[lbo-talk] Sopranos

[Carl Remick]

>From: joanna bujes <jbujes at covad.net>
>
>Carl Remick wrote:
>
>>>For the audience, I think the discomfort comes not from a sense of being 
>>>complicit in Tony's crimes, per se, but from a more basic sense of being 
>>>complicit in the corruption of the US as a society.  As has been 
>>>abundantly illustrated, we live in a country that, like a mob, gets its 
>>>way in the world through main force, and one way or another we are, like 
>>>Carmella, beneficiaries of the exercise of force.
>>
>There's something to be gained from following the Godfather/Sopranos 
>thread, so let's start there.
>
>"Godfather," the book, was a kind of mobster "Valley of the Dolls": a 
>titillating insider's look to the mafia, spiced with thinly disguised 
>revelations about Sinatra and the unsavory underworld connections of 
>otherwise "respectable" characters. If it claimed any wider reach, this 
>emerged from its characterization of immigrant/family-based life as both 
>aggressive and atavistic. ...
>
>The Sopranos works very differently. Tony Soprano is presented as an 
>American everyman who stands for everything that America worships: success 
>and power. Each show, uses the credits, to replay Tony's social ascent, 
>from the armpit of New Jersey into the gated communities. His "arrival" is 
>punctuated by his brandishing his gun, so that we are not mistaken about 
>what has actually gotten him there. Every episode underlines the way in 
>which every established insititution: the catholic church, the ivy league 
>schools, the professional classes, the unions, and the politicians kiss 
>Tony's ass and do his bidding despite their mouthing platitudes about his 
>"immorality." Everyone in Tony's world is complicit in Tony's crimes 
>because everyone takes a little of what Tony dispenses: money, influence, 
>and power. In short, I completely agree with Carl as to what this show is 
>about.

I would stress that these "legit" elements of US society benefit not just 
from smalltime strong-arm guys like Tony but, above all, from that awesome 
array of thugs in uniform, the US armed forces.


>... Since this is a television series that is now in its fifth or sixth 
>year -- there is much that is flawed in its pacing and in its overarching 
>development. So i'ts best to watch it for the vignettes: the mob tackling 
>the Hassidic jews...and losing. The mob getting lost in the woods of Jersey 
>and feeling less than manly and powerful....

That lost-in-the-woods episode is another of the all-time greats.  Tony's 
henchmen Paulie and Chris take a Russian gangster (apparently a highly 
trained former commando) off into the woods to whack him.  The Russian 
escapes and, as Paulie and Chris chase after him futilely, assumes the 
proportions of an unseen, superhuman nemesis.  Paulie and Chris panic -- 
they get lost, are terrified that the Russian is going to trap and kill 
them, and then wind up almost freezing to death wandering the wood 
aimlessly.  Again, I'm very much reminded of the debacle in Iraq -- where 
the US swaggered in, got lost, panicked and now risks annihilation.

Carl