Thursday 20 June 2013

Gandolfini: 'These people are nuts; this is kind of interesting...'

The death of James Gandolfini is sad news. His portrayal of Tony Soprano deserves all the praise it's had and more. For my money The Sopranos was the greatest TV drama ever made, and its greatness owed a great deal to Gandolfini. The actor's sudden death lends an extra dimension to that extraordinary final scene of The Sopranos... RIP.

8 comments:

  1. Hear hear.

    One of the many great things about these US TV series is that enormous timespan (perhaps 15 hours on screen per season, compared to 1 or 2 in a feature film) allows actors to create characters who really are Men in Full. Don Draper, Nucky Thompson, Walt Whitman... and Tony Soprano the greatest of them all.

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  2. Hear hear to that too.

    I recently watched a few of the Soprano episodes again and was struck by how funny some of the scenes are and by the subtlety of Gandolfini's acting.

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  3. Thanks Dave - that's so definitive it seems to be taking half a year to load onto my computer. I'll try again later...

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  4. And I'd nominate Andy Sipowicz of NYPD Blue as another great Man in Full.

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  5. You may have seen this as it seems to be all over Twitter but just in case:

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5J050upihY&feature=youtu.be

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  6. Can I add Walter White in Breaking Bad to the list? Geeky chemistry teacher gets cancer and morphs into unhinged drug-lord. I had NO idea what was going to happen next, and during the run I became a complete addict - along with all of my large family. The only greater high I can imagine would be to chop-up the DVD's and inhale them.

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  7. Ah yes, Walter White is what I meant by Walt Whitman!

    Have you seen series 4 Mahlerman? Unbelievably, it's another quantum leap in awesomeness.

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