Mob movies and TV shows have been popular since the advent of film, but despite how much content has been made over the years, two names stick out as the best and most popular of the genre. First, there is the work of legendary director Martin Scorsese, like The Irishman, Casino, The Departed, and, of course, Goodfellas. Scorsese has been the king of those kinds of movies for decades, but there was also a mob show just as popular as anything he’s done. In 1999, David Chase’s The Sopranos debuted on HBO and made James Gandolfini’s Tony Soprano a household name. 25 years later it’s still looked at as one of the best TV series ever made with a series finale we can’t forget. However, despite how similar they are, Martin Scorsese was never a fan of The Sopranos.
Martin Scorsese Didn’t Like ‘The Sopranos’
Martin Scorsese and David Chase have a lot in common. Both are nearly 80 or over and from the state of New York, and both changed the face of entertainment because of their love for mob stories. In real life, no one would want to know a guy who worked in the mob, but the drama and violence sure make for some captivating movies and TV shows. It’s easy to surmise that Chase was a fan of Scorsese and 1990’s Goodfellas in particular. As proof of this, just look at how many actors Chase cast over The Sopranos’ six seasons who were also in Goodfellas. Before she played Tony’s psychiatrist, Dr. Jennifer Melfi, Lorraine Bracco had a big role as Karen Hill, the wife of Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill, in Scorsese’s film. So many more actors in Goodfellas later found themselves in The Sopranos too, from the likes of Michael Imperioli to Vince Pastore and Tony Sircio.
There is so much crossover that you’d actually think Goodfellas and The Sopranos were related, but as much as Chase seemed to love Scorsese’s work, it’s a feeling that surprisingly wasn’t mutual. In a 2019 interview with BFI, the director explained why he never connected with the HBO series, saying:
“I think I only saw one episode of The Sopranos, for example, because I can’t identify with that generation of the underworld. They live in New Jersey with the big houses? I don’t get it. They use language – four-letter words – in front of their daughters, at the dinner table? I don’t get that. I just didn’t grow up that way.”
Martin Scorsese’s Mob Movies Are Filled With Vile Characters
This answer came from the interviewer talking about how the characters in The Sopranos love Goodfellas. Perhaps Scorsese saw the series as ripping him off because of it, but he argues that in his movies, like The Irishman and Goodfellas, the violence is not enjoyable because of the moral cost. This assumes that the violence in The Sopranos is there for its own sake to make the characters look cool, without any cost being involved. That’s not the case. So many lives are lost in The Sopranos and it’s never glamorized. Characters who are in it for the prestige of the lifestyle never last long. As more proof of how much The Sopranos hates violence, just look at how much Tony struggled with his first kill in Season 1, or how he’s rarely shown killing other characters. Then there’s that much-talked-about series finale. Tony Soprano probably meets his end when the screen goes black, but Chase refuses to show the audience the violence of the moment.
Yeah, the characters in The Sopranos curse a lot and have big houses, but this is because they are foul people who are using their ill-gotten gains to show off. Scorsese didn’t grow up that way, but that’s not the point. Most of his films have no connection to his own life. In fact, so many are based on tragic true stories of mobsters who rose to high levels before seeing it all crash down.
Tony Soprano Is Not Your Average Mob Boss
The reason why The Sopranos succeeded was because Tony Soprano was not your stereotypical mob boss. He had some commonalities but was not a caricature of what you might find in a Martin Scorsese film. He felt real and raw, like a fleshed-out person. He might have had a big house, but he didn’t live a lavish lifestyle. If you were a person out and about and saw Tony, you’d think he was a normal guy.
What really made Tony Soprano work was the inner turmoil. The Sopranos was never about the violence. The bloodshed was the result of or the instigation of an event, but it was never the focus. It was about the personalities. That’s why we kept coming back. It was about the emotional pain Tony carried around about his mother and his work, a pain so deep that it gave him anxiety attacks and forced him to see a therapist. The Sopranos was also about family. Tony might have cheated on his wife, and he wasn’t above yelling obscenities at his kids, but you’d also see him crying when his son, A.J. (Robert Iler), attempted suicide. The Sopranos was like if a mob movie took a left turn to become something deeper and more relatable. It’s a shame Martin Scorse
