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I Knew It Was You: Rediscovering John Cazale

I Knew It Was You: Rediscovering John Cazale (2009)

January. 16,2009
|
7.8
| Documentary

John Cazale was in only five films – The Godfather, The Conversation, The Godfather: Part II, Dog Day Afternoon and The Deer Hunter – each was nominated for Best Picture. Yet today most people don't even know his name. I KNEW IT WAS YOU is a fresh tour through movies that defined a generation.

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Reviews

Comwayon
2009/01/16

A Disappointing Continuation

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Odelecol
2009/01/17

Pretty good movie overall. First half was nothing special but it got better as it went along.

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Neive Bellamy
2009/01/18

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

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Tobias Burrows
2009/01/19

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

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MisterWhiplash
2009/01/20

Like the man's life, this doc is too short (I thought for some reason it was going to be a feature). The material is the basic stuff of a retrospective and tribute with interviews by collaborators and fans (and certainly some names you probably heard of: Pacino, De Niro, Streep, Sam Rockwell, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Sidney Lumet, uh, Brett Ratner, sure why not) that go into what this man was like as they knew him from being in person (Streep was married to him for a brief time, she's actually his widow) and from simply watching the Godfather parts 1 and 2 five hundred times.But, man, what an actor and what a career! Sometimes in those luckiest windows of time and in opportunity (don't forget the luck part of it), quality trumps quantity, and in this case Cazale had one of the major careers in 70's American cinema. It must be akin to one of those early rock and rollers from the 50's (Buddy Holly or the Big Bopper or whoever) who you know when listening to their music it's so pure and raw and emotional and that so many others have borrowed from them, and it's a true tragedy from the abyss of nothingness that they're taken so young.Good stuff though, again, I wish it was a little longer, like even a short feature instead of this long-short film stuff. But some wonderful breakdowns of these scenes he had as Fredo and the long-haired WTF in Dog Day Afternoon and even the sadness he brought to his small role in The Conversation. A lot of time actors try to go big or go home, or take on roles that will show off what they can DO on CAMERA. Cazale never did that, and one wonders this man in dramas in the 80's and 90's and beyond.

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Prismark10
2009/01/21

In the days before the internet a popular question to film magazines was: 'Whatever happened to John Cazale?'People who first saw him in The Godfather films and then saw him pop up in Dog Day Afternoon, The Conversation and The Deer Hunter were flummoxed that this brilliant, distinctive looking actor came out from nowhere, appeared in the great films of the 1970s and promptly disappeared.If John Cazale were still alive now he would be a celebrated actor and likely to have Oscar and Tony awards under his belt.Unfortunately Cazale died of cancer in 1978. He left a legacy in movie history of five performances in five films that were all nominated for the Best Picture Oscar, three of them actually winning the Best Picture Oscar.Actors, friends, family, collaborators discuss John Cazale, his life on screen and stage where he was also a celebrated performer. For the first time you get to find out a little more of John Cazale the man and performer. Meryl Streep, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and for his first appearance on screen in several years, Gene Hackman all reminiscence about him.

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SHB_73
2009/01/22

When you think of legendary movie actors names such as Brando, Pacino, De Niro, and Duvall are some that come to mind. But one that rarely, if ever gets mentioned is John Cazale. In the opening scene in this documentary ordinary people on the street are shown a picture of the Godfather cast and while they can name the actors playing their respected parts. the one they don't know is John Cazale who played Fredo Corleone. Cazale only acted in 5 feature films (The Godfathers I & II, Dog Day Afternoon, The Conversation, and The Deer Hunter). He was 42 when he died of lung cancer in 1978, but his impact on movies is still felt today and I feel that had he lived he would be talked in the same breath as his friend and acting legend Al Pacino who along with De Niro and Meryl Streep (who was at one time engaged to Cazale before his death) pay tribute to him as well as actors whom he influenced such as Steve Buscemi and Sam Rockwell. This documentary is worth watching to let people know about the man who could have given us so much more had he not died so young. Rest in Peace John Cazale.

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Danny Blankenship
2009/01/23

Just watched this doc on HBO even though short it was informative, moving, and a nice tribute to a fallen great that many people don't remember. Unless your probably a major film buff or historian you don't remember John Cazale. Yet Cazale was a good supporting player on many of the historical film classics of the 70's as with his help each film that he appeared in "The Godfather", "Godfather II", "The Conversation", "Dog Day Afternoon", and "The Deer Hunter" all received academy award nominations for best picture. The doc also tells of his humble start on Broadway as a struggling actor as he worked his way up to get noticed. Interviews and insights are given from greats like Steve Buscemi, Coppola, De Niro, Dreyfuss, Sidney Lumet, Al Pacino, and Gene Hackman. Also revealing and touching is the interview with the great Meryl Streep who had a brief romance with John on the set of his last film "The Deer Hunter"(1978), this is when Cazale would learn he was eat up with bone cancer and die shortly thereafter. Touching tribute that was overdue and it educated and informed many who didn't know anything about John Cazale as it showed if he had lived as to what might have been.

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