The Many Saints Of Newark

After 14 years Tony Soprano is back on our screens, this time you’ll need to head into the cinema rather than simply flicking on the TV to see this story though. The Many Saints Of Newark acts as a prequel to the highly regarded HBO series, The Sopranos, and is being touted with the line ‘who created of Tony Soprano?’

Whilst the film is billed as the origin story of Tony Soprano he actually plays a rather minor role in the stor. Instead the film revolves around Duckie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola), who is Tony’s uncle & man he idolises during the late 1960s to mid-1970s.

The Many Saints Of Newark is a deeply layered & multifaceted film which explores the mafia underworld, rival gangs & racial tensions throughout New York. However, these all act as an undercurrent of tension for a story which is centred around inner turmoil as a man rises through the ranks of the mob.

For die hard fans of The Sopranos this film will be a wonderful nostalgic hit with a plethora of Easter eggs, call backs & further background to the story. For those who are unfamiliar with the lore of The Sopranos this film will likely fall flat.

Michael Gandolfini is fantastic in his role of young Tony Soprano, a character his father made famous. In fact it would have been nice to see more of him. 

Stylistically The Many Saints Of Newark is very well produced, particularly as it closely elements from The Sopranos tv series.

As a stand alone gangster flick The Many Saints Of Newark is too slow, with no real payoff to speak of. Perhaps this project would have been better suited as a mini series to allow for more time to unravel the many layers it hurriedly presents over the course of the film.

Fans of The Sopranos will love this flick but new viewers will be left underwhelmed.

★★ ½