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.
True, especially in a single movie. I hope it doesn’t wind up like another journey to the Dark Side
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.