In the first season, I didn't care about him, then he startly became my favorite. Only HBO series can give us some complicated and complex characters like this.
@Paul Murphy Thats insane! When do you plan on watching it. And although I rate The Sopranos more I think you are right. BE is probably better written. 😁 Ive watched it 3 times but still forget what happens next. 😁
The funny part is that Capone seems genuinely hurt by them trying to steal. I love that Van Alden's death scene gives him a small victory as well as some humor. He did not fear Capone at all and had him shitting his pants.
Made it seem like Al was a pig pushover. He literally had a gun to Val Alden's head and he felt completely in control. But, in an instant Al goes all to pieces and is completely helpless.
non yobussiness morally wrong? An illegal enterprise run by the mob isn’t morally correct because they distribute amorally prohibited alcohol. Hell it was Lucky Luciano that started murder inc. (sub group within the mob used for contract killings) during this time period.
John Doe how is alcohol morally wrong. Prohibitions bring rise to organized crime and all the negatives with it. Prohibition resulted in the mafia becoming powerful. To be pro prohibition is to be pro organizationed crime.
I wasn't even mad about Van Alden dying, considering he totally went out on his own terms. Capone is still fucking terrified of him even after he gets shot, and that's pretty fucking badass.
Van Alden sacrificed himself to save Eli. That’s why Eli was so sorry. He owed him his life. I think Van Alden just grew more and more tired of it all, constantly having to move, constantly having to lie and keep reinventing himself and his past, and in that moment he saw not only an out from it all but a way to give purpose to himself, to save somebody else who was caught in a similar situation who he grew close with.
I never looked at it that way but, yeah, because Eli walked away from it, he did totally sacrifice himself. A few days after learning the Eli had slept with his wife no less. Kids didn't know who he was
Try reading a book. There are a lot more relevant character redemptions in the history of fiction than that godawful toy commercial franchise. Jesus Christ
There was only one person in this show Capone was truly scared of and that was Van Alden. Even the first time he met Van Alden he was intimidated by him when he was just holding a briefcase. Capone like to show the tough guy act but you could always tell he treated Van Alden a bit different than everyone else. In Van Alden’s final moments you could see the pure terror on Capones face as Van Alden grabbed him and shouted. Capone the most feared gangster in American history was scared of the man he could never really understand, special agent Van Alden.
Most feared gangster in American history? Huh? Lmao there are aloooot of more feared gangsters then capone Capone just has more movies made about him and his story is more intriguing and fits the Hollywood scope a lot better then other gangsters stories ,, Or those gangsters never admitted to nothin or are still alive and retired or they're rotting in jail rn
2:14 Eli's reaction after seeing Van Alden clipped was so realistic and extremely terrifying, top notch acting from Shea Whigham. He's criminally underrated.
@@Aaron-zu3xnyou know, reading this whole comment section chronologically just felt like listening to a narrator explaining the moral at the ending of a story.
Very interesting scene. The changes of looks and faces as they are all in danger. Eli suddenly realizes that the infiltrated agent is willing to kill another agent for the higher goal, he is scared like never before. While Al can kill him too. He can’t just say any word. If he says too much the agent kills him instantly if he doesn’t say enough then Al kills him. Must choose words wisely while is shaking in fear of death. Great performance. The agent is scared too that he gets caught. Al is afraid that the feds are inside his crew. Is afraid to hurt Eli as he’s Nucky’s brother. He is afraid of everybody but the agent who just saved his life. Only Van Alden wasn’t afraid in this scene. He was ready to go. He wanted to die long time ago. He was trapped by all angles. The law would condemn him for killing an agent no matter if he was a rat of the mop. He couldn’t prove that either. He was trapped by the feds and by Al and all.
The problem is many people (like me) like to binge watch a tv series whenever we find a good series to watch. We watch too many episodes at once so that we can't pay attention to every little detail in the series. Like me, I used to watch 4 episodes of Boardwalk Empire a night with a bit tired eyes after the work. In great series every little conversation, every little facial expression and every little detail happening in background even in the most random scene can be a hint for what's going to happen next. Then we miss them because we watch episodes too fast and then we're like "Wow, how did this happen?" when it was very obvious it would happen. All you had to do is concentrate and pay attention to little details 😂 Then I regret watching a series too fast. I just want to erase my memory and watch it again to experience and feel it again.
Wow, so he got shot for real since it wasn't scripted. I hope the family of Michael Shannon got closure, but he died doing what he liked: off the script acting.
I know it was crazy. According to the director he wouldn’t stop and they had to actually shoot him to get him off Stephen Graham. It’s why the season was only 8 episodes
The actors were really outstanding in this series. Half of them have heavy British accents and were able to play the part of 20’s era USA quite superbly, most notably, Al Capone.
that's bc in those days Americans in the Northeast had a Middle Atlantic accent (what the British called our American accent)....The American- British accent lasted til the 1940's....this accent is mostly lost today, absorbed my immigrants - Italian Russian Irish Polish, which slowly changed the American accent into what it is today.
