From 1999 to 2007 the hit crime drama series, ‘The Sopranos,’ gave audiences deep insight into the underworld of the Italian-American Mafia, creating some iconic characters inspired by real-life mobsters and memorable stories, and it still has long-time fans speaking about it to this day. David Chase, the creative mind behind the long-running show returns to the franchise with the prequel movie, ‘The Many Saints of Newark,’ which explores the childhood and upbringing of the main character, Tony Soprano.

The film takes place in the late 60s and early 70s, putting the focus more on what happened around Tony Soprano, who might feel like a less important character throughout the entire movie, but really shows the significance of the events that shaped his future and molded him into iconic mob boss long-time fans know today from the television. The story centers mainly around Tony’s uncle, Dickie Moltisanti, portrayed by Alessandro Nivola, who he grew up idolising.

Dickie makes a living by serving in the DiMeo crime family, which also includes younger versions of familiar characters from the TV series, Johnny, Junior, Silvio, Paulie Walnuts, and more. Although Johnny, played by Jon Bernthal, is Tony’s father, he feels closer to his uncle Dickie. Dickie tries his best to steer Tony away from the mafia life and focus on his school to have a promising career in football, but throughout the film, we will see glimpses of Dickie’s influence on Tony growing up, from running a secret gambling ring in school to showing lack of patience, aggression, and physically harming those around him.

The casting is fantastic and even though not every actor is of Italian descent, they do incredibly well portraying the Italian-American culture in the 60s/70s, whether it’s the private meetings or family gatherings and how the characters interact with each other and everything around them. The movie’s main focus is on the mafia but also shows glimpses of other significant events happening around them with people of different colours trying to live in a white-dominated society. Leslie Odom Jr. plays Harold McBrayer, an African-American character who does dealings with Dickie for extra cash, but is not working directly for the mafia and becomes a more important character later in the film.

The film also sees the Hollywood debut of Italian actress, Michela De Rossi who plays Giuseppina Moltisanti, the new and much younger wife of Dickie’s father. Her character came directly from Italy, barely speaking English, and shows her struggles adjusting to her new life in America. Because of this, she’s very dependent on her husband despite how abusive he is towards her. Over the course of the film, she really shows a lot of character development while settling in a whole different country and building relationships with the other characters.

Alessandro Nivola hasn’t had as many iconic roles as other Hollywood stars, but his role as main character Dickie Moltisanti really shows off his diverse acting range, trying his best to hide his mafia life from his nephew and be a better man than his father, but also contradicting all of that by showing how ruthless and unforgiving he can be when things don’t go his way.

The most important character is, of course, Tony Soprano. The iconic role from the TV series was brought to life by James Gandolfini, and the teenage version in the movie is actually portrayed by his son, Michael Gandolfini.

William Ludwig plays Tony as a younger kid early in the film, with Michael taking over the role when the character enters his teenage years, and both do an excellent job showing the progression of one of television’s greatest characters, even if it’s more of a minor role. Having the original actor’s actual son portray a younger version of his iconic role will really please longtime Sopranos fans as the two actors share a lot of similar physical features.

Exploring the younger years of one of TV’s most well-known characters isn’t an easy task for a 2-hour film, particularly compared to 86 episodes over 6 seasons, but ‘The Many Saints of Newark’ does a fantastic job by focusing on what happens around the iconic TV mob boss that influences his adult life, instead of telling the story entirely from his perspective. It does feel rushed at parts, leaves some unanswered questions, and would’ve been better as a spinoff TV series, but is still an excellent standalone film for those unfamiliar with the franchise, and adds so much to the character of Tony Soprano for long-time fans of ‘The Sopranos’.

Written by: Sammy Hanson