Tony Soprano and Freud

            I have already talked about Tony Soprano on these posts, but this week I want to focus on him by assessing him from a psychoanalytical perspective, i.e. Freud. The most prominent and significant way in which Tony inhabits Freud’s theory of man is in the way Tony refuses to ever change, despite an expressed desire to do so. Freud believed that a person’s personality and attitude was determined by the age of five. After that, a person is essentially in a state of stasis, never truly making any significant changes to their core personality. Tony completely embodies this idea. In Season Six Part One of the show, Tony suffers a life threatening attack. After a long stay in the hospital, he miraculously returns to life. He almost immediately promises that he has changed his ways, and he will no longer sleep around on his wife, he will no longer commit such violent acts, and he will not be the same man he was. This, as it turns out, proves not to be the case. He is soon back to his old ways, as if he never vowed to change. This inability to make actual significant changes to his personality is in accordance to Freud’s theory. This is not the only way in which Tony adheres to Freud’s theories though.

            Another way in which Tony adheres to Freud’s general theory is through Tony’s often surreal and symbolic dreams. Freud theorized that dreams are really our wants and desires cloaked in symbols. Tony’s dreams often do just that. The show depicts Tony’s dreams in a very surreal and bizarre way, but they always represent what is on his mind. Sometimes they even show what he is not willing to admit. In the episode “Funhouse,” Tony has a dream where he reaches the realization that one of his best friends has betrayed him. He had known it for a long time, but it was not until he had the dream that he was willing to admit to himself that his friend betrayed him. This completely correlates with Freud’s view of man, with dreams having significance far beyond our comprehension. Tony Soprano also inhabits Freud’s view of the effects of parenthood.

            Every woman Tony tries to have sex with is eerily similar to his mother, which fits Freud’s view of man’s relation with his mother.  Freud theorized that every man in life wants to have sex with their mother, which they then effects what they find attractive in the world. Tony truly inhabits this theory. His mother was a difficult person, to put it lightly. And for the entire length of the show, Tony constantly gets involved with women who are completely unstable. An example of this is that Tony at one point dumps one of these girls. A few weeks later, he finds out that the girl killed herself. That Tony is so attracted to such unstable women is a result of his affection for his mother, which fits Freud’s theory of man.

            Tony Soprano is a complete manifestation of Freud’s view of man. His personality, dreams, and sexual activities completely view Freud’s various philosophies about man. Whether this was intentional or not is unknown, but it feeds into the extremely deep and intricate characterization of Tony Soprano. And it is because of this complexity and attention to character detailing that the show became one of the most acclaimed television series of all time.

The Sopranos

Over spring break I started watching The Sopranos, and I was instantly addicted.

The show is about a mafia family in New Jersey, led by the Soprano family. The opening sequence that plays at the beginning of every episode introduced the setting, New Jersey, and then the protagonist, Tony Soprano.

I am a huge editing nerd, so interesting editorial choices grab my interest quickly, and montages and opening sequences are my favorite things to watch and edit together myself. I loved that the camera was never completely steady and that it was shot while Tony was on the move, driving on the turnpike and through the town. Tony is always on the move, and there are always a lot of things happening with each one of the several characters on the show. An opening sequence that was very steady and calm would not fit with the movement and the dynamics of the show.

Directly after the opening sequence in the pilot episode, it cuts to a very still and quiet shot of Tony Soprano in a psychiatrist's office. This greatly contrasts with the feel of the opening sequence, but it grabs your attention because it is unexpected. Opening in the psychiatrist's office was an excellent choice, because it introduced you to the character of Tony Soprano, and because his appointments and relationship with the psychiatrist are some of the most important aspects of the first season.

The characters and the relationships between them are critical to any show, but they do it extremely well on this show. On a show with this many characters, character development is important. If a character isn't developed fully in a reasonable amount of time, he or she will get lost and seem irrelevant. In this show, each character - each member of the mafia family, each member of the Soprano family, the psychiatrist, and each short-term character - is there for a reason, and their personality and their relationship to each character they interact with is critical to the story.

Coming from an Italian family, I may be biased toward the show because I understand and enjoy the culture of an Italian family and the language they use in the show. However, even without knowing what certain words mean and without understanding every cultural aspect of the families, the characters and the storyline are so well-developed that the show is still completely enticing and addicting.

Tony Soprano: Greatest Television Character of All Time

            
            Tony Soprano is the greatest television character of all time. He also happens to be my favorite. The large, New Jersey mobster reigned over cable television for eight years, and while there have been many great successors to the throne of anti-heroes, none can live up to Tony’s engrossingly disturbing battle with himself.

            One of the reasons Tony was so engrossing was that he was so relatable. He may be a murderer, philanderer, and later on a sociopath, but he dealt with the same anxieties and problems many adults in their forties do. We got access to all these anxieties to his time with Dr. Jennifer Melfi, his therapist. These therapy sessions revealed a man who, though definitely a bit of a thug, have a sensitive side to him. And he had to work, in his work and professional life, to constantly suppress this emotional side. And while this may seem tedious, it never was. And the series evolved this dynamic over time.

