The Many Saints of ‘Newark’ | The Sopranos Prequel

[MadVillainy]

Rewatched this as it finally came back to HBO Max. I still feel the same as when I saw it in theaters.
This isn't a bad movie. On a pass fail rating I give it a pass...but it is not very good. It really teeters on the edge of being bad to me.

Like many I'm a big Sopranos fan. Rewatch the series at least once a year. As a Sopranos fan this movie is below average.
-It suffered from prequelitis as in too many callbacks, callforwards and showing things that were told about in the show like Tony's dad shooting his mom's hair. I generally don't like many prequels for that very reason. Too much wink wink nudge nudging. "Oh look baby Christopher always cries when Tony is near him. Get it? Because Tony is a toxic presence on Christopher in the future" I just don't go for stuff like that too much

-Some things blatantly contradicted (or retconned) stuff in the show. And I get it that's always to be expected but some of the character's ages, behavior, etc. were too different that it was a distraction.

-You don't spend enough time with a lot of the big characters who you'd want to see in a prequel if their cast. Bernthal as Johnny Boy, Farmiga as Livia, M. Gandolfini as Tony, and Stoll as Junior were great...but I feel like you don't see enough of them because the movie is moving way too fast because of the limited runtime. Like I would have loved to see Tony and Carmella actually meet or more of young Tony and Junior interacting. Or Junior and Johnny Boy doing mob stuff And then the small appearances of young Paulie, Sil, etc. were fine but I think they needed a little bit more.

-Some of the twists like Dickie not actually being a drug addict was interesting but I didn't really go for it

Now taking my Sopranos fan goggles off, as a crime movie fan. It's not good at all
-This movie doesn't endear me to the criminal low lifes like the mob movies I like. I'm not going even name the obvious classic ones, but movies like Black Mass, American Gangster, Kill the Irishman did a way better job making the character enjoyable to watch

-I love mob movies for, most of them, having a very dark sense of humor. The dark humor here was lacking

-The mob stuff just wasn't that compelling. The only really interesting bit was toward the end with the black vs Italian mob thing when that got violent and that also didn't get enough screentime (sensing a pattern?)

Finally just as a movie fan...this was below average
The performances were really good (save for young Sil. He was terrible) and the ideas for the stories weren't bad for the most part...but this movie was overstuffed with story.
2 hours was not a sufficient runtime to tell all they were going to tell. They tried to tell a Dickie Moltasanti, kid Tony, teen Tony, a mob movie, a black mob movie, and a Newark riots movie all in under 2 hrs. That's way too much.

We didn't really see too much of Dickie molding Tony to who he is, which should've been a focal point. We don't see the mob react heavily to multiple deaths of made men. We don't see enough of Tony being a lil POS as a teen. We don't see enough of Johnny Boy and Junior in their alleged prime. We get glimpses of all these things. But not nearly enough for a flesh out story or to make you care about the story if you're not a Sopranos fan. And as I said earlier, as a Sopranos fan this wasn't great either

I was excited to see a major black character added to the Sopranos lore proper and not just a minor character or a smaller murder victim...but in the end what was the point of him? By the end of the movie he's an afterthought. It's open season on made guys and we don't see the Dimeo Crime Family go to the mattresses or whatever. We barely see how the war affected Harold. We don't see Harold react to Giuseppina's death. We don't see him react to Dickie's death. His story just kinda...ends with a slight set up in the credits to his future story. I actually wondered for a moment if they added the whole Newark riot/black gangster stuff due to the George Floyd stuff and trying to win some points there but then I remembered this movie was filmed before all of it. I really don't get what was the point of Harold in the end.


I've heard a lot of people said this could've been a series or a mini series; but I read a rumor Chase didn't want to do another show. Cool. But this could've been 2 or 3 movies. That would've given the time these stories deserved.

And I'm buying the "David Chase wrote a divisive ending to the Sopranos. He was never going to make a movie people wanted". That's just silly to me. David Chase isn't Nicolas Winding Refn or some other divisive filmmakers. Not Fade Away got a generally positive reception, Sopranos has a great reception even despite the ending which I think people really turned around on for years, even the reception for this isn't terrible. It has nothing to do with expectations but he made a not well made film to many people. It has nothing to do with him being some divisive auteur. The storytelling in this movie was not handled well to them and me.

TL;DR because I just wrote an English essay: It's a below average movie. As a Sopranos fan, as a crime movie fan, and as just a film fan. It's not terrible. But I can't recommend it to anyone really. The story was too rushed and this should've been a couple of movies if not a series or a miniseries. The performances were good tho except for young Sil. So much wasted potential

 

[Slick]

Rewatched this as it finally came back to HBO Max. I still feel the same as when I saw it in theaters.
This isn't a bad movie. On a pass fail rating I give it a pass...but it is not very good. It really teeters on the edge of being bad to me.

