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Hello,

I'm impressed by your website, the best I have found on The Sopranos yet. Less prepossessing are the comments you include from fans of the show. It seems as though no-one here - or anywhere else for that matter - fully understands what the drama is referring to.

The Sopranos is not about the Mafia. In fact film dramas within the gangster genre - the good ones at least - are not even about organised crime. Well, they are, but not directly, and not the organised crime that's on show. Going back to the earliest point of the gangster genre, films like Public Enemy and Little Caesar have acted as a metaphor for capitalism and American power. They try to deal with the implications which follow from it. The Godfather was made at a time when America's professed ideals seemed to have been so corrupted that the country had lost its soul. The Vietnam War and the impeachment of Nixon, were issues that traumatised the nation. Americans associated their society with violence and corrupt leadership. Coppola's movie reflected this.

The Sopranos is a continuation of this. American power from the top down is based upon theft and brutality. Gangster dramas do not reflect the Mafia working in America, but the reverse: how America acts like the Mafia. The American capitalist power base is the real organised crime syndicate. At a deep level Americans are at least partly aware of this. Tony Soprano is in one sense a description of an ordinary American middle-class guy. He worries about his family, his "job prospects", his past and the future. But, because he secretly knows where his wealth comes from - the misery of others - he veers between self-satisfaction and self-disgust: hence his panic attacks. (A large percentage of the world's children go underfed, while America's develop obesity.)

The Sopranos is about the decline of American ideals, values and ethics. (Or maybe, more alarmingly, about the supreme fulfilment of them. But, that's another argument altogether.) And, where America might be going from here. Almost the first utterance we hear from Tony during his first psychiatric appointment alludes to this: "Lately, I been thinking I came in at the end." To which Dr. Melfi replies, "I think a lot of Americans feel this way."

There is so much to say about this masterpiece that one hardly knows where to stop. I hope these comments might give some fellow fans something new angles to consider.


RE: Episode 24
Great episode! Had a few interesting bit players that I wish had bigger roles on the episode or that were even recurring on the show. Just to make brief mention, did anyone recognize two of the sanitation company owners that are going on about their routes which triggers off one of Tony's attacks? One was Frank Adonis. Remember him from Raging Bull, Goodfellas and way back to The Eyes of Laura Mar? He's a great character. I heard he's going to be in a new movie that High Times produced, POT LUCK. Anyone know anything about it? And hey, what about Paul Borghese, the actor who played Yogi Berra in the HBO movie 61*. That guy played a great young Yogi Berra. I wish he would show back up on The Show! I remember Borghese from way back, a horror movie he did in the late 80's called FRIGHT HOUSE I think. I've seen that guy in everything; On OZ, SNL, On Soaps, and recently in a little movie with Ste
I also wish they would somehow bring back Michael Rispoli and Vinny Pastore even if just in flashbacks. Oh well, that's my 2 cents about this episode. Hope it makes it to get posted.
Thank you for the sopranos! I live in Manchester in the North of England, where we have some of the best actors, writers and musicians in the world and The Sopranos is the without doubt the best thing on T.V. The stories, use of language, casting, acting and ability to entertain are second to none and although I'm not a religious person I regularly try to convert every person I know (with a few successes) to becoming a fan of this brilliant addictive show.

Long live Tony Soprano!!!!


 


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