There was an interesting review of The Sopranos in my neighborhood paper, the Elm Leaves, a Pioneer Press publication which publishes newpapers tailored to specific suburbs around Chicago.
Here\'s the link to the article which includes opinions and criticism from some notable names in the world of organized crime.
EXPERT OPINION: SOPRANOSROBERT LOERZEL
DIVERSIONS EDITORCan Tony and Carmella patch things up? Will one of "The Sopranos" sing to the feds? Who will get whacked this year?
It's all speculation until HBO begins showing the sixth season of the mob drama "The Sopranos" at 8 p.m. Sunday.
In the meantime, we asked some Chicago-area fans -- including a mob boss's daughter, true-crime authors, an ethicist and an Italian restaurateur/actor -- what they think of the series.
'Very tough' breedAntoinette Giancana of Elmwood Park is the daughter of organized crime boss Sam Giancana, who was murdered in Oak Park in 1975. She recently wrote the book "JFK and Sam: The Connection Between the Giancana and Kennedy Assassinations" with co-authors John Hughes of Evanston and Thomas H. Jobe.
I like "The Sopranos." Every one of the actors and actresses does a really great job. They have portrayed some of these people almost to a T.
But remember, when you think of "The Sopranos," you think of New York. The New York (and New Jersey) breed is so entirely different from the Chicago breed. The New York breed is really very tough and horrible, and they would do anything for the eternal dollar. In the time of my father's day, you just stuck to certain areas in which you worked. Drugs were out, totally out. Now they're in with certain family members in New York.
We're just a little kinder outfit than the New York gangster is. They've had numerous killings. I think in Chicago, there might have been a few, but not as many.
I came from a completely different generation. We were a little bit more reserved. We lived life on a daily basis like any other normal family. Of course, some of your friends knew, some of them did not know. It was a different environment that many years ago. We were somewhat isolated. Who needs to tell a 5-year-old or even a 10-year-old what's going on? ... But I was the rambunctious kid in the family. I used to eavesdrop and do all kinds of crazy things -- because I was nosy.
There has been quite a bit of uprising in the Italian community regarding ("The Sopranos"). If the Italians would cool their jets, this is a show of entertainment. If they look at the show as anything other than that, then I think they're the losers.
Mob 'mystique'Frank Gallo of Lake Forest, the owner of the Italian restaurant Francesco's Hole in the Wall in Northbrook, had small roles as mob guys in "Analyze This" and "Analyze That" and as a restaurateur in "The Ice Harvest."
I think it's a great show. It's very realistic. The public likes the mystique of the mobster. They always did, from the Al Capone days. There's just something about it that people really enjoy, that kind of lifestyle -- not that they want to do it, but they do fantasize about it.
When they eat and go to restaurants, it's not just eating -- it's an event. They talk about their family problems over dinner. It's a wonderful thing, having dinner, getting family issues straightened out -- both kind of family affairs. It's very authentic. It reminds me very much of the neighborhood where I grew up in the '50s, around Taylor and Halsted.
As far as hurting Italians? I don't think so. It's television.
'Ultimate narcissist'Al Gini of River Forest is the author of "Bada Bing and Nothingness," an essay in the book "The Sopranos and Philosophy: I Kill Therefore I Am." A professor of business ethics at Loyola University Chicago, he is also a frequent guest on WBEZ FM.
Tony Soprano wants to be the most Machiavelian mafia leader during the day, and he wants to come home to an upper-middle-class suburban community and help his kids do their homework. Tony enjoys the game, enjoys the hunt, enjoys being with the boys -- that's his real family. At the same time, he wants to be respected. He wants to say, "I'm just doing this to put bread on the table. I'm just a family guy."
It's the rationalization that we all do -- that we do what we do because we have to. But for most people, it's a lot less dangerous and threatening to others.
Tony Soprano is the supreme and ultimate narcissist. He wants what he wants when he wants it. And he doesn't understand when other people don't understand, and he doesn't care when other people are hurt. He only cares about those he says he loves who are close to him -- and not even them all that much. He just can't say no to self. He just can't say no to his own needs. And he likes it. It's fun.
In a very real sense, this has become a metaphor for America -- the postmodern world of upper-middle-class self-sufficiency and what we do to isolate ourselves from others.
As an Italian-American, I don't see this (show) as an affront. I see these as the bad guys. My father grew up in a mafia-entrenched neighborhood, and he never went that way. These are just the bad guys. I see them as the minority in Italian-Americans.
'Dog eat dog'Richard Lindberg, a Norwood Park resident who formerly lived in Wheeling and Des Plaines, is the author of 11 books, including several on Chicago's crime history.
It's not a fuzzed-over, nostalgic, reverential picture of 1940s and omertà (code of silence) and chivalry and all of the things that were appealing to people about "The Godfather." Rather, it's a kind of a negative, down-and-dirty look at the underbelly of organized crime.
What it does especially well is it shows a lot of these hoodlums are not gold-plated millionaires. It conveys the average workaday mob hoodlum. Basically, they're just struggling along. They make their money, but it's a dog-eat-dog world.
It's often ruthless and bloody, and it hides behind a pretense of honor and family and duty and loyalty, which is what organized crime has typically done -- more so in New York, which is a more family-tradition-based group than in Chicago. The true mafiosi rituals brought over from Sicily are more applicable in New York than they are in any other part of the country.
Chicago's been quiet since the late 1980s ... but meanwhile, in New York, there's been some killings going on and some significant prosecutions... The mob is smarter now. They don't kill, because it's bad for business.
'Not that realistic'John Binder of River Forest is the author of "The Chicago Outfit."
The writers do certain things to make it spicy and to give the public what it wants -- there's got to be a certain amount of violence in there. They sacrifice accuracy for what the public likes to see. Current organized crime is less violent than it's shown on "The Sopranos."
The general setting is not far-fetched, (but) a lot of the details are not that realistic. In one of the early episodes, Tony's uncle is discussing mob business with Tony's mom. That just doesn't happen. A lot of the violence is hands-on by Tony Soprano, instead of delegating. He'll grab one of his own guys and thrown him across the kitchen of a restaurant. The basic rule is you don't touch another member. They draw a very strict line, because otherwise, it degenerates very quickly inside the group.
