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Trashy 'Sopranos' glorifies violence (GREELEY LAUGH ALERT)
Chicago Sun-Times "The Bright One" ^ | May 5, 2006 | ANDREW GREELEY

Posted on 05/06/2006 12:03:25 PM PDT by Chi-townChief

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To: veronica

If I remember correctly, she even looks a bit like Edie Falco!!


41 posted on 05/06/2006 2:48:28 PM PDT by Hildy (Producing a penny now costs the government more than 1.4 cents)
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To: x

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.


42 posted on 05/06/2006 2:50:51 PM PDT by Hildy (Producing a penny now costs the government more than 1.4 cents)
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To: x

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...


43 posted on 05/06/2006 2:58:10 PM PDT by durasell (!)
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To: montag813
"boring"

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?

44 posted on 05/06/2006 4:34:18 PM PDT by driftless ( For life-long happiness, learn how to play the accordion.)
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To: Chi-townChief

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.


45 posted on 05/06/2006 4:40:28 PM PDT by Cvengr
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To: Do not dub me shapka broham
Fr. Drinan, from Massachusetts.

Right. Thanks. BTW the Polish Pope ordered him to quit politics.

46 posted on 05/06/2006 4:59:26 PM PDT by aculeus
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To: driftless
Actually, I think it's been pretty good once they got through the hospital stuff; and Paulie had the line of the season - after Meadow told him to stay positive when he went in to see Tony in the hospital, the first words out of his mouth were, "Madon'! He looks like hell !!"

Cracks me up.
47 posted on 05/06/2006 5:00:27 PM PDT by Chi-townChief
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To: Chi-townChief

Funny stuff, I'd like to see a non violent version of the mafia!

He is Stugots!


48 posted on 05/06/2006 5:02:13 PM PDT by Central Scrutiniser (No one censors speech they agree with.)
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To: Restorer
This is probably because many Italians seem to enjoy and appreciate the stereotyping.

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. ;-)

49 posted on 05/06/2006 5:06:49 PM PDT by HitmanLV ("5 Minute Penalty for #40, Ann Theresa Calvello!" - RIP 1929-2006)
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To: RetSignman
I can't speak for others but I have a theory that the reason this show is so popular because these 'people' live by a very strict code of honor which is missing in everyday life and when it is broken, there is swift justice, which is something else that is missing.

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.

50 posted on 05/06/2006 5:14:13 PM PDT by x
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To: veronica

LOL!! I can totally see that.


51 posted on 05/06/2006 5:17:02 PM PDT by moehoward
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To: ozzymandus

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.


52 posted on 05/06/2006 5:20:47 PM PDT by wrathof59
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To: aculeus
My theory: the scriptwriters are wusses who try to show their "manliness" by causing the characters to F-bomb constantly for an hour.

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.

53 posted on 05/06/2006 5:24:52 PM PDT by x
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To: x
There is something perverse about the show. It makes us -- or a lot of us anyway -- cheer on the evil characters, and that's disturbing.

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.

54 posted on 05/06/2006 7:17:51 PM PDT by L.N. Smithee (What W should have said about Colbert: "Of course a guy from Comedy Central insulted a Christian!")
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To: x
I understand your point the Mafia has indeed changed from the day's of the Godfather series. In those days they didn't have the 'Witness Protection Program', which didn't allow the members any way out except by death.

The WPP has weaken the code and has splintered the strong families into, more or less, fiefdoms but the oath of omerta still has to be observed and followed and the leaders of these 'fiefdoms' have to be a whole lot smarter and aware of the members weaknesses.

The biggest mistake the heads of these families make is notoriety and they revel in their public profile ie: John Gotti. The smart ones rarely are recognized because they keep such a low profile.

This post is probably off topic of the reason of first point I made about why the public loves mob movies but I thought I would relate my opinion of the present day Mafia.
55 posted on 05/06/2006 8:43:07 PM PDT by RetSignman (( HELP...I'm trapped between these curved things))
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To: Chi-townChief
Trashy 'Sopranos' glorifies violence

And Andrew Greeley glorifies heresy.

56 posted on 05/06/2006 8:45:57 PM PDT by BlessedBeGod (Benedict XVI = Terminator IV)
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To: aculeus
Good advice, if you ask me.
57 posted on 05/06/2006 10:08:19 PM PDT by Do not dub me shapka broham ("The moment that someone wants to forbid caricatures, that is the moment we publish them.")
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