After fourteen years, the Sopranos are back. The long awaited prequel, “The Many Saints of Newark” finally arrived in theaters. It is not a bad film overall, but it is disappointing owing to the fact that the film did not live up to the expectation that we would see how young Tony Soprano was corrupted. What was expected was to see Tony make his bones (commit his first murder) the way we see Christopher make his bones in the pilot episode of the Sopranos.
Mafia films are fascinating largely because of how they show the ease in which people can be corrupted. Goodfellas did a great job depicting the corruption of young Henry Hill. The first two Godfather films brilliantly showed how once honest men such as Michael Corleone and Vito Corleone can go down the dark path. The Sopranos series also touched on the corruption of Christopher.
The main problem with the film is this is about the Moltisanti family and less about the Sopranos. Dicki Molisanit is the star of the film and he is a great character. His life choices foreshadow the choices that his son Christopher takes in his life. Both father and son murder their girlfriends (for different reasons) and both are murdered leaving behind a wife and baby.
The movie has its moments. The acting is great. Michael Gandolfini is great in the role his father played. But there is no real transformation. There is is no equivalent of Micheal Corleone the nice guy going bad. That is what this film is missing.
Too much time on the race riots. It is one thing to show the background of racial tensions, another to focus too much on them. “A Bronx Tale”, the 1993 mob classic featured the problem of racism but wisely kept it to a minimum. The Sopranos series occasionally featured flashbacks of Johnny Boy Soprano. He was a fascinating character and regrettably was not used very much in the film.
In episode three of the third season, young Tony walks in as as his father cuts off the finger of Mr. Satriale (the guy whose butcher shop Johnny Boy took over and we learned during the series committed suicide). There should have been more of Johnny Boy and more of Tony proceeding with his criminal career.
Tony being inducted into the Mafia would have been a great ending. In the end we learn that Dickie Moltisanti was murdered on the orders of Uncle Junior. This brings into question the information given to us in season four episode one that Dickie was murdered by a dirty cop on the orders of another wiseguy. It also raises the possibility that if Tony was in fact murdered in the series finale (as many fans believe) then perhaps he was murdered on the orders of Uncle Junior as Dickie Moltisanti was.
It is true that Uncle Junior was sick and no longer in good standing with the family during the last two seasons of the shows run, but might it not have been possible he still had friends and could have given one last order? In the film, Uncle Junior ordered the murder of Dickie Moltisanti because he felt disrespected.
In his stay in a nursing home, Uncle Junior was beaten by a younger resident. Humiliation would have been a strong motivation for Uncle Junior to have Tony hit.
Not a bad film, but not a great film either.