This video contains spoilers.
Your father never had the makings of a varsity athlete.
What’s that on the bed, Daddy’s Navy picture? You ever miss him? When he was in prison?
Or since he’s been dead?
I don’t know shit about The Sopranos.
Last Friday, on the relatively new streaming app service known as HBO-MAX, Sopranos fans
were treated to the long awaited prequel movie - The Many Saints of Newark. Turns out Feech’s
card game wasn’t in the cards. Nary a mention of Feech at all - perhaps the next prequel?
The movie gives us a small glimpse into the formative years of Tony Soprano before he
had transformed into a criminal scumbag. One of the biggest revelations, something many
fans long suspected, was that Tony lied to Christopher regarding how his father died.
Although he was honest about the TV trays, which is a vintage Tony trait of telling half
truths. Otherwise, the movie doesn’t spend too much time on Tony himself. He appears
as a child, and we get to see his father’s arrest at the fair that was covered in the
show from Tony’s angle. We learn that he tested high for intelligence and that he had
a rebellious streak from a young age, running numbers at school and stealing an icecream
truck to distribute tasty treats to children. As a high school student, it’s also clear
he was serious about football, college, and not becoming a mobster, or at least as serious
as high school students can be. We see his manipulative, domineering mother, played perfectly
by Vera Farmiga.
Otherwise, The Many Saints of Newark isn’t about Tony at all, despite the teases in the
trailer. Instead, the movie is really about Newark itself, weaving an ensemble cast around
the changing power dynamics with the rise of black power in the late 1960’s and the
resultant decline of the influence and prestige of the mafia. This is no golden age; Tony
and his crew's various recollections of how great things were back then are revealed as
more legend than fact. It is in this simmer stew that Tony slowly boils from child, to
teenager, and ultimately to mobster. The atmosphere is so pervasive, David Chase and his co-screenwriter
Lawrence Konner, make it clear there is no escape.
The roots of Tony’s path to becoming a monster begin in his family life, but don’t end
there. He’s aware of the criminal dealings of his father and uncle. In his formative
years, his father goes to prison after the arrest at the fair, leaving his mother to
struggle with all the stress levied on her by all that comes with this life. We also
get a glimpse of the roots of Tony’s depression and mental health issues. His mother, Livia,
was persuaded to take medication, but she didn’t want it. It makes you wonder if Olivia
could have been properly medicated had she been born 30 years later. At the same time,
the impact of Johnny’s ways on Livia is more profound here than previously implied,
as is her desire to turn to her son for comfort in Johnny Boy’s absence. It also perhaps
explains Tony’s inclination towards compulsive eating, when we see her bond with Tony while
serving him food, and then stressing him out and causing a scene before he even properly
digs in.
In his father’s absence, Tony takes a strong liking to Uncle Dickie, and most of the story
revolves around him. In some ways, Dickie can be seen as a mirror to Tony, as if Tony
from the late 90’s and early 2000’s was transported back to the 1960’s and 70’s.
Like Tony himself, Dickie struggles with his criminal endeavors often wondering what things
might be like had he not been born into it. He also has a short temper and is inclined
towards violence, but Dickie is conflicted at times. He isn’t cruel or sadistic like
Richie Aprile, or crazy like Ralphie Cifareto. At the same time, Dickie has a jealous streak,
just like Tony, and a temper as well, one that can explode into violence. In fits of
rage, he murders his own father and also his former stepmother turned goomah.
Also like Tony, he enjoys the perks and rewards that come with a criminal lifestyle, yet he
is conflicted over whether he should encourage or discourage his nephew from the life. This
has been a common theme throughout the series; Tony and Carmella’s children, as well as
the offspring of most of Tony’s crew, get swept up in the criminal life, unable to escape
the pull. There’s a statement here about how evil begets evil, the crimes of the fathers
creating sin in the offspring. In the Many Saints of Newark, there’s evil in the environment
itself. Dickie isn’t the only criminal in the city. At times, it seems like everyone
is as Newark descends into riots and the city itself leeches into Tony. You could say that
Tony carries this with him, even as he moves to a fancy home in the suburbs, there is no
escape.