@@MBB563 Eh, kinda. The Mid-Atlantic accent was actually a development of the American entertainment industry and the upper class. The notion was that we ought to take the best of both the British English accent and the American English accent and combine the two. Well, that was the idea. It faded from use in the post-war years. Best example of the Mid-Atlantic accent is FDR, who would have been an early user of it given that his family was very upperclass and very Northeastern. Nobody in this video is, in fact, using it. Just regular old Italians and Northeastern American Irish.
Yeah besides the fact that he looked nothing like him and acted nothing like him lol. He was like the mini troll guy from me Nicolas Cage movie. Not to mention he looks like he’s in his mid 40s.
You can tell when Capone is screaming "GET HIM OFF ME" that it wasn't just fear of being crushed by a dead body. It was fear of the realization of what's to come.
Let's just give Nelson a great big pat on the back here for most redeeming character arc. You start the series hating him as a miserable little narc; you end it loving him for the stone-cold fucking badass that he is. That, my friends, is fucking writing.
"Fuckin' fed piece of shit." The look on his face and that delivery is almost a recognition of everything Van Alden had put himself through since prohibition began.
2:29 - 2:32 my favorite line in the scene..."all this time... with the shit with the irons" lmfao!!! I love the actor who plays Al Capone very underrated actor
@@josiahcone7506 Yeah, you can tell Michael Shannon is exceedingly aware of how impactful his expressions can be. He gets me rooting for his character in every single movie - no matter his traits.
He was my favourite character in the show, I hated him in season 1 but the way he grew on me as the series progressed was VERY unique. He had such a great story arc and, in my opinion, was the funniest character on the show in his own way. 😂 The actor who played him was absolutely brilliant!
@@mantistoboggan5171 I, personally only disliked him because he went against the main character and we knew nothing about him. It was even before the end of the first season i took a real liking to Nelson
@@mantistoboggan5171 He started off as a religious manic that used “because god said so” as a justification for his evil actions then he morphed into this crazy psycho and abandoned all his principles and you somehow ended up rooting for him at the end
@@allaboutthemurzic that's a compelling character right there. Thought he'd be the main thorn in the side of nucky at the start, then that slowly unravels, and he ends up with Al capone.
Shea's a one tough actor. I've almost lost count of all the cold-blooded bitch slaps he had to went throughout the series. Someone needs to do a compilation of it lol
This scene is both comedic and tragic and hilarious and off the wall-bat shh crazy, all at the same time. Outstanding acting from everybody involved. Love it.
During Van Alden's first execution attempt with Capone, he convinces Capone to let him go and we see that Capone has his hand shaking when pointing the gun at his head and Van Alden sees the uncertainty in his eyes. Now, when Van Alden gives a look at Capone, his hand is steady and has nothing but a lock-on stare at Van Alden. That's when Van Alden knew that Capone was convinced in killing him. He decided to go out on his own terms.
The fact Eli is saying “I’m sorry” to Alden shows how much he cares for him. Even in their short time and tragic story unfolded he still considered Alden a friend and didn’t want him to parish for their sins.
@@clarabressy2937 Both ex-cops, both on the run from killing corrupted feds, both got introduced into crimes and sins by the actions of Enock Thompson. They became partners in Chicago and are the only two who really knew each other.
I like how not only scared and surprised they are but even Capone realizes Van Alden was going to kill him, and he wouldn't have been able to stop him, if not for his man.
@spongeaang98 and it wasn't coming via gun or knife just from a big man's enormous strength. Many of us males have a fantasy about our pugilistic abilities but reality can knock it down real quick.
Well he was real soft. Weak, soft insecure pathological liar, happy to dish it out but shivering in fear when on the receiving end. P.S I'm only talking about the Capone of Boardwalk Empire
It’s because this show is based on fiction not reality. I’m glad the gay little people that watch HBO can get off on these garbage portrayals of real life characters
"we are not a victorious army but we are eternal" nelson was the kind of man who surrendered to being meek, cowardly and sinful for the majority of his life, but could only take so much. And when he finally snapped, he he did it in a good way in a good way, to reclaim a portion of his dignity and put the fear of god into an evil man, if even for a few moments.
+Andrej Šaćirović No way! Owen's death was perfect, and unexpected. The way Nucky looks shocked and horrified and quickly tells Eddy "close it up, close it up!!" because he knew how fond Margaret was of him, yet had no idea they were lovers until that moment. BRILLIANT writing, and a perfect exit for Owen's character. Especially the way they show the part where she tells him she is pregnant AFTER we see his death scene. BE is perfect.
This piece in the scene is just awesome and most people miss it, "this concludes our broadcast day, this is Herbert Carter signing off from Chicago," as a way of seeing Van Alden off... pretty cool.
