1967 Newark, New Jersey. Little Tony Soprano admires his father’s business partner – Richard Moltisanti, nicknamed Dickie. He responsibly leads a part of the business entrusted to him by his father, a local crime boss, and, unlike other mafiosi, does not hesitate to deal with blacks. When riots break out in the city, provoked by police brutal treatment of a black taxi driver, Dickie takes an impulsive act and uses the surrounding chaos as a cover.

4k movies reviews
On the street of fans of the “SOPRANO Clan” – a holiday. 14 years after the end of the series (and 8 years after the death of James Gandfolfini) we were delighted with a full-fledged film with its backstory. How much can be put off, HBO must have decided and given David Chase and his comrades a decent budget to send the “brigade” from New Jersey decades back in time.

The story “from the other world” is told by the ever-memorable Christopher Moltisanti. It all started in 1967 when his grandfather returned from Italy with his young wife. The girl also liked the son of the latter, Dickie (that is, Christopher’s future father), which laid the foundation for the conflict. Meanwhile, Tony’s father, Johnny Soprano, is sent to prison, and racially motivated unrest breaks out in Newark, in which Harold, first an assistant and later a rival of Dickie, takes an active part.

Let us not discover something new, but the joy of recognizing the old, glorious heroes is almost childish: Corrado “Junior” and Paulie – ba! just poured, Livia and Janice are good, Carmela is ok, looks like, Silvio Dante is a clear overkill … The real (and bloody) excitement of the blacks of the ‘long hot summer’ of 67 builds history into the context of today, which is new for an apolitical world. ” Soprano”. And finally, Chase did THIS again – the most controversial moment of the original is actually reproduced here in the finale. Hats off!

The slogan of the film is “The one who made Tony Soprano” (where made also means “brought him to crime bosses”), but there are questions for both protagonists. Alessandro Nivola generally copes with the main role (before that he got small ones), but his character, Dickie Moltisanti, is a pet of Scorsese’s nest rather than Chase’s, he is overly sinister and psychopathic (one of his murders is clearly superfluous here). On the contrary, they only talk about the leadership qualities of the young Tony (and it would be better to show), and the choice of Gandolfini-son for his role became a bold, but ultimately unconvincing step. No doubt, Michael looks very much like his father, but speaking of parental patronage … Sofia Coppola treacherously comes to mind in “The Godfather-3”.

As an independent artistic expression, this is a passing movie, but as an addition to the canon, it is a gift for fans. I really want to return to the series, which, probably, was the original goal of HBO. Pine Barrens episode, one of the most classic, had a chance to revisit recently, and now is the time to turn to the pilot. I remember there were still twin towers in the splash screen, and Tony was telling Dr. Melfi about the ducks that had settled in his pool …

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (56.9 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio
English: Dolby TrueHD 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
French: Dolby Digital 5.1
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1

Subtitles
English SDH, French, Spanish.