Posted on 05/06/2006 12:03:25 PM PDT by Chi-townChief
I see by the papers, as Mr. Dooley would have said, that Crazy Uncle Junior tried to put Tony Soprano down. The paper was in fact what Jimmy Breslin is pleased to call New York Times Newspaper. Since there apparently are no serious national or world problems about which the wise men and women of the Times could pontificate, they decided to discuss Tony's apparent downfall. Surely, they would not use the space to admit how drastically they have reversed (waffled) their stance of three years ago on the war in Iraq -- just as their predecessors had never admitted they were wrong in their early support for the Vietnam War.
The editorial reinforced the image of "The Sopranos" series as a thoughtful story of mob mayhem for those who think they are sophisticated academics and/or intellectuals -- the people who, like me, read the Times editorials. After all, Tony has his own psychoanalyst, doesn't he? When you make it into the Times editorials, you have become official. There are a number of unprintable words that are used in every other sentence that Tony and his thugs utter that are appropriate to describe such a supercilious reaction to the series. Its basic appeal is to sex and violence -- and violent sex, at that. The underlying suspense is always who's going to get whacked in this episode. (Add your own unprintables.)
In fact, despite the excellent scripts, acting and direction, the series is trivial, infantile, male chauvinist trash that glorifies vicious, nasty, evil, ugly criminals. It is "The Godfather" all over again, with more explicit sex and more foul words.
Moreover, it stereotypes Italian Americans, bigotry which many Americans seem to enjoy. The Soprano family, it is implied, is a typical Italian American with high regard for the virtue of their wives and daughters and no hesitation about wanton murder.
I'm exaggerating, you say?
Yeah, well, just imagine a similar series about African-American or Jewish criminals. Fuhgeddaboudit!
When the infamous Dillingham Commission in the first decade of the last century tried to justify the restrictive immigration laws Congress would enthusiastically enact, it reported that Italians are innately criminal types. This stereotype has lurked for 100 years at the limen of American consciousness.
Hence, many Americans believe that former New York Gov. Mario Cuomo decided not to run for president because there was some mysterious link between him and the Outfit (as we call it in Chicago). It was also said that an Italian wouldn't do well in the South. Nativist stereotypes are not limited in American culture just to Mexican-American illegals. The bigots are still among us.
The latest conflict among the Sopranos is about poor Vito, who turns out to be gay. Will Tony become politically correct, as he seems inclined to do, and say that Vito may be a fag, but he's our fag? Or will he remember that he is a "very strict Catholic" and assign someone to whack poor Vito? I don't think I'd want to hold Vito's life insurance policy. Tony, after all, has to think about his family's reputation and his strict Catholic morality.
Part of the phony myth surrounding the series is that ''The Sopranos'' is "edgy" or even "transgressive." In the world of New York culture, a gay Mafioso is supposed to be "edgy." I suppose the series is better than most of the so-called reality shows. There is perhaps some comedy in a group of overweight, filthy, foul-mouthed Italian killers agonizing about the morality of sexual orientation in the appropriate obscene language.
Just when one thinks that the vulgarity of American TV has reached an all-time low, it shows amazing resilience. Maybe if Tony has to retire, he could apply for a role as an apprentice to Donald Trump. However, I think someone will whack Tony in the last episode of the series (not so definitively that he can't live again next year). The killer will be his daughter Meadow at her wedding. Such a conclusion should be edgy enough for the folks who market the series.
Bigots are everywhere. Italians, I am told, who watch ''The Sopranos'' say that the series is not about Italians but about Sicilians who are Arabs, descendants of the Saracens who once occupied the island.
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Is this guy still a RC priest?
Evidently from what I hear.
They should bring back the Ryan Chapelle ("24") actor who played Carmella's priest. He was great.
I think you've misunderstood his point, which I tend to agree with.
