The Things You Learn in a YouTube Search

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Occasionally I will actually take the "suggestions'" advice on YouTube and look at a so-called "recommended" video. This discussion is about actor John Cazale. While I should leave it to you, as a fun experiment, to see what "six degrees" it took to get me to him, I won't. The chain goes like this: I've been watching videos of boot camp (just to laugh, now that it's a nearly 40-year-old memory for me). That led me to Full Metal Jacket, and the late R. Lee Ermey's terrific performance as a boot came DI. From there things like The Deer Hunter came up. Now you see where we're going! The Deer Hunter, the Oscar winner for "best picture" of 1979, was John Cazale's final film. Sick with lung cancer (which they didn't know at the time had already metastasized to his bones), his scenes were filmed first. He died before the movie was released, at the age of 42. You probably are thinking his name barely rings a bell, if that. I remember him fondly because he was in three movies I love (The Deer Hunter isn't one of them: I've never seen it). Those films were The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, in which he played Fredo Corleone, and Dog Day Afternoon, where he played a bank robber. Here's where things get interesting. The reason you probably don't know much about Cazele is because he was only in five films during his life (plus archival footage used in The Godfather Part III). And yet.... Every single movie the man was in was nominated for "best picture." Three of the five won. His track record: The Godfather -- won Dog Day Afternoon -- nominated The Godfather Part II -- won The Conversation -- nominated The Deer Hunter -- won Oh, and The Godfather Part III, which had archival footage of Cazele? It, too, was nominated for "best picture." That's some track record. And that's my lesson today from a YouTube search! Here's one of my favorite scenes from Dog Day Afternoon, where Cazele's character thinks Wyoming is a country (warning: NOT edited for television):