Michael Gandolfini and The Sopranos’ unfinished business
The Sopranos prequel starring the late James Gandolfini’s real-life son finally provides fans with some answers. Gandolfini Jnr reveals what it was like to step into his father’s shoes.
The last time we saw Tony Soprano, he was sitting in a booth at Holsten’s ice cream parlour in Bloomfield, New Jersey, flipping through a jukebox menu – he selected Journey’s Don’t Stop Believin’ – and was eating onion rings before he was joined by wife Carmela, son AJ and daughter Meadow.
The war with New York was over but Tony’s top crew members were almost all gone and he’d had depressing visits with Silvio Dante and Uncle Junior, which served as a reminder that mobsters end up either dead, in prison or losing their minds.
Meanwhile, the bell on the door signalled the entry of a guy in a Members Only jacket – as he is known – and Tony looked up. The man sat at the counter, glanced towards the Sopranos’ table, and went to the bathroom. Several other men entered the diner. Tony looked over. Tension rose. Was Tony about to get whacked?
He looked up when the bell rang again, just as Meadow arrived. Then – inexplicably – the screen went black with no sound. Nothing. That scene, ending one of the most critically acclaimed shows in television history, has prompted never-ending debate about what happened next – was James Gandolfini’s Tony killed? – and if there is a deeper meaning.
Now, Tony is back. But not the tough, often explosive, angst-ridden, always under-appreciated mob boss.
But, rather, a teenage Tony being introduced to the criminal underworld who finds himself at a crossroads and tormented by inner demons.
In a new film, The Many Saints of Newark, young Tony is played by Michael Gandolfini, the iconic star’s son. Once you get your head around that, and also the mind-boggling realisation that Michael was born in the year The Sopranos began, 1999, this movie is a thrill for fans from start to finish.
David Chase, the creator, producer and writer of The Sopranos, had no plan to revisit the series.
“I wasn’t interested in making a movie at all but Toby Emmerich, who was the head of Warner Bros, had been at me for many years to do it,” he tells Review. “A movie back in the past about Junior and Johnny (Soprano) as younger men, that was interesting to me.”
The prequel takes place during the Newark riots in the summer of 1967, set against the backdrop of the political, social and economic upheaval across the US. The conflict between Italian-American and African American communities in New Jersey is at a tipping-point.
It focuses on the DiMeo crime family as Dickie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola) – Moltisanti is Italian for “Many Saints” – is challenged by Harold McBrayer (Leslie Odom, Jr.) from a rival gang. Aldo “Hollywood Dick” Moltisanti, Dickie’s father, is portrayed by Ray Liotta.
We see baby Christopher Moltisanti, Dickie’s son, and other characters we know such as Tony’s father Johnny Soprano (Jon Bernthal), his mother Livia (Vera Farmiga) and Uncle Junior (Corey Stoll).
The central character is Dickie. “I thought up Dickie as Tony’s mentor in an episode of The Sopranos,” Chase recalls. “I had Tony explain to Christopher who he was and since I’d written that paragraph, I’d always been interested to actually visualise this guy.
“He is not as intelligent or as reflective as Tony, but he is from a different era. It was always my feeling that Tony’s problem was that for a mobster he thought too much, and he had too much on his mind. I think Dickie has got a lot on his mind, but he is not as discursive as Tony.”
The film is brilliantly acted and directed by Alan Taylor, with high production values that transport the audience to the 1960s. While the story by Chase and Lawrence Konner is often compelling, and can work as a stand-alone, it will resonate more strongly with fans of the series.
Indeed, enthusiasts will be excited to see the fresher faces of Tony’s crew: Paulie Walnuts (Billy Magnussen), Silvio Dante (John Magaro) and Salvatore “Big Pussy” Bonpensiero (Samson Moeakiola). We also meet Tony’s teenage friends Artie Bucco (Robert Vincent Montano) and Jackie Aprile (Chase Vacnin).
Stepping into his father’s shoes to play teenage Tony was not something that Michael Gandolfini ever imagined.
He had little exposure to the show before his father’s death in 2013. Michael once asked his father what The Sopranos was about. “It’s about some mobster who goes to therapy,” he
replied.
Young Gandolfini watched every episode of the series, something he had not done before, to prepare for the role. He made a family tree and a timeline. He walked around Newark and met people who had associations with the Mafia.
“The Tony we meet is kind of nerdy, sensitive and sweet but the anger and resentments of the world crawl up,” Gandolfini tells Review via a Webex video call. “In many ways the opposite of the Tony we get to know, but we still see all of the elements in him. He is just a kid and he doesn’t really know what the mob is. But he gets to learn what it is.”
