Posted on 07/11/2021 1:36:32 PM PDT by Albion Wilde
The widow of actor James Gandolfini has said it was 'surreal' to see his son Michael appearing as a young Tony Soprano in The Many Saints of Newark...Michael, who was 14-years-old when his father died from a heart attack while on holiday in Rome, previously admitted he hadn't even watched The Sopranos until he came to audition for the role of Tony. However, after watching the series for research into his upcoming role, Michael told Esquire he started having dreams about his father: 'I had one where I auditioned for David and I looked down at my hands, and they were my dad's hands.'...
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
This article interviews Michael and he speaks about coping with memories of his father as he entered the production, directed by David Chase.
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What a great show.
I hope he has the acting chops to pull this role off.
He seems very much "called" to do this, and was reluctant unless Chase really believed in him, which apparently Chase does. This was addressed in the article.
I lived in a mob neighborhood for a pretty long while, and watched little boys get vacuumed up into this lifestyle. I remember one kid in particular whom I met when he was 3 years old, examining a butterfly on the sidewalk. He was a smart and positive kid, but his innocence was soon leached away. As a mother myself, I found it heartbreaking, especially when he returned, at age 18, from his first brief term in prison, all beat up.
My point being, the Tony character being played by Michael says, in the trailer, tht he doesn't want to get into the lifestyle, that he wants to go to college. The grown Tony character in the television series also obviously grappled with reluctance, to the point of having anxiety attacks. So maybe in this way, the untested Michael Gandolfini is the right man for the job. The challenge will be showing the hardening of the heart, the deeper he goes into that particular labyrinth.
Chase's vision of the wounded souls of many of these thugs was Shakespearean. And it is NO EXCUSE. Only God could forgive the lives many of them lead; I certainly do not find their lives glamorous. I think Chase did a pretty fair job of showing how ludicrous and laughable are the pretentions of the average mobster.
But does he have the makings of a varsity athlete?
True, especially in a single movie. I hope it doesn’t wind up like another journey to the Dark Side
One of the best shows of all time with one of the worst endings of a series all time. The kid is absolutely ringer for the roll obviously. I hope it is not ruined by woke.
The ending was perfect, it's all there.
The genius of Chase in using metaphors was in the last episode with Butchie walking in Little Italy talking to Phil, only to realize he stepped into Chinatown. It showed how much the influence of the Italian Mafia had shrunk, and it’s as if they were too caught up in their own thing to even realize it.
Article says he’s a football player...
In so many directions at once. I commented on the previous thread that The Sopranos will be studied in film schools for at least the next century. I'm someone who has read most of Shakespeare, and I found Chase's character studies riveting.
The Bobby Bacala scene with the cuts of the model trains interspersed, that is one that will also be studied in Film Schools.
The ending was brilliant. And at least James Gandolfino outlived Tony Soprano. Haha.
It’s brilliant because 15 years later people are still arguing about it. If it had been clear-cut, nobody would have talking much about it.
I hope he doesnt turn out to be another Hollywood librat shmuck like his dad.
I didn’t mind the ending at all. But in my observation a lot of folks hanker for everything to be more clear cut after they have invested so much time. At least in the 24 hour news cycle era.
And like you point out, the controversy was good for publicity, just like Pete Rose not being in the HoF. How many conversations about this decade+ old show happen because of that ending? How many more times did MLB/HoF/Rose get talked about by not being in?
Freegards
I don't know what James Gandolfini's politics were. I do know he supported the wounded during the Iraq War and made a TV documentary about it, Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq. Also, he died two years before Trump began campaigning. The Sopranos was filmed mostly in New Jersey, Gandolfini's home state, where he had a home, as well as a place in New York and a piece of lakefront land in Canada. Although he made films via Hollywood, I have no knowledge of him becoming a West Coast guy.
You must have read something that makes you think he was a liberal. I'd like to know more. What do you know about him?
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