In that sense, part of the genius in the movie is how certain themes and character traits
transcend the generations. The movie could easily be a Sopranos episode, where you take
the same exact dialogue, assign it to characters from the next generation, and it really wouldn’t
make a world of difference. The characters are what they are; perhaps because of where
they're from, the families they group in, and the people that surround them. Chase doesn’t
make it easy to separate one primary cause from the others. Like life itself, it’s
all of the above. About the only thing you can do is romanticize it and rationalize it,
and so we see more than enough to know that Tony has a habit of romanticizing the past
to an extreme, where he remembered things the way he wanted to remember them while blocking
out things that he didn’t. Kind of like Dickie, who wanted to do good deeds, in part
as an act of contrition for the heinous ones. Such as murdering his father or drowning his
goomah for sleeping with Harold.
In some ways, Harold is the most intriguing new character in the movie, and I hate to
say it, but if there's one area where the movie suffers it's in trying to cram too much
stuff into a short running time. Thus, we only get glimpses of Harold. He can be seen
as a black Dickie. He's smart, up and coming, ruthless, and liked by the ladies, even Dickie's
goomah. He once worked for Dickie, but as the riots progress, he feels more empowered
and wants everything for himself. He ultimately places a hit on Dickie, though one that fails.
Dickie's relationship with Harold should've had more screen time, it's interesting to
think what else happened between them and the love triangle.
But this isn’t Dickie’s story alone, however. In many ways, it’s also Junior’s, and
how his own seething jealousy pervaded things big and small. The movie reconfirms that Uncle
June never had the makings of a varsity athlete. Junior was in Johnny Boy’s shadow, the #2
brother, and it’s pretty clear he didn’t like it, not his position or the shit he has
to eat. Again, we see this in matters big and small. When Johnny is ultimately released
from prison, does he thank Junior for filling in during his absence? No, he does not. Oof
madone! Instead Johnny berated his older brother, pestering him for NOT stepping up. Junior
failed to step up, once again illustrating the fact that he was never a natural born
leader. Far from it.
He was always outside the real action, and wanted in. Take the token scene we got when
Johnny Boy put a bullet through Livia’s beehive hairdo. According to the story as
told by Janice, Uncle Junior and his goomah were in the car when it happened. But when
we see it happen for real in the Many Saints of Newark, it is instead Dickie and Joanne
in the back seat. Perhaps Junior inserted himself into it, making him a part of the
legend, and erasing Dickie from it. This brings us to the biggest reveal in the movie and
yet another parallel between Tony and Dickie. It’s long been suspected that Tony lied
to Christopher about the death of his father, claiming it was a rival mobster that used
a dirty cop. We now learn that Uncle Junior himself ordered the hit, the same as he would
later do to Tony. In that sense, history both repeats itself in an unbreakable cycle and
yet Junior can also be seen as a fulcrum of major events, putting the cycle into motion
even as he’s tied to it.
Killing Dickie leaves Chrissy fatherless and binds him to Tony, leading ultimately to his
own death at Tony’s hands. At the same time, the movie isn’t precisely clear on why Junior
puts the hit on Dickie. Dickie was certainly spiraling out of control, killing his own
father and murdering his mistress, engaged in a war with Harold, who once worked for
him and also slept with his goomah. There’s an argument to be made that Dickie had to
go, like we’ve seen many times on the show. Still, Chase makes it clear that Junior can’t
handle personal slights and his character remained true to form by being obsessed with
how he is perceived by others.
This point was best illustrated in the series when it came to orally pleasing his lady friend
Bobbi. Junior wanted that information kept secret, because if it was ever revealed it
would be a sign of weakness, perhaps even suggesting that Junior was a finook. We saw
the same impulse here after he was mocked by Dickie following his fall on the steps.
Junior resented Dickie personally to the fullest, and the fact his ungrateful kid brother lambasted
him when he was released from the can was the highest insult. In his mind, Junior is
the one who should have been providing support for Livia, and Junior is the one to whom Tony
should have been looking up to. Not that punk Dickie Moltisanti.