Like many I'm a big Sopranos fan. Rewatch the series at least once a year. As a Sopranos fan this movie is below average.
-It suffered from prequelitis as in too many callbacks, callforwards and showing things that were told about in the show like Tony's dad shooting his mom's hair. I generally don't like many prequels for that very reason. Too much wink wink nudge nudging. "Oh look baby Christopher always cries when Tony is near him. Get it? Because Tony is a toxic presence on Christopher in the future" I just don't go for stuff like that too much

-Some things blatantly contradicted (or retconned) stuff in the show. And I get it that's always to be expected but some of the character's ages, behavior, etc. were too different that it was a distraction.

-You don't spend enough time with a lot of the big characters who you'd want to see in a prequel if their cast. Bernthal as Johnny Boy, Farmiga as Livia, M. Gandolfini as Tony, and Stoll as Junior were great...but I feel like you don't see enough of them because the movie is moving way too fast because of the limited runtime. Like I would have loved to see Tony and Carmella actually meet or more of young Tony and Junior interacting. Or Junior and Johnny Boy doing mob stuff And then the small appearances of young Paulie, Sil, etc. were fine but I think they needed a little bit more.

-Some of the twists like Dickie not actually being a drug addict was interesting but I didn't really go for it

Now taking my Sopranos fan goggles off, as a crime movie fan. It's not good at all
-This movie doesn't endear me to the criminal low lifes like the mob movies I like. I'm not going even name the obvious classic ones, but movies like Black Mass, American Gangster, Kill the Irishman did a way better job making the character enjoyable to watch

-I love mob movies for, most of them, having a very dark sense of humor. The dark humor here was lacking

-The mob stuff just wasn't that compelling. The only really interesting bit was toward the end with the black vs Italian mob thing when that got violent and that also didn't get enough screentime (sensing a pattern?)

Finally just as a movie fan...this was below average
The performances were really good (save for young Sil. He was terrible) and the ideas for the stories weren't bad for the most part...but this movie was overstuffed with story.
2 hours was not a sufficient runtime to tell all they were going to tell. They tried to tell a Dickie Moltasanti, kid Tony, teen Tony, a mob movie, a black mob movie, and a Newark riots movie all in under 2 hrs. That's way too much.

We didn't really see too much of Dickie molding Tony to who he is, which should've been a focal point. We don't see the mob react heavily to multiple deaths of made men. We don't see enough of Tony being a lil POS as a teen. We don't see enough of Johnny Boy and Junior in their alleged prime. We get glimpses of all these things. But not nearly enough for a flesh out story or to make you care about the story if you're not a Sopranos fan. And as I said earlier, as a Sopranos fan this wasn't great either

I was excited to see a major black character added to the Sopranos lore proper and not just a minor character or a smaller murder victim...but in the end what was the point of him? By the end of the movie he's an afterthought. It's open season on made guys and we don't see the Dimeo Crime Family go to the mattresses or whatever. We barely see how the war affected Harold. We don't see Harold react to Giuseppina's death. We don't see him react to Dickie's death. His story just kinda...ends with a slight set up in the credits to his future story. I actually wondered for a moment if they added the whole Newark riot/black gangster stuff due to the George Floyd stuff and trying to win some points there but then I remembered this movie was filmed before all of it. I really don't get what was the point of Harold in the end.


I've heard a lot of people said this could've been a series or a mini series; but I read a rumor Chase didn't want to do another show. Cool. But this could've been 2 or 3 movies. That would've given the time these stories deserved.

And I'm buying the "David Chase wrote a divisive ending to the Sopranos. He was never going to make a movie people wanted". That's just silly to me. David Chase isn't Nicolas Winding Refn or some other divisive filmmakers. Not Fade Away got a generally positive reception, Sopranos has a great reception even despite the ending which I think people really turned around on for years, even the reception for this isn't terrible. It has nothing to do with expectations but he made a not well made film to many people. It has nothing to do with him being some divisive auteur. The storytelling in this movie was not handled well to them and me.

TL;DR because I just wrote an English essay: It's a below average movie. As a Sopranos fan, as a crime movie fan, and as just a film fan. It's not terrible. But I can't recommend it to anyone really. The story was too rushed and this should've been a couple of movies if not a series or a miniseries. The performances were good tho except for young Sil. So much wasted potential

Thanks sharing man. I enjoyed the film but I agree with a lot of your points.