The Many Saints of Newark


The Many Saints of Newark is a 2021 American crime drama film serving as prequel to David Chase's HBO series The Sopranos. The film was directed by Alan Taylor, and written by Chase and Lawrence Konner. Set in Newark, New Jersey, the plot follows a violent gang war from the perspectives of mobster Dickie Moltisanti and his teenage nephew, Tony Soprano, in the midst of the city's 1967 riots. It stars Alessandro Nivola as Dickie and Michael Gandolfini as Tony, the character played by his father in the series, with Leslie Odom Jr., Jon Bernthal, Corey Stoll, Billy Magnussen, Michela De Rossi, John Magaro, Ray Liotta, and Vera Farmiga in supporting roles. It was Liotta's final release performance before his death in 2022.
Warner Bros. Pictures and New Line Cinema obtained the rights to produce The Many Saints of Newark alongside HBO Films. The film had its world premiere at the Tribeca Fall Preview on September 22, 2021, and was theatrically released in the United States on October 1, along with a month-long simultaneous release on the HBO Max streaming service. The film received generally positive reviews from critics, with many praising the performances of Gandolfini and Nivola, though some criticized the script. While the film's theatrical release was a box-office bomb, grossing $13 million against a budget of $50 million, its simultaneous streaming service release was a success on HBO Max and contributed to a spike in viewership for The Sopranos.

Plot

In 1967, a young Tony Soprano accompanies his mentor, Dickie Moltisanti, to welcome home Dickie's father, Aldo "Hollywood Dick" Moltisanti, and his new Italian bride, Giuseppina. Dickie is a soldier in the DiMeo crime family, which also includes Tony's father Johnny, a capo, and fellow soldiers such as Johnny's brother Corrado and Lino Bonpensiero, as well as associates such as Hollywood Dick, Silvio Dante, Paulie Gualtieri, and Lino's son Salvatore. After white police officers assault and rob a black taxi driver, riots break out in Newark.
Watching from outside the Playland amusement park, Tony witnesses cops arresting Johnny and Junior, thus interrupting an illegal card game they were participating in. Johnny is eventually sentenced to four years in Rahway State Prison for engaging in assault with a deadly weapon during the riots. During an argument, Hollywood Dick kicks Giuseppina down a flight of stairs. Upon discovering the incident, Dickie murders him before transporting the corpse to his father's Atta Boy Drainage Supply warehouse and committing arson, burning both the body and the building.
Regretting the murder, Dickie visits his uncle Salvatore, his father's twin brother who is serving life in prison for killing another made man in his own family, and inherits Giuseppina as his comare. Tony is suspended from school for running a gambling operation, and Dickie makes Tony pinkie promise him to be on his best behavior in the future. Sometime later, Harold McBrayer, one of his black associates, visits him, planning to escape to North Carolina following a murder warrant for killing a looter named Leon Overall during the riots and receiving $500 from Dickie as a parting gift.
Four years later, Johnny is released from prison and at a welcoming back party, he and the rest of his family are introduced to Christopher, the toddler son of Dickie, now a capo, and his wife Joanne. Simultaneously, Harold returns to Newark to form a black criminal family. Giuseppina commences a romantic affair with Harold after arguing with Dickie. After Harold kills one of Dickie's men, Giulio "Julie" DeRogatis, and steals his extortion money, Dickie, Pussy, Paulie, and Silvio question Harold's lieutenant, Cyril, and torture him with an impact wrench before Silvio shoots him dead. Harold and his gang then retaliatorily kill Buddha in a drive-by shootout with Johnny's crew. Harold and Dickie engage in a standoff, but both men disperse upon hearing police sirens.
After Tony steals the answers for his geometry exam, the school guidance counselor Mrs. Jarecki tells Tony's mother Livia that he has a high Stanford–Binet IQ and the Myers–Briggs personality traits of a leader. She relates how Tony told her about a time in which his mother hugged him and read him a book about Sutter's Mill, which he considered one of his best memories. Livia attempts to show Tony affection, but mentions how her physician, Dr. Cuomo, recommended antidepressants, antagonizing Tony when he suggests that she take them.
Outside Buddha's wake, Tony asks a hesitant Dickie if he could get Elavil for his mother. After Junior slips on the mortuary steps in the pouring rain and fractures his hip, Dickie mockingly laughs uproariously in his face, infuriating him. Dickie reconnects with Giuseppina and promises to finance a beauty parlor for her to manage. During a beachside stroll, she confesses to her romantic affair with Harold; enraged, Dickie drowns her in the ocean. He revisits Sally, who warns that everyone close to Dickie ultimately perishes, and advises him to distance himself from Tony.
Heeding Sally's advice, Dickie intentionally begins avoiding Tony, declining to visit him or answer his calls. One night, a distressed Tony throws the speakers Dickie gave him out his window, startling his father. Later on, Silvio encourages Dickie to reconcile with Tony, and Dickie relents. Before he can arrive home, Dickie is assassinated by an unknown assailant on Junior's orders. At Dickie's wake, Joanne reveals to Livia that Dickie acquired the Elavil for Tony and was carrying it in his pocket when he was murdered. Tony sadly surveys Dickie's corpse and imagines doing another pinkie promise with him, like the two had done years before. Sometime later, Harold relocates to a white neighborhood.