In teenage Tony, we see leadership qualities but also low self-esteem, mental health problems and combustive emotions. Gandolfini examined his father’s portrayal closely, especially his physicality and mannerisms.
“I was able to really see the sensitive moments and the angry moments and know what I wanted to incorporate,” he explains. “I did my very best and I’d think he would be proud of that.”
Chase says he knew instantly that Michael could play the role his father had made famous. “Michael was different to work with that’s for sure,” he says. “His father always wound up doing what the script called for, as did Michael, but Jim would probe and question it. Michael was not like that.”
Liotta is no stranger to tough-guy roles, having played Henry Hill in Goodfellas. He tells Review over the phone that, contrary to legend, he was never considered for the role of Tony Soprano. But he did talk to Chase about another part which did not pan out. He jumped at the chance to play “Hollywood Dick” in The Many Saints of Newark.
“David Chase is terrific, so the fact that he did this, he wrote it, just made me want to be a part of it,” Liotta says. “The whole thing is about a mafia family, but also the family of fathers and sons and uncles and aunts.”
Liotta’s character was the head of the family but is now in retirement, having returned from Italy with a younger wife, but soon comes into conflict with his son Dickie. It is a role that is very much unlike the actor.
“The bad guys really stand out,” he says. “I’ve played a couple of crooked cops, too. It is just so far from who I am.
“It’s great to play somebody that is aggressive and ballsy, because I’m not.”
Chase developed The Sopranos after having written and produced The Rockford Files and Northern Exposure. The HBO series was influenced by Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola’s films. But The Godfather “glamorised” Mafia life whereas The Sopranos is grittier and more realistic. Chase says The Twilight Zone probably influenced The Sopranos more than The Godfather.
There was nothing like it on television. It birthed the anti-hero, with the audience often rooting for Tony to outwit the FBI. We sympathise with Tony, we barrack for him and yet we are also appalled by him. He is anguished and tormented, suffers panic attacks, has wild dreams and submits himself for regular appointments with a shrink, Doctor Jennifer Melfi, sparking another rollercoaster relationship.
The Sopranos ran at a slower pace than most shows. Characters had depth. It mixed drama with suspense and comedy. We became familiar with Bada Bing and Satriale’s Pork Store, gangsters wearing shiny tracksuits, navigating their way through a maelstrom of violence, profanity and sex while raising families, ritually going to church and funerals, and paying bills.
The characters, however, are drawn from real life. Chase says Livia was partly based on his mother and Tony on his father. “They influenced the series a great deal,” he explains. “Plus, there were people in my family who were distantly connected to the mob. I was an Italian-American kid from that area and I knew all about that life.”
Filmed on location in New Jersey and New York, The Many Saints of Newark maintains the unpredictability and edginess that made the series absorbing.
Attention to detail, such as cooking pasta or eating eggs, is critical. It is the mundane that makes it believable. An odd look or an unintentional criticism can get you hurt or killed. At its core is a story about family dynamics coupled with personal and professional relationships. Music pulses through the movie, just as it did in the series. The audience is treated to a blend of musical styles from the classical to the popular, including Frank Sinatra, James Brown, The Rolling Stones, Dionne Warwick and Neil Diamond.
Fans will be looking for any clues that solve a season-four mystery. Tony ordered Christopher to avenge his father’s death. Tony said Dickie was murdered by former police detective Barry Haydu in front of his house while carrying TV trays. But when Christopher confronted Haydu, he denied it. Tony said Dickie was murdered on the orders of Jilly Ruffalo.
No spoilers, but the movie reveals the full story. Gandolfini says: “There were a lot of call backs to the show, a lot of really fun little things, and it does resolve a lot.”
Will we see another prequel? “I love this character,” Gandolfini says. “I would be back for sure.” When I put this to Chase, he notes that it would be a sequel to the prequel. “It might happen,” he ruminates. “It belongs to Warner Bros. I would only be involved under certain conditions, though.”
During the Zoom interview with Chase, who reclined on a lounge as we talked, the fate of Tony Soprano from that final episode in 2007 lingered in my mind.
Although he is sick of being asked about it and is loath to set off another round of interminable speculation, I could not let this opportunity pass. So, I asked.
“It really is about life and death,” Chase explained. “But my feeling was the way to really make it about life and death was to jolt people into thinking ‘what’s going on here?’, which may be what people are saying when they get hit by a car.”
Wait, what? Is he saying Tony is dead? Perhaps Tony’s fate is not really the point. And he was speaking metaphorically about being hit by a car. The scene conveys the uncertainty of mob life and Tony’s struggle to balance work and family, and his mental health, with the constant fear that it will inevitably come to an end at some point. It always does.
The Many Saints of Newark opens in cinemas on November 4.