The Many Saints of Newark

  Let sleeping gods lie, someone might have advised David Chase. His brilliant Sopranos series so towers over the American cultural landscape that any sequel, prequel or interstitial parallel could only fall short of expectations. 

Too bad, because Chase must have some brilliant feature films inside that we would be privileged to visit. He needs only the courage to break new ground. His Not Fade Away (2012) was far better than credited. 

The current prequel likely frustrates everyone’s expectations. Too bad, because in itself it’s a very good Family family film. Trouble is, the echoes of the series inhibit our engagement with this film. We look for anticipations of the story we know — which Chase sets us up to do. That compromises our regard for the present structure. 

Still, this is an engaging drama about the American dream and its compromises. As Ray Liotta (trailing clouds of Goodfellas glory) plays both Dickie Moltisanti and his jailed twin brother, he embodies the twin poles of violent corruption and spiritual regeneration  — but both are murderers. That’s America’s primordial stain.

The newly Buddhist Moltisanti brother apart, the closest to any moral code here is the priest at the wedding, a pallid simp paid token apologies in simulated respect.

When Dickie’s new stepmother — soon to become his goomba — is imported from Italy she personifies the lost values of the American Dream. She comes to the promise of freedom only to find herself maritally enslaved and mortally violated.

Her drowning grows out of this film’s major addition to the Sopranos lore: the cost to America of its racism. The TV series touched on African American crime only in passing, with a compromised African American community leader. The film expands upon that, harping on the Italians’ disdain for the Blacks, which leads to Dickie killing his contaminated beloved. This is the BLM inflection of the saga. 

The film opens on the family cemetery and closes where the TV show starts -- on that hypnotic Journey song. In the body the most thematic pop lyrics are the — of course Sinatra — song that asks whatever happened to Christmas, whatever happened to you? 

That is, whatever happened to America and its global promise of freedom and democracy? In this drama what happened was America’s refusal to abandon its murderous white supremacism. The plantation mentality turned slavery into the nation’s suicide.  

For a crash course on the TV drama to prepare for this feature, look for my episode by episode analysis, The Sopranos on the Couch: Ultimate Edition (out of print but available on Abebooks) and The Sopranos: Season 7 (lulu.com). That’s a lot quicker than running all the shows — though less fun.