I love Nelson. He was my favorite character. I was sort of sorry to see him go out like this. That D'Angelo was a slimy bastard. At least he went out doing what he did best, being an entertaining raving lunatic
+Drac39 I liked D'Angelo until 2:01 , I don't give a fuck how justified that was, Van Alden was the most interesting fella in pretty much the whole series, everyone else had a standard reason for what they do. Van Alden's story was an existential trip through America's violently laced past.
@@ThisHandleIsInteresting he had to kill Van Alden to keep his cover. You can see in his face that he didn't want to but his case to bring down the biggest gangster in the United States was more important than the life of a Prohi who went rogue.
It’s weird, first and second season Van Alden is one of the creepiest and most vile humans ever portrayed on TV. By the end however, I ended up liking Nelson and was very pleased that he got to go out like a bad ass as well!
Both Michael Shannon and Nelson Van Alden deserved a better out than this. This guy used to be one of Nucky's primary antagonists, yet he barely got any screentime and died so abruptly.
Everthing felt a bit slapped together in season 4 and 5 like they would just use abrupt deaths as a gimmick (eddy being antoher one of note) since they were running out of ideas.
Uh you could actually just look at some of the raw data. In Season 1 he appeared in 11 out of 12 episodes, in Season 2 he appeared in 9 out of 12 episodes. So the first two seasons he absolutely had a ton of screentime since his feud with Nucky was still a main storyline. In Season 3 he appeared in only 5 episodes out of 12. And in Season 4 he appeared in 6 episodes. In season 5 he appeared in 4 episodes of of 8. Season 3 was his low point, his storyline wasn't very exciting and barely tied into any other storylines until the end of the season. Season 4 saw a bit more screentime than 3 and with a much more interesting storyline, but we still didn't see much of him. I had accepted than seasons 3 and 4 were building up to something better. Indeed his confrontation with O'banion as well as his former sales colleagues seemed to signify Season 5 was going to be a good year for Van Alden. It just wasn't. Nucky got most of the screentime through both his current storyline and his flashbacks, everybody else got next to nothing. In Season 5, this was his one single big episode, very sad.
TheIrishEnigma Have to 100% agree with you on that. I know deaths are supposed to be sudden and shocking but the major characters Winter bumps off in season 4&5 just felt cheap, especially Harrow and Van the man here. He was one of my favorite characters and seeing him through 5 long seasons to end like this felt weak sauce. I love BW and Sopranos but Winter doesn't know how to end a series well without cheap deaths and flashbacks/dreams galore.
orwell9788 Yeah I agree. I did like Harrow's death but only the part where he I guess is in heaven with everyone he loves. I doubt he would ever mess up the way he did which is what I really hated. Van I guess they were trying to make him go into his rage mode but I still feel he would of at least been careful rather then just going insane and revealing who he was.
Al looked like he was expecting Van Alden to talk his way out of it again. When he swung on him, it really took him by surprise lol. It feels like they both could’ve walked out of the room alive if Nellie would’ve worked that magic. He could be convincing under pressure but he totally lost it. Great scene
@@foundfindfinding5377 pffft....that's some bullshit. 600+ year old alcoholic ain't building no massive MASSIVE "ark" (that's when you know it's big....it's not called a boat, or a ship, but a fucking ARK. First and last one if I'm not mistaken. I worked at a marina when I was a younger man for almost a decade. Saw a lot of boats, skiffs, skis, the odd pontoon, but never once did I see a fucking "ark". I'm calling bullshit. Terrifying thought of the day.....an enormous number of people truly believe that story.
That’s what makes it good though. It was realistic how violent it was. But what was beautiful is the show had a whole host really well crafted characters to make up for it.
I read somewhere that the James Darmody character in real life was so hard to work with that they decided to just kill him off not deal with him anymore
Though I'm very sad to see one of my favorite characters go and I wanted to see him climb further up the ranks of the mafia to become one of the big mobsters. I do like that just before he died the old him woke up and it was as if everything that had happened between now and going on the run was just some irrelevant dream. It wasn't the worst way to write his death. At least he was himself again for a moment instead of dying as someone he isn't.
Either die the hero or live long enough to become the villain... for once that applies in a good way. Going out trying to find his way back to the righteous.
Capone saying “he was gonna kill me.. he was gonna kill me ?!” Is fucking hilarious because dude... you were just going to kill him (Van Alden) yourself hahahahaha. 😂😅🤣
When Eli starts apologizing to June thinking he's about to get off'ed it really hit me hard. This scene reminds me of the drug deal gone wrong in Boogie Nights when a gun is exposed, Dirk becomes sober with reality and wants to bounce.
I absolutely hated Van Alden in season 1 and half of season 2. From then onward he became a legend in the making. One of the best character developments.
01:33 Van Alden was like this is it. I've had enough. That's like the fifth time in a short period of time someone was holding him at gunpoint. We all have our limits.
Just finished this series today. This scene definitely solidified Van Alden as one of my favorite characters. At first I did not care for his character but his journey was among the most interesting out of the cast. I still don't "like" him as a person but as a character I would be paying close attention every time he was on the screen.