The Sopranos is very well done trash, which I frankly haven't watched that many times. It sterotypes Italians in a way that wouldn't be acceptable for any other ethnic group. This is probably because many Italians seem to enjoy and appreciate the sterotyping.
Many central and northern Italians do indeed look down on Italians from southern Italy and Sicily, from whom most Italian-Americans are descended. There was even a political party a few years back of northern Italians who wanted to secede to get away from the southerners.
Is this guy aware that the Sopranos is practically over? I don't pay for premium channels so I've never watched it, and I've always been bored by all the attention paid to one TV show.
"They should bring back the Ryan Chapelle ("24") actor who played Carmella's priest. He was great."
Yes, he was great in both those parts, but esp. as the Priest.
Isn't this supposed to be the final season? At the rate they are going they are going to end up with more loose ends than a plate of spaghetti.
Yeah, I'm 1/2 Napolitan' myself so I know the whole story about how "all Sicliani carry knives" and how the Marchegian folks in Chicago Heights were from a better part of Italy: "We weren't no peasant dagos!" But Greeley is always an a-hole and he should go back to worrying about his beloved Irish who "saved civilization."
"But Greeley is always an a-hole and he should go back to worrying about his beloved Irish who "saved civilization.""
ROTF!!!
ROFLMAO!! If I recall correctly, didn't Greeley write a series of trashy, sleazy, stupid "novels" back in the '70's and '80's? I remember reading the first few pages of one and throwing it in the trashcan at the Rock Island station downtown.
He is a moron of the first order, and is typical of one example(out of many) of why I am embarrassed to acknowledge my Irish ancestry.
Yeah, Greeley is somewhat of a soft porn aficionado. But "How the Irish Saved Civilization" actually exists >>> http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0385418493/sr=8-1/qid=1146944097/ref=sr_1_1/002-0338003-2363215?%5Fencoding=UTF8
They never quite get to the part about how they hid behind their English "oppressors" in World War II.
I know it exists and that's why your comment was so funny!
Simply the title of the book makes me lol!
the priest did show up in one of the "tony in the hospital" episodes, Carmella spoke to him.
I've been watching "Deadwood" on DVD, and have to wonder just why that show was ever made. To me it looks like either the creator hates the era he's depicting, or he loves it for perverse reasons, that it's hard to share.
It's sort of a "Sopranos" western, but without the humor and contemporary social commentary that makes "The Sopranos" more enjoyable than it ought to be. Of course, with both shows there's always the "what's gonna happen" element that keeps people watching.
Yeah - I don't mean to sound overly harsh but that book title really sets them up like ducks in a row.
The Irish are fantastic when it comes to claiming "moral superiority" over everyone else, telling them what to do, and they rival France in the bravery department.
As far as "saving civilization", they think nothing about letting the rest of it get destroyed just as long as they get their shot at the Brits. Again, that goes back to WWII.
I could go on and on and on...
It's not stereotyping, it's presenting 1 of many subsections of 1 of many racial mixes. There are indeed Italian/ Sicilian organized criminals in this world, there are also Italians and Sicilians who have nothing to do with crime. Problem is from a TV/ movie perspective Italian bakery owners that have no ties to crime are boring. That's why the movies and Sopranos are about the criminals. Though in Sopranos you also have Italian shrinks with no ties to crime, Italian FBI agents whose only ties to crime are trying to put the main characters in jail, and walk by Italians of just about every other profession with no ties to crime other than occassionaly unknowningly serving mobsters as customers. The whole stereotyping claim is BS, always has been since the Italian anti-defamation people first started whining about the first Godfather movie, and will continue to be BS.
Greeley is a bore.
Puzo’s characters will long outlive Greeley’s: in fact, no one remembers Greeley’s even now.
I've tried watching it but give up at around the 10th F-Bomb which appears in less than five minutes.
My theory: the scriptwriters are wusses who try to show their "manliness" by causing the characters to F-bomb constantly for an hour.
Like prior years, I'll cancel HBO when the Sopranos' season ends.
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