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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If I remember correctly, she even looks a bit like Edie Falco!!
I LOVE Deadwood, although it did take a bit of time. It's an acquired taste. But you're right, alot of HBO series now is the SOPRANOS with different accents and scenary...DEADWOOD (Sopranos in the old west), ROME (SOPRANOS in ancient times)...etc.
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.
I haven't seen Deadwood, but I love westerns. Like jazz, rock and roll, etc. they are an American artform. As such they evolve. You can pretty much imprint anything on a western you want. Discuss any topic in American life or American mythology...
You've got that right. My wife and I keep watching this final season sitting through the turgid episodes hoping something will happen. Usually nothing does. There's absolutely no tension in any of the scenes. Why isn't anybody wondering what happened to Adriana? All we're getting is Vito the homo stories and Tony Jrs. drug life. Where the heck is Paulie Walnuts? Oh yeah, he had a story about his mother who was really his aunt. Why aren't we getting more stories about Phil Leotardo, with sanctions from Johnny Sac, challenging Tony's empire? Did creator David Chase simply phone these stories in?
Most east coast/CosaNostra types I've bumped into have remarked that had a good guy been known to be layin around down by the river with another fellow rubbed his chest, he'd soon be known as that guy lying down by the river.
Right. Thanks. BTW the Polish Pope ordered him to quit politics.
Funny stuff, I'd like to see a non violent version of the mafia!
He is Stugots!
I am FBI, Sicilian in fact, and I agree 100%. I have often said that if I had to compose a self serving stereotype, it would look a lot like the Italian/Gangster stereotype. Many Italian American's don't mind it at all, and indeed ham it up a bit.
I have never been bothered by the stereotype at all, notwithstanding my looks, downtown Manhattan pedigree, and notorious family surname.
Chicks dig it. ;-)
It's said that there's such a code in "The Godfather," and you can see it there, at least in the first movie of the series. Whether it's still there in "The Sopranos" is harder to say. Sure, Tony couldn't have his crew find out that he was in therapy and everybody still hates a rat, but I wonder if he and the others have broken an awful lot of the code of honor. You could view a lot of the episodes as "morality plays" in which characters struggle not with the outside society's strictures about what's right and wrong, but with the code of the mafia and their own inclinations, but a lot of the series seems to be saying that Vito Corleone's world, real or legendary, is gone.
LOL!! I can totally see that.
I watched it for about 5 minutes once, total garbage.
I'd prefer to just sit in a room with no tv and pray.
This "Sapranos" "Desperate Housewives" and "Jerry Springer" are all cultural rot.
David Milch, the creator of "Deadwood," has quite a foul mouth. He's interviewed on the DVD, and your theory fits. Like everyone else in Hollywood he wants to be a "rebel" and an "iconoclast," but he only succeeds in sounding like a typical movie industry pseudo-tough guy.
Milch is a very bright guy, too, but his characters don't come to life as much as those on "the Sopranos" or "Six Feet Under." They feel more like intellectual constructs than like real people, at least to me. Whatever else one thinks about the Sopranos, the first seasons brought something new to television and had a feel of authenticity.
In my early teen years, I was rapt by an edited-for-television presentation of Sidney Lumet's fact-based masterpiece Dog Day Afternoon, starring young Al Pacino as a flaky NYC bank robber whose plan goes awry, transforming him into a hostage-holding ringmaster in a media circus covered live.
SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!
Negotiations to fly him and his remaining partner out of the country with the money seem like they are going to come to fruition, but his gunman is shot in the head and he is captured alive. When that happened, I realized that I actually was rooting for them to get away with the money.
Years later, I was watching a movie called Charlie Varrick in which I got suckered into rooting for another bank robber to kill a mob hit man. That did it for me. No more will I knowingly watch "entertainment" that asks me to pick one criminal over the other.
I watch movies for escape, and there's no escape in watching bad guys battle it out to see who earns the right to screw decent people. If I wanted that, I would just watch the news. If there's no good guy with a chance of conquering all, I ain't watching.
And Andrew Greeley glorifies heresy.
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