The Many Saints of Newark is coming at a serendipitous time for me. From late April into early May of this year, I finally watched The Sopranos. (I’m not sure how an Italian from Staten Island avoided it for so long, but here we are.) It was one of those rare instances where mountains of adulating praise failed to do something justice; I loved it even more than I thought I would, and on many different levels than I thought I would too. It works as a straight Mafia story, an allegory for the decline of American culture and the devolution of the nuclear family, and a complex morality play that challenges our propensity to search for good in evil men when they entertain us. Plus, listening to people curse in Italian is awesome. From the moment Tony Soprano is welcomed into Dr. Melfi’s office to the controversial final scene – which I thought was brilliant – it was a beautifully told story about some of the ugliest people on television, and after that fade to black, nothing else needed to be said or done, give or take a couple of people aching to get whacked.
And now, we have a prequel. The trailer for The Many Saints of Newark, a movie about Tony Soprano’s teen years and his induction into the DiMeo Family through his uncle, Dickie Moltisanti (father of perennial screw-up Christopher on the show), was released today. It frames the film as a look at Tony’s journey from troubled adolescent to petty crook to gangster, against the backdrop of the 1967 riots in Newark. Most of the initial talk surrounding The Many Saints of Newark indicated that Dickie would be the lead, with young Tony on the periphery, but this trailer is focused squarely on Tony; even when the other characters are on-screen, they’re talking about him. (And there’s that recent trailer trope where an off-screen voice says the main character’s name ominously, followed by a couple of harsh beats.) The Many Saints of Newark will arrive in theaters and on HBO Max on October 1, 2021. You can check out the trailer below:
*SPOILERS FOR THE SOPRANOS FROM HERE ON*
There are good things about The Many Saints of Newark. First and foremost, the show’s creator, David Chase, is behind the movie, and that’s several points in its favor. I’m not suggesting he’s infallible, but knowing this came from him, that this is a story he wants to tell, makes revisiting this world easier to accept. It’s also directed by Alan Taylor, who directed several episodes of The Sopranos (including some of the late-series greats like “The Ride,” “Stage 5,” and “The Blue Comet”), as well as episodes of Rome, Boardwalk Empire, and Game of Thrones. On paper, this movie is in good hands. It looks well cast, too, especially Alessandro Nivola (little-brother-terrorist Pollux Troy in Face/Off) as Dickie Moltisanti; based on these brief glimpses, he’s got the charm mixed with the used-car-salesman demeanor that a tempter like Dickie will need. And Michael Gandolfini’s resemblance to his late father is uncanny; I can see Chase wanting to make a Sopranos prequel just based on that.
But I’m not convinced The Many Saints of Newark is a good thing yet. First, it’s a prequel, and prequels always make me nervous. Almost every time, they detract from a story, usually in an effort by the filmmakers to surprise us about events in the past, to the extent they contradict those in the present. It’s understandable, in a way; prequels box you into an established history and make it tough to give the audience something new or exciting. But is it worth tarnishing the story people already love? I suspect this movie has at least one moment like that in store for us, and I hope it doesn’t go there: Dickie Moltisanti’s death. On The Sopranos, Tony gives Christopher a gift when he reveals that his dad was murdered by a dirty cop who’d just retired and allowed his nephew/cousin (it’s complicated; Christopher is actually Tony’s cousin, but he’s thought of and referred to as a nephew) to take revenge. What makes the situation even more compelling is that it isn’t clear whether Tony is telling Christopher the truth; he could easily be killing two birds with one stone, throwing a resentful Christopher a bone to keep him loyal while getting rid of an unrelated problem with the cop. We never find out for sure if that cop killed Dickie, and I think that, like so many elements of The Sopranos, it’s better if we never do, if we’re forced to make up our own minds about it. (For the record, I believe Tony lied.) Again, David Chase’s involvement gives me hope that they won’t go down this route, but if he’s taken out of the equation, is there any doubt in your mind a prequel would show us exactly what happened? Can Chase resist the siren call of the pulled rug?
Another pitfall of the prequel is the demystification of a central character. Tony Soprano isn’t as much of a mystery as, say, Anakin Skywalker or Yoda were, and The Sopranos offers glimpses into his childhood to show where his violent streak comes from, to better understand that cycle that consumed him and threatens to swallow up his son AJ as well. But those glimpses were fleeting, smaller parts of episodes about Tony in the present, and he was very young in all of them. The Many Saints of Newark shows Tony in his late teens, heading out of high school and, like his son will one day, teetering between making something of himself and entering the Mafia world that claimed the previous generations of his family. I don’t know if seeing this will do the character any favors. Whereas a show like Breaking Bad (another all-time great; speaking of which, remember that Vince Gilligan was behind El Camino) is about Walter White’s slow corruption, The Sopranos began with Tony fully corrupted. He was already a powerful, violent, ruthless Mafioso. It’s a different kind of story, one where we need to see Tony as a juggernaut of rage and evil rather than in his humble beginnings as a flaky teenager. The dream/hallucination/afterlife travails in the early episodes of season 6 offered a look at what Tony’s life could have been if he’d gone the other way and did so without diminishing his menace. Will seeing him as a surly adolescent do the same?
In that same vein, The Many Saints of Newark also threatens to undo some of the subtleties perfected in The Sopranos by spelling out things the series showed us through the characters’ actions. For example, there’s a clip where the school’s guidance counselor tells Livia Soprano that Tony is exceptionally smart but “doesn’t apply himself.” This is demonstrated over and over on the show, with Tony constantly displaying a cunning and business acumen that belies his oafish demeanor. Tony Soprano looks and acts like a dumb thug, just like his henchmen, but underneath is a strategist who avoids mob wars, escapes all the big RICO busts that ensnare his cohorts, and consolidates his power through knowing when to strike and when to deal. Tony’s intelligence is made clear by observing him and those around him, contrasting a chess player with a bunch of idiots struggling with Chutes and Ladders. Having someone spell this out is like the movie shouting at the cheap seats in case they didn’t get it over 86 episodes. I do take a bit of comfort in comments David Chase has made regarding some subtleties in the film, though, the major one being the reflection of the old school gangsters through their clothing. One of the themes of The Sopranos was how the Mafia was in decline, with the titans who built La Cosa Nostra in America giving way to hedonistic wiseguy wannabes who think being in the Mob means quoting Goodfellas. Once more, though, the series already did this by contrasting Tony’s small-time New Jersey family with the New York Mafia, who looked down on them as a “glorified crew” (or, as Phil Leotardo called it, “this other Pygmy thing over in Jersey”). The way the New York gangsters dress, even when dressing down, contrasts sharply with Tony and his men walking around in track suits. Repeating the notion in The Many Saints of Newark won’t ruin this, but it’s a little redundant.
This isn’t meant to be a prognostication. For all I know, The Many Saints of Newark will be outstanding, the Sopranos prequel we never knew we always needed. And you can bet I’ll be there opening night with friends to see for myself. But I can’t deny some warning signs in the trailer, and I’m wary of letting myself get excited about something that could go horribly wrong. The Sopranos is new to me; I don’t want to see it tainted, especially so quickly.