[lbo-talk] Warm summers or dark ages?/ (An offer you can't refuse)

[Carl Remick]

>From: ravi <gadfly at exitleft.org>
>
>Carl Remick wrote:
>
> >> From: ravi <gadfly at exitleft.org>
> >>> i have never seen an episode of 'the sopranos' and i do not plan
> >>> to, ever...
> >
> > But you're really missing something by not seeing The Sopranos, which
> > offers a real window on the American psyche.  Tony Soprano is a man
> > who can cycle from a narcissistic concern about his psychological
> > well-being to strangling a man with his bare hands in just minutes.
> > You realize that a society capable of producing so totally
> > disoriented an individual would be perfectly capable of displaying
> > the swings of behavior the US has -- wallowing in self-pity and
> > seeking "closure" over 9/11 at one moment, tearing Iraq to shreds in
> > a temper tantrum the next moment.  The Sopranos is a scary show; the
> > US is a scary country.
>
>interesting points! (and thanks for the response). but is the character
>of tony soprano any different from that potrayed in earlier gangster/mob
>movies and shows? did michael corleone have two sides (and very similar
>to the ones above) too?

I think it's much easier for the viewer to empathize with the Soprano family 
than with the Corleones, which gives The Sopranos more impact and makes it 
more discomforting, IMO.  The Sopranos focuses more on the mob boss’s family 
life, as opposed to "family" life, than any other gangster drama.  Also, I 
recall The Godfather as being somewhat stagy and operatic, but The Sopranos 
deals very much with the humdrum details of daily living, which gives it 
more immediacy.

But what really makes Tony Soprano so funny, frightening and important is 
that he shares the same central delusion about himself that the US has about 
itself.  Tony sees himself as a sensitive, well-meaning person, and he can't 
understand why he is so tortured by feelings of worthlessness.  He is 
convinced that if he spends enough time on psychoanalytic chitchat and drugs 
all will be fine and dandy.  The notion that he might be troubled because he 
spends his life killing and cheating people never enters his mind.  
Likewise, America these days seems to stagger around in a state of 
bewildered, injured innocence – we can't seem to get in our noggins that we 
are disliked by the rest of the world for being genuinely greedy and 
murderous.

Carl