So Junior was the one who ultimately had Dickie killed, and while Junior never had the makings
of a varsity athlete - he did exhibit tremendous prowess when it comes to the art of criminal
innovation. While hiding safely deep behind the scenes, Junior proved to be sneakily effective,
taking out a member of the family and keeping it hidden. I said earlier that Tony lied to
Chrissy, but Tony probably didn’t know the truth himself. Junior must have lied to him.
This certainly makes you wonder what other deep cover hits may have been the product
of Uncle June’s insecurities when it comes to how he was perceived by others, particularly
when it comes to his kid brother’s family. This likewise rings back to when Junior found
himself under the spell of Livia’s manipulations back when she convinced Junior to have Tony
whacked. Knowing Junior’s past feelings with his desire to step up in Johnny’s absence,
Junior’s desire to prove himself on that front still lingered in his mind, making him
easy prey for Livia’s masterful manipulations.
Again, the motivations remain murky and unclear as they should be. You could say Junior was
manipulated by Livia, but now that we’ve seen Junior’s jealously laid bare and what
he was willing to do about it. Was he manipulating her? Clearly he was jealous of Tony for rising
so fast in the family and running the show, when Junior felt it should be him and him
alone. The simple impulse that caused Junior to whack Dickie would’ve caused him to whack
Tony.
Dickie’s death ultimately inspires Tony to go all in on a life of crime, when prior
to that moment he seemed determined to head in the other direction. It is ironic that
by inspiring and leading Tony into a life of crime, this eventually leads to his son’s
future demise.
Ultimately, however you interpret the movie, Chase gives no easy answers. Indeed, he makes
that point clear from the very beginning when Christopher Moltisanti himself narrates from
beyond the grave. Whether it's a red herring or not, there's also a moment when young Tony
holds baby Chrissy, crying uncontrollably at the mere sight of him, as if he knows what
is to come.
Some babies, when they come into the world, know all kinds of things from the other side.
In the series, Paulie sees a psychic. Christopher thinks he went to hell when he delivers a
message pertaining to 3 O’Clock. Tony has premonitions in dreams and a near death experience.
It's impossible to interpret this in the context of a character driven story, but it opens
the possibility, however far fetched, that we're moved by forces outside of our living
experience. Newark might be where they lived and where the story starts, but everything
is connected in a world beyond the physical.
At the end of the day, the only thing that disappointed me was the disturbing lack of
gabagool. Oof madone! David Chase, as a punishment, no more gabagool for you! I for one enjoyed
The Many Saints of Newark and I hope we get more Sopranos Universe material from David
Chase.
So what did you think of The Many Saints of Newark? Please share your thoughts in the
comment section.
Thanks for watching everyone, I hope you enjoyed, and have a wonderful night.
He did the hit for Jilly Ruffalo. Jilly and your old man were in the can together. Jilly
stabbed your old man’s cellmate to death.
Do you remember Dickie Moltisanti? No. No? Is that what you said? Is he a friend of yours?
He was my father.
They hit my Dad right outside my house, right? He was bringing home a crib for me.
You’re being set up! He’s lying to you whoever he is!
Well no, he was a, he was outside the house, but he wasn’t carrying a crib. He had a
bunch of TV trays. Could have been a crib just as easily.
This is how you leave me? When I’m almost burned to death cooking you a fucking snack?
Come on, honey. You could have just easily been making yourself something to eat.
Yeah? It’s done.
Three of my Capos have their mothers in this place? Instead of living in normal homes.
This must be some kind of fucking in-move. What do they think, I’m stupid.
Let me go talk to him. I promised Johnny I would take care of Tony while he’s in jail.
The way you talk you just confuse him. He only listens to Dickie.
Look at Dickie Moltisanti! His father gets whacked, he steps up! He takes care of his
family, he takes care of all the business, and not a peep out of him. He’s younger
than you!
If this is true Livia, you know what I - I mean - I’m the Boss for chrissake. If I
don’t act, blood or no -
You got any wine? Cazzate Malanga.
Where's the fucking manicott? It's gone. Half a fucking tray in there! I was hungry. Son
of a bitch.
Oh madonna mia! Stay down. Don’t move him. Uncle June! I just said don’t move him!
Ahhhh! Your sista’s -