black and white to differentiate from Rocky-era bright red-white-and-blue boxing movies, and producer Winkler produced both.
    “Number one, I want to differentiate from the Rockies and all the other sort of boxing movies right now.”
    Blank Check with Griffin & David · Raging Bull with David Krumholtz · 1:08:55 · Griffin Newman or David Sims (0.40 sure it was them)

Rocky Balboa (2006): 1 line

  1. lineage (lineage) · through Rocky (1976), which they were tied to as floated for Rocky: Rocky ⇒ Rocky Balboa (the host's read). The little girl Marie from Rocky grows up to be the love interest in Rocky Balboa.
    “she then becomes the Rocky Balboa love interest.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Rocky’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:14:31 · Van Lathan (0.45 sure it was them)

The Karate Kid (1984): 1 line

  1. lineage (lineage) · through Rocky (1976), which they were tied to as floated for Rocky: Rocky ⇒ The Karate Kid (the host's read). Rocky is eight years before Karate Kid, which is called the 2.0 version of the same underdog story but a completely different movie in every respect.
    “We're 8 years away from karate kid, which is the next, the 2.0 version of this movie.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Rocky’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 0:11:32 · Bill Simmons (0.60 sure it was them)

What the speakers said they did

Acting (16) everyone in acting

Other (2) everyone in other

What was said about them, by kind

career (3)

  1. career (career): James Caan → Sonny Corleone. Caan's Sonny Corleone manic energy argued by Goldman as the reason confinement worked.
    “he had this manic energy to him, and Sonny Corleone, and just bouncing around.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ With Bill Simmons and Brian Koppelman · 0:33:18 · Bill Simmons (0.70 sure it was them)
  2. career (career): James Caan → Rollerball. Simmons is a James Caan fan and wants to do Rollerball as an episode.
    “the podcast you and I promised to do 5 years ago, I think, is rollerball”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ With Bill Simmons and Brian Koppelman · 0:33:41 · Brian Koppelman (0.70 sure it was them)
  3. career (career): James Caan → Mark Wahlberg. Wahlberg wanted to be Caan but is only half there, and remade The Gambler.
    “Wahlberg probably wanted to be James Khan, but he's 50% there.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Thief’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 0:20:21 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)

people (3)

  1. people (people): James Caan → Willie Nelson. Caan and Nelson were the two draws in 1981.
    “It was James Conn and Willie Nelson were like the 2 draws.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Thief’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 0:55:30 · Sean Fennessey (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. people (people): James Caan → Michael Mann. The two difficult talents made one film and never again.
    “made one movie together and decided, yeah, we're good.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Thief’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 1:17:11 · Chris Ryan (0.55 sure it was them)
  3. people (people): Thief → James Caan. Caan is one of Chris's five favorite actors and suits the machismo of Mann's leads.
    “James Kahn is one of my 5 favorite actors”
    The Big Picture · ‘Ferrari’ and Top Five Michael Mann Movies · 0:53:29 · Chris Ryan (0.70 sure it was them)

what-if (3)

  1. what-if (what-if): Rocky → James Caan. What would Rocky be with James Caan as Rocky and Harvey Keitel as Paulie, or John Cazale as Paulie?
    “What is this movie if it's James Conn is Rocky and Harvey Keitel is Polly?”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Rocky’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, and Van Lathan · 1:19:47 · Bill Simmons (0.55 sure it was them)
  2. what-if (what-if): James Caan → Denzel Washington. Denzel is the only other person you could imagine in the part.
    “Denzel's the only person you could ever imagine”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ With Bill Simmons and Brian Koppelman · 0:34:07 · Brian Koppelman (0.70 sure it was them)
  3. what-if (what-if): James Caan → Mark Wahlberg. Caan today would have gravitated to Tarantino, not Bourne sequels.
    “He probably would have loved to work with Tarantino.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Thief’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 0:21:07 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)

Fun items about them

  1. fun, about James Caan: Caan once showed up hungover; Reiner claimed a lab problem and reshot, then docked his pay.
    “apparently once he showed to the set, hungover, all his scenes, he shot that they were unusable.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ With Bill Simmons and Brian Koppelman · 1:07:26 · Bill Simmons (0.85 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about James Caan: Doctor in the Willie Nelson death scene genuinely scared by Caan's stare.
    “the actor who played the doctor actually got scared.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Thief’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 0:18:35 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about James Caan: Caan turned down Kramer vs. Kramer, Apocalypse Now, Superman, MASH, Cuckoo's Nest.
    “He turned all of those down.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Thief’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 0:22:18 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)
  4. fun, about James Caan: Caan on his marriages.
    “I used to say marriages were like tornadoes.”
    The Rewatchables · ‘Thief’ With Bill Simmons, Sean Fennessey, and Chris Ryan · 0:24:58 · Bill Simmons (0.50 sure it was them)