The Many Saints Of Newark was an underwhelming prequel to the legendary HBO series The Sopranos. However, as dull as the film was, the ending sure was borderline shocking and borderline abrupt. In fact, some would say they saw it coming, but did they really?
But before I explain the ending, here’s some context and a little background on the prequel. In season 4 of The Sopranos, Tony Soprano, the Italian mob boss, tells how his uncle Dickie had been murdered in cold blood, but nobody ever knew who it was.
The prequel surrounds the story of Uncle Dickie, his relationship with the Dimeo crime family, and most importantly, his relationship with the little kid Tony Soprano who would go on to become one of the most feared crime bosses pop culture has ever known.
We see Harold, who previously worked with Dickie, get into a war with Dickie, and the two are literally after each other’s life. In fact, at the end, when Dickie gets shot, we all think it’s Harold, but is he really the one who killed Dickie, or was it someone else? Here’s the ending of The Many Saints Of Newark Explained.
Uncle Dickie was not killed by Harold but by his own family member Junior Soprano aka Uncle Jun. While Harold wanted to kill Dickie, Uncle Jun beat him to it by ordering a hit and getting a job done by another person. We know this because Uncle Jun makes a call from a phone booth and asks if it is done, and he gets a confirmation from the other end.
The film followed the events of Uncle Dickie’s life and the people around him from the family. We get to see the relationship between Tony and him, Dickie’s relationship with his father, mistress, and in general, it shed light on the kind of person he was.
While it tried to depict how much effect Uncle Dickie had on Tony Soprano, I feel the story was all over the place, without a central theme that could hold it all together. More than anything, the film felt so off-key compared to the epic show.
There was so much scope for the characters of Johnny Soprano, Tony’s father, Tony himself, and even the protagonist Dickie, for that matter. For instance, Dickie and Harold’s rivalry shows that Harold is the film’s main villain, but in the end, we never what happened to him.
Uncle Jun is hardly present in the film, but it is established that he isn’t the most fond of Dickie. This is simply because though he’s Johnny Soprano’s own brother, Johnny and his son Tony respect Dickie more. So all these things make Uncle Jun pretty jealous, and that’s evident.
In the end, when we see Harold and Dickie’s gang kill each other’s members, we think any time now, one of them is going to get killed. In fact, one of Dickie’s associates spots Harold at a place and informs Dickie.
Immediately Moltisanti makes a plan to go after Harold the very next day. On the other hand, Harold is already keen on ending Dickie’s life. He came so close to putting an end to Dickie, but failed. He then borrows a pistol from a connection he’s made to bring closure to this rivalry once and for all.
In the end, we see Dickie being shot twice from the back by a dark figure whose identity is not revealed. Of course, we all believe it is Harold, but surprise, surprise! It is Uncle Jun. Uncle Junior makes a call from a phone booth to the hitman asking if the deed is done, and the person from the other end confirms it.
I was left stumped for two simple reasons. One, it was so unexpected. Two, it was so abrupt. We had seen Uncle Jun in only two or three scenes, and even in them, they barely uncovered his character. Yes, it was the jealousy that made him do it. When Johnny pointed out how Dickie stepped up to take care of the family business after his father and managed everything on his own, it really got to Uncle Jun and his ego.
Furthermore, how Johnny, his wife, and Tony approached Dickie for many essential things just added fuel to the fire. So needless to say, Uncle Jun got jealous, ordered the hit on Dickie, and got him murdered in cold blood on the eve of Christmas.
About The Many Saints of Newark
The Many Saints of Newark is an upcoming prequel movie based on the groundbreaking HBO MAX series, The Sopranos. It is written by David Chase and Lawrence Konner, and is directed by Alan Taylor. The trio are also the producers of the movie.
The cast includes Michael Gandolfini playing the young Soprano, Alessandro Nivola playing Dickie Moltisanti, Leslie Odom Jr., Jon Bernthal, Corey Stoll, Ray Liotta, Vera Farmigo and more. In addition to them, the original Tony Soprano, played by James Gandolfini also appears in the movie, though via an archive audio.
The movie is set in the 1960s and 70s, focusing on the young Tony Soprano. He’s growing in one of the most struggling racial unrest times in Newark, with rival gangsters rising against the DiMeo crime family. During all this time, his uncle Dickie Moltisanti