            As the series went on, Tony clearly became less and less interested in solving his emotional issues and much more interested in using the therapy to understand how to manipulate others. He slowly became a monster (or revealed his true colors, depending on who you ask), using all around him for nothing other than to benefit himself. For almost any other show, this would make the character despicable. And yes, this happened for the Sopranos too. But somehow, even when he was being absolutely repugnant, there is something intangible about him that made him likable. He could do horrible, atrocious, selfish things and I would still enjoy watching him exist and genuinely care about him. No other television character has pulled of that dynamic of love and hate as well as Tony Soprano has. And that is why he is my favorite.  

Music in The Sopranos: Offering Humanity in a Show Absent of It

                If you’re looking for a show that explores the kindness and generosity of the human spirit, than The Sopranos is not your best option. David Chase's television classic focuses on the anxieties and personal struggles of middle aged mobster Tony Soprano, played by James Gandolfini, as he goes through therapy. The show's viewpoint of people and the psychological makeup that makes them tick is deeply pessimistic. Everyone is selfish and self-serving. Conversations are not exchanges of thoughts and ideas as much as a series of thoughts spoken aloud to one another with little to no value given to what the other participant says. Characters store emotions up inside of them for years until they explode, often at the expense of people entirely uninvolved with the situation. And by the end of the show, many characters who claimed to have changed themselves and their evil ways find themselves in a far worse place than they ever started. There are moments of empathy and humanity, and these scenes are indeed powerful, but they are few and far between, more often the exception to the rule. Basically, the show seems to believe that people are often no good. This is such a deeply pessimistic viewpoint runs the danger of being far too oppressive viewpoint. But it never does, in no small part thanks to the music.

                The use of licensed music in film and television is nothing new. Ever since movies like Mean Streets, Easy Rider and American Graffiti, licensed music has become a means of accentuating and commenting upon the emotional core of any scene in a variety of films and television shows. And certain television shows, such as LOST, Twin Peaks and Breaking Bad, have used music to great effect. But The Sopranos truly stands out amongst them all with the strength of aural landscape. Songs are deftly utilized to convey any number of sentiments. Sometimes they will be an indicator of the times or a character’s interest, such as when Britney Spears plays in the background of a fast food restaurant. Often the music is used as a means of getting into a character’s head, such as at the end of the episode Blue Comet, when a sparse piano piece lays as Tony sits on a bed alone holding onto a machine gun, his friends either fatally injured or killed. Sometimes it serves as a means of juxtaposition, such as in the pilot when a Doo-Wop song plays as Tony beats a man so he can get his money. One of the most notable uses of music is the montage that begins season two, which plays to Frank Sinatra’s “It Was A Very Good Year.”

                As we watch the characters live their everyday lives, Frank sings nostalgically about his days of youth. But intertwined with this nostalgia is a sense of melancholy. As each verse passes, the character gets older and older, yet he still finds himself dwelling on the past. The song ends in the autumn, with the character reflecting on all the good times. Autumn, the season where the weather gets colder and the plants and trees start to die. The brutal winter is not here yet, but it is on its way. But these are the good times. This may be as good as it ever gets. Revel in it, enjoy it. Because it may not always be this way. And so as we watch these characters live their everyday life, there a combined sense of comfort at how things are and one of dread for what is to come. I was able to articulate this by analyzing the song, but it is understood on an emotional level as soon as one watches it. That the show could conjure such a complex emotion out of a short three minute montage is laudable. Magical moments like this are strewn all over The Sopranos seven year run, to the point where it makes the perfect mesh of song and image seem easy.

                There is such a consistency to the one of the music, with much of the selections being a heavy dose of classic rocks songs such as The Rolling Stones and The Kings mixed with a hint of deeply humanistic, sometimes spiritual songs. The music landscape almost becomes, if not another character, than an entirely different viewpoint for the show to articulate and further its overall perspective. A song does not only comment and accentuate the single scene it plays against; it works alongside the established musical palette  and deepens our understanding of the overall show. The song selections come together and form a shading of the show’s viewpoint as important and tangible as the writing, acting and cinematography. And whereas the other shadings of this perspective typically work to further the show’s pessimistic declaration of humanity, the music instead offers with a deeply emotional and sentimental tone that allows us to enjoy the characters and occasionally empathize with them. This is not the only aspect of the show to make these characters and the shows viewpoint tolerable, humor also being quite important to what makes the show work, but it may be the most affective one. 

The Sopranos and High Quality Television

Recently I began watching "The Sopranos". It's known as one of the shows that began the trend of more film and movie like TV shows being made. So far I'm about three episodes in, but I can already tell why this series was lauded as much as it was. The writing and acting are fantastic. The plot is at times complex, but that is mostly due to the fact that there are so many characters that it's hard to keep up with. I'm sure this issue will resolve itself in time. Most TV shows take a little time to teach you the characters.

I can see looking back now, that this show must have been a huge risk for HBO. A show that is as relevant and real as this being produced at the highest quality ever seen for TV must've made the investors on this show at least a little anxious. As seen by the huge success of the show, it was not. Now, the trend continues in the direction. HBO is not the only network making high quality television. AMC and Showtime have followed suit, even the major networks are starting to go along with this. Hopefully, this trend continues, and we'll see less reality shows and more beautifully crafted shows like "The Sopranos".