I think Tony Soprano is portrayed differently. I hesitate to use the expression 'well rounded' given the violent side of his nature that gets full play but it does show him in ways that you never saw in the Godfather flicks. A lot of that is dramatic device, like the psychotherapy and dream sequences, but the show does portray aspects of his life that people can initially empathize with (dealing with adolescents, troubles at the work place, managing underlings and superiors at work, and unresolved issues with his parents, even when they're dead) and I think that's where it succeeds. Gandoflini plays the role extremely well; every so often he starts pushing peoples buttons and he gets this look on his face like a kid who know he's doing something wrong and he's going to get away with it.
These are things I think you rarely see in gangster flicks. There's a difference in time too, the Sopranos is now over 60 hours of drama, the whole of the Godfather is +/- 9 hours, so there's a lot more room to explore. You could infer things about an external life for the characters in those films, The Sopranos builds one.
I'm obviously biased, I think it's a remarkably good series, that doesn’t glamorize its subject matter (you're never allowed to forget what these guys do for a living and how they, um, resolve conflicts) and uses the context of a gangster drama to explore a whole lot of complex issues in ways other drama and gangster flicks have not.
>as for tony soprano, being a 'jain', ;-) i guess that explains the two
>sides to his personality, given the higher (imho, better) moral code of
>jainism!
LOL, although I think Tony has more than two personalities. But the violent and non-violent Tonys would be a valid dichotomy.
PC
N P Childs
'I'm Mister Bad Example, the stranger in the dirt, I like to have a good time and I don't care who gets hurt'.
-Mr. Bad Example, W Zevon