Cast

Other notable appearances include Lesli Margherita as Iris Balducci, Kathryn Kates as Angie DeCarlo, Nick Vallelonga as Carmine Cotuso, Daryl Edwards as Julius, and Ed Marinaro as Jilly Ruffalo. Robert Vincent Montano and Matteo Russo play Artie Bucco at varying ages, Chase Vacnin portrays the teenage Jackie Aprile, Oberon K.A. Adjepong plays Frank Lucas, and Lauren DiMario plays the teenage Carmela De Angelis, Tony's future wife.

Production

Development

The origins of what ultimately took shape as The Many Saints of Newark happened when David Chase finished film school, having the idea of making a film about four white men living around Newark, New Jersey, who joined the National Guard to avoid being drafted to serve in the Vietnam War only to be sent instead to the 1967 Newark riots, though the film went unproduced. Following the release of The Sopranos, it was suggested by Oz creator Tom Fontana that Chase write a film centered on Tony Soprano's father Giovanni "Johnny Boy" Soprano set in the 1930s or 1940s. The idea eventually fell aside due to Chase's lack of interest.
Chase ruled out the idea of continuing The Sopranos story in June 2017, while simultaneously expressing an interest in a prequel to the series. He had earlier been against the idea of making a film based on The Sopranos, especially a sequel to the series, given James Gandolfini's death in 2013, but became interested in Newark due to the 1967 Newark riots and his family ties to the city: "I was interested in Newark and life in Newark at that time ... I used to go to down there every Saturday night for dinner with my grandparents. But the thing that interested me most was Tony's boyhood. I was interested in exploring that", acknowledging that a prequel film could explore the period of Tony's life that he glorified in the show's early episodes.
Chase said that the main storyline centers on the 1967 Newark riots and racial tensions between the Italian-American and African-American communities. Chase's biggest challenge during writing was the inclusion of many storylines for different characters. Some aspects of those storylines were dropped during editing to let the storylines "take shape" within the film's overall narrative.
In March 2018, New Line Cinema announced that it purchased the rights to produce the film along with HBO Films, with Chase co-writing the screenplay with Lawrence Konner. New Line's chairman, Toby Emmerich, stated, "David is a masterful storyteller and we, along with our colleagues at HBO, are thrilled that he has decided to revisit, and enlarge, the Soprano universe in a feature film". Chase was not concerned about alienating audiences unfamiliar to the show. For him and Konner, their intention was to tell a realistic and respectable dramatic criminal story, under the "auspices" of The Sopranos.
Alan Taylor, who directed several episodes of The Sopranos, was hired to direct the film in July 2018. Chase offered Taylor the opportunity to direct the film one day while they lunched together, feeling that Taylor had worked on the show's best episodes and had given him "the most trouble". In contrast to the show, Taylor felt that Chase allowed more creative control over the film than when he ran the show, as Chase spent most of the time outlining the story sequestered in the writer's room.

Casting

In November 2018, Alessandro Nivola was cast to star in the film as Dickie Moltisanti, the father of Christopher Moltisanti. Dickie never appeared in the show despite being mentioned, though Chase did not have any plans to feature the character physically then. In January 2019, while discussing the 20th anniversary of the series, Chase revealed that a young Tony Soprano would appear in the film. Jon Bernthal, Vera Farmiga, Corey Stoll and Billy Magnussen were added to the cast that same month.
Michael Gandolfini, son of James Gandolfini, was cast in the role of young Tony. He was not immediately cast and had to audition for the role, but Taylor and Chase felt that they were right in casting him when Gandolfini thanked all the production team for allowing him to "say hello and goodbye again" to his father. Gandolfini, having never watched The Sopranos, watched the series to prepare for the role, describing it as an intense process. To keep Gandolfini's performance from being too similar to that of his father, Taylor occasionally reshot a scene if Gandolfini acted like he were already an experienced gangster, as the young Tony is "still a kid" during the film.
Ray Liotta joined the cast in February, with Leslie Odom Jr. and Michela De Rossi joining in March, as well as John Magaro, who starred in Chase's debut feature film Not Fade Away. Liotta had been previously approached by Chase to appear in the third or fourth seasons of The Sopranos, but the plan did not work out.
Edie Falco filmed scenes as her character Carmela Soprano which were intended to start the film, but her scenes were cut. Taylor explained, "There was some confusion as to how best launch the movie. How to start the movie. So we tried a few things and that was one of them. If you've seen the movie you'll see that we begin it in a very different way now but that wasn't always the idea".