The Many Saints of Newark

The prequel to The Sopranos is given the big-screen treatment with stylish if familiar results.

Bloody relatives: Michael Gandolfini and Alessandro Nivola

There’s nothing saintly about the extended members of the Soprano family in 1960s’ Newark, New Jersey. The corruption and murder doled out by certain criminal fraternities is only too familiar a cinematic staple, and The Many Saints of Newark only really has one ace up its sleeve: it is the ‘origins’ story of Tony Soprano. That is, it’s a big-screen prequel to HBO’s The Sopranos. Here, Tony is a pesky, fat little boy (William Ludwig) who, in a Sunset Boulevard-style voice-over, is revealed to be the assassin of his own uncle, our protagonist. For those unfamiliar with the TV series, this tale of death and racism is unlikely to hold much interest, although it boasts its fair share of memorable killings.

Such benevolent euphemisms are common in the criminal fraternity, terms such as ‘godfather,’ ‘goodfella,’ ‘wise guy’ and ‘saint’ sitting more easily with their kind than ‘antichrist,’ ‘badass’ or ‘demon’. Dickie Moltisanti, though, comes from a family whose surname is translated into “many saints” in English. What makes ‘Uncle’ Dickie Moltisanti such an intriguing protagonist is that he is so nuanced and conflicted, at once charismatic, impulsive, proud, immoral, childlike, romantic and, in the guise of Alessandro Nivola, uncommonly handsome. Even though Dickie has a tendency to kill those closest to him, he still engages our sympathises because he is so real – and desperate to do the right thing. Yet his moral code is too rigid, too inflexible, perhaps. Nivola has been turning in interesting performances since he played Pollux Troy, the younger brother of Nicolas Cage, in John Woo’s Face/Off twenty-four years ago, but he has never become a major star, in spite of his good looks and talent. For a while, he was typecast as dashing Englishmen, although he is a Boston-born American. Maybe this could turn his fortunes around.

Here, some of the supporting cast members are caught over-acting, which makes Ray Liotta’s steely cameo as a straight-talking con all the more notable. In fact, Liotta plays both Dickie’s father and the latter’s incarcerated brother, and reminds us how terrific he was as the mobster Henry Hill in Scorsese’s GoodFellas, a brutal and poetic masterpiece of the genre. The Many Saints of Newark has its moments, but seems in too much of a hurry to start the ball rolling and is crammed with far too many characters for a two-hour running time.

As a black hoodlum with ambitions above his station, Leslie Odom Jr is very good, but deserves more screen time. In fact, the film’s most interesting stance is the rivalry between the Italian and black gangs of Newark, stoked by a racist incident prompted by white police, leading to full scale riots in the tradition of Kathryn Bigelow's Detroit. Race is very much a motif, even when, in a humorous aside, Dickie and Tony discuss the anti-Semitism in Walter Scott’s Ivanhoe. Dickie: “I didn’t know they had Jews in the Medieval days.” Tony: Well, the Bible…”

It would be remiss, though, not to mention Michael Gandolfini, who plays the teenage Tony Soprano, and is the son of the late James Gandolfini, who made the part his own on TV. There are strong women, too, in particular Michela De Rossi as Guiseppina, a recent émigré from Italy who can’t keep her hands off a gangster. Otherwise, the period ambience is laid on with a trowel, a rich soundtrack emanating from radios positioned all over the city, from the salon to the garage. It seems, back then, everybody listened to the radio all of the time. Still, one really can’t get enough of Frank Sinatra…

JAMES CAMERON-WILSON

Cast: Alessandro Nivola, Leslie Odom Jr, Jon Bernthal, Corey Stoll, Michael Gandolfini, Billy Magnussen, Michela De Rossi, John Magaro, Ray Liotta, Vera Farmiga, Talia Balsam, Samson Moeakiola, Gabriella Piazza, William Ludwig, Joey Diaz, Daryl Edwards, Mattea Conforti.

Dir Alan Taylor, Pro David Chase, Lawrence Konner and Nicole Lambert, Screenplay David Chase and Lawrence Konner, Ph Kramer Morgenthau, Pro Des Bob Shaw, Ed Christopher Tellefsen, Costumes Amy Westcott, Dialect coach Kohli Calhoun.

New Line Cinema/HBO Films/Chase Films-Warner Bros.
120 mins. USA. 2021. Rel: 22 September 2021. Cert. 15.