Teeing Up for The Many Saints of Newark
Oct. 21st, 2021 04:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerEarlier today I blogged that The Sopranos has hit a slump in the middle of Season 4. Part of the reason I'm powering through it is I know it gets better (a benefit of watching it years after its original broadcast). The other part of it, and why I'm still semi-bingeing, usually watching 2 episodes at a time when I spend an evening watching TV, is I want to be able to watch The Many Saints of Newark soon.
Many Saints is, of course, the movie prequel to The Sopranos. While the movie is written so that it can stand on its own it's also written with a primary audience of Sopranos fans in mind. Reviewers have noted that to appreciate a lot of the references in the film you need to have watched the series. So why do I hurry? There's a ticking clock. Many Saints is only available on streaming through the end of October. After that I'll have to pay to see it in a theater— and risk Coronavirus exposure, too!— or wait for some kind of re-release.
Many Saints is also a play on words. One of the main characters in the series is Christopher Moltisanti, whose Italian surname means many saints. In the movie, young Tony Soprano is taken under the wing of Dickie Moltisanti, Christopher's father.
As an example of how watching the series first is relevant to understand the prequel, in the opening episode of season 4 there was a major plot point revealed about Dickie Moltisanti. He was killed when Christopher was a baby, and in that episode Tony tells Christopher who the killer was. That scene and the next have two of the most cold-blooded lines of dialogue exchanged.
First, Tony quietly tells Christopher to pull over near a restaurant. He points to the restaurant and explains that inside a corrupt cop is having his retirement party. That cop murdered Dickie Moltisanti in a contract killing, Tony reveals.
"So how come he's still fuckin' walkin'?" Christopher asks.
"Because he's been useful," Tony explains. "But now he's outlived it."
That's the cold-blooded part— as much Tony loves Christopher (shown throughout the series) and professes respect for Dickie, who was like a big brother to him, Tony waited years, decades even, to avenge his Dickie's murder because the killer was still "useful" to the crime gang.
The second cold-blooded exchange of lines comes when Christopher visits the killer at Tony's behest.
Christopher ambushes the cop in his home, handcuffs him, and confronts him when he regains consciousness. Chris wants to make sure the cop knows who he is and why he's here.
The cop bargains for his life telling Christopher he's being set up. "He's lying to you, whoever he is."
"It wouldn't make any difference," Chris shrugs as he levels his gun at the man.
This exchange is cold blooded because we can see that Christopher has his doubts. He's suspicious of the way Tony gave him the name only so many years later. But it doesn't matter. When the boss says to kill someone, he kills. It doesn't matter why.
Update: I don't know if Dickie Moltisanti's murder is part of the storyline in Many Saints and I don't want to know. No movie spoilers!
Many Saints is, of course, the movie prequel to The Sopranos. While the movie is written so that it can stand on its own it's also written with a primary audience of Sopranos fans in mind. Reviewers have noted that to appreciate a lot of the references in the film you need to have watched the series. So why do I hurry? There's a ticking clock. Many Saints is only available on streaming through the end of October. After that I'll have to pay to see it in a theater— and risk Coronavirus exposure, too!— or wait for some kind of re-release.
Many Saints is also a play on words. One of the main characters in the series is Christopher Moltisanti, whose Italian surname means many saints. In the movie, young Tony Soprano is taken under the wing of Dickie Moltisanti, Christopher's father.
As an example of how watching the series first is relevant to understand the prequel, in the opening episode of season 4 there was a major plot point revealed about Dickie Moltisanti. He was killed when Christopher was a baby, and in that episode Tony tells Christopher who the killer was. That scene and the next have two of the most cold-blooded lines of dialogue exchanged.
First, Tony quietly tells Christopher to pull over near a restaurant. He points to the restaurant and explains that inside a corrupt cop is having his retirement party. That cop murdered Dickie Moltisanti in a contract killing, Tony reveals.
"So how come he's still fuckin' walkin'?" Christopher asks.
"Because he's been useful," Tony explains. "But now he's outlived it."
That's the cold-blooded part— as much Tony loves Christopher (shown throughout the series) and professes respect for Dickie, who was like a big brother to him, Tony waited years, decades even, to avenge his Dickie's murder because the killer was still "useful" to the crime gang.
The second cold-blooded exchange of lines comes when Christopher visits the killer at Tony's behest.
Christopher ambushes the cop in his home, handcuffs him, and confronts him when he regains consciousness. Chris wants to make sure the cop knows who he is and why he's here.
The cop bargains for his life telling Christopher he's being set up. "He's lying to you, whoever he is."
"It wouldn't make any difference," Chris shrugs as he levels his gun at the man.
This exchange is cold blooded because we can see that Christopher has his doubts. He's suspicious of the way Tony gave him the name only so many years later. But it doesn't matter. When the boss says to kill someone, he kills. It doesn't matter why.
Update: I don't know if Dickie Moltisanti's murder is part of the storyline in Many Saints and I don't want to know. No movie spoilers!
