Yep. All of them. You notice all the little things as you get older, they were all so subtle and brilliant. It's hard to say one is better than the other. Just look at how great Big Carmine is in every scene he is in.
Carmine is such a boss. He raises his voice a tiny amount when he says "So either name a price or get the fuck over it", and everyone there knows that's that.
That's debatable. Hevalued money over the loyalty and respect of his capos, the reason John ordered him killed (though it wasn't carried out). He also refused to allow Jimmy Petrile (his consigliere) to kill the capo sleeping with his wife for eight years as he was a big earner. Later on it was shown Petrile was an informant, likely as revenge for his wife as Petrile had no known arrests.
so either name a price or get the fuck over it. boss line right there @ doveston, uh... they re in a business where money matters over everything, where even bosses of families get clipped for fuckin up the moneymaking. so they should just stop the world from spinning for 1 lousy little comment? if john got what he wanted, he woulda get killed himself. because thats the price they have to pay for losing millions of dollars from ralphie. thats how that world works. money means everything. even bosses get killed if they stand in the way of making money.
Death Rager and how much did Petrile's information cost the Lupertazzi family? Junior's first comment in the scene alludes to Carmine's RICO trial. Not to mention Phil Leotardo 20 years in jail, and Johnny Sack's eventual arrest.
I love how much class Junior has that for a phone sit down he could have just as easily worn sweats and slippers. But no, he has to wear a suit and tie. Class.
Tony completely outmaneuvered Johnny here. He "compromised" by agreeing to give him Ralph only if he is told who the spy is. That shows Carmine he is willing to end the dispute and makes Johnny look unreasonable.
quitwhining1 It's pretty smart, and because Johnny wasn't willing to give up the spy, I have a theory that Tony knew Johnny wouldn't agree to the compromise. You're absolutely right, it makes Johnny look unreasonable and puts Tony in a much stronger position.
And if John actually did haul in Paulie to tell Tony...Tony wins because Ralph get clips (Tony doesn’t like him anyway) and the mole, Paulie, gets clipped too.
Also if Johnny gave up Paulie they would lose their inside source, Paulie talking made Johnny and Carmine more money. Thats how they found out about the HUD scam.
@@metal134 Right? If Ralphie had said "Ginny Sack is getting a 95 lbs mole taken off her ass, all due respect", he would've saved everyone a lot of trouble!
Accept the egg salad. There's nothing like a family barbecue side dish to help take care of business. On a side note, it cost all of 4.25 at Grand Union, not 25k, and it didn't cure cancer!
2:48 That quick look in Tony's eyes says so much and is the important part of this scene. He even points this incident out in a later scene where this is the exact moment when he realizes Carmine made a grave mistake by not appeasing his underboss about the slander which is when Sack lost respect for him and have been plotting his downfall.
Tony would have been a great boss if he didn't get his damn emotions get to him all the time. He always had great ideas for scams and making money but let his emotions let him make his decisions too many times.
Yeah, I'm sure YOU would've done whatever it took. It's a TV show, and like you should be talking. You wouldn't have the balls to be a "mob boss", just an incompetent idiot.
Agreed. He had a self-destructive streak, too. How many of his own people did he end up killing or have killed? Hell, there was a moment when he nearly decided to kill Paulie.
Tony was a great boss. But you’re right, he knew his unharnessed impulses were his downfall. I don’t know it was so much emotion but more just impulse.
Carmine Sr is portrayed in the likes of the greart Dons of the late 20th century: Tony Accardo, Angelo Bruno, Carlo Gambino, Tony Genovese. Old school mafioso who were low key but exceptionally intelligent and rational. Their actions and motives are driven by what's best for business. There any ability is to command respect but still be able to instill fear. This is brilliant casting by David Chase. Tony lip was phenomenal
The way Tony subtly like, shrugs his shoulders up almost propping them up when Junior says ‘My nephews right!’ - furthering in small ass real life details that Tony wants June to accept him and love him and needs his affection and approval. So subtle, nuanced, brilliant. Fuck
You to got give it up to Johnny. He could have served Paulie up to Tony and got the ok to clip Ralph. He might have been playing Paulie for information but he was at least loyal.
He wasnt loyal to paulie. Paulie would of given him information about other future business it only would cost John a small amount of money toward paulie to get it.Buying him dinner or some gifts or something small. Telling on Paulie not only would end that but if Paulie doesnt get killed he might seek to kill John for ratting on him. Johnny looked to take advantage of paulie. Johnny was loyal to himself. That Paulie never tried to kill Johnny or had someone else kill Johnny was shocking to me.
Johnny sack needs to understand that Ralph cifaretto is a made guy. And you can't touch a made guy. Unless you have a good reason. And Ralph making fun of his wife is not a good reason.
I've seen hundreds of Sopranos scenes on youtube, each one is better than the last. I just wish they could just start a new mafia show with a new family with these types of actors.
Tee Vee Shows like these only come around every few decades. I mean how rare is it to have several actors from Goodfellas and David Chase's excellent writing combine to make this masterpiece? Doubt we'll ever see a mafia show on this scale ever again.
Johnny made a huge mistake in making it known that he knew about the joke and wanted Ralph dead. All he had to do was sit on the knowledge, wait one or two years for everyone to forget about the joke and pretend to still be Ralph's friend in the meantime. Then he could have hired an outside hitman like the Japanese guy he contracted (and called off last minute), make Ralph disappear and leave everyone confused as to who was responsible. No one would point the finger at Johnny since him and Ralph were on good terms. There's an old Corsican proverb: "If you want revenge and you act within 20 years, you're acting in haste". Obviously in this case, Johnny didn't have to wait 20 years. But making it widely known that he hated Ralph's guts pretty much meant that even if Ralph was killed years later there would still be strong suspicion that he was behind it.
I have watched this a dozen times. I often rewatch scenes from the Sopranos because you cannot find the level of acting anymore. There's no way they would make this show, today.
The breakdown of the dynamics leading to Carmine's wise judgement: Johnny would have gotten Carmine's approval of whacking Ralph, if he would have exposed his source, so the source could be confronted in order to make sure the rumor is 100% right. Carmine, the wiser one here, knew damn well Johnny will not reveal his source - that would mean Johnny showing he's undermining Tony's crew, badly. And of course would mean the end of Pauly. So by Carmine giving the look to Johnny when Tony asks to reveal the source - Carmine makes sure there won't be a hit. All in all, Carmine's final word is 100% correct - without exposing the source, a hit cannot be sanctioned on a made guy based on anonymous tip, therefore, the best Johnny Sac' can ask for is a *very* nice $$ compensation, and "to get the fuck over it". Being that Johnny not only did not thank his Boss for his wise judgment, he also stormed out of the meeting, showed serious disrespect, and after badly hitting a member of Ralph's crew, positioned himself as a loose canon, one that no one knows what to expect of - Not the best asset in times when millions of $$ are at stake. The only thing left in Carmine toolbag is to sanction a hit on Johnny.
You've got a good point there. I sometimes feel that Tony let AJ get away with so much because he didn't want AJ to go through the same trauma that he did. Can you imagine how AJ would feel if he saw Tony getting arrested at The Fair, seeing someone getting their Pinky Finger Chopped off or even seeing Tony beating up someone for not paying a debt.
Been great had Johnny told them Paulie had told him. Who had heard about it from Little Paulie who knew Tony and Sil and many others were there when Ralph made the remark. Talk about a pandora’s box…..
I always like how Carmine goes from "It was an off-color remark" when John tells him to "A horrible insult was made against Jenny" when he's trying to get as much as he can out of Tony and Junior.
Because Junior and Tony started changing the subject and getting off topic about someone talking out of turn in their family to john. He said that to basically say "shut the fuck up it doesnt matter, now lets get on with the reason why were even having this meeting in the first place I got my daughter coming over with the baby I don't have time for this shit". haha.
What a fucking look Carmine gives Johnny after telling him to "get the fuck over it." No breaking of eye contact, no blinking, no fear. Boss was laying down the law.
San like dude above me said. It had nothing to do with John feeling any compassion for Paulie. He worked Paulie for info about what Tony was doing. Paulie was such a schmuck Johnny told him Carmine asked about him. When Paulie runs into Carmine he doesn’t have a clue who he is. Which is kind of unbelievable. As long as Paulies been working for the Aprile/Soprano family, Carmine would have known who he was.
Thanks! Greatly appreciated. Even as a Little Boy Growing Up, AJ was never seen dong any Chores, keeping his Room Clean, taking out Garbage, he could have worked as a Busboy at Artie's Restaurant or even did what Finn did at The Construction Site.
Of course he would've. The two decade long friendship would mean nothing if Paulie went behind Tony's back. There's no worse feeling than one of your closest, most loyal soldiers betraying you. Tony would take it hard, treat Paulie normally for awhile, and when he's not expecting it, go for the kill. Maybe even a personal kill since Paulie was so close, a similar death to Pussy.
It's subtle but John actually saved Paulie's life in this scene. He'd prefer to soil his wife's honor than to betray confidences. Such a great character...
Some really good writing here, John already knows it’s going to be money he’s getting, him and carmine are basically playing good cop bad cop to drive the price up.
The one thing I will say is that Carmine was probably the most genuine boss in the whole series. He never tells or gets out of character. He's straight to the point and doesn't play sides. If he feels one of his guys are wrong it's dealt with. Even when he gave the nod on Johnny Sac he told Tony "I appreciate your thoughts" meaning he agrees and won't stand in his way, without him having to actually say it
I gotta love Johnny Sac for not giving up his source. In a situation like that, most people in Jonny's position would have gotten Paulie in a lot of trouble by giving him up as the guy who told the Joke. Plus Tony already suspected paulie of "talking out of school", if he got confirmation it was Paulie writing his little gossip column, he'd be sleeping with the "fishes" for sure.
Best sit down ever from this series. Johnny Sack keeps hitting a wall,and Tony and Sil know it's true,and if Johnny calls their bluff,they at least find out who talked. That would have been the end of Paulie Walnuts and Ralphie in one fell swoop.
It's very interesting, how much Johnny Sack supposedly cares about his wife being insulted.... But he's not willing to give up Paulie in order to get Ralph. Not that he cared about Paulie as a person either, but he wanted to keep an open line to valuable information, which to him was more important than his wife's honor. Because Tony's right here (as he usually is). Tony's whole "you tell me how you heard about this, and I'll give you Ralph" is exactly the right move to make.
I still get goose bumps when I see some Sopranos videos... It felt like a friend of mine died when J Gandofini died :( This show helped me through some hard period of my life, thank you to all involved in it! I still love it after seen it 5 times :)
Vince Curatola (Johnny Sack) portrayal was excellent. I don't think he was even nominated for any acting awards but for couple of seasons he was one of the best actors on TV.
gotchya Coolz444. BTW - I really enjoy the insightful commentary from all the knowledgeable posters who post here. It makes me understand and appreciate the series more deeply. Thanks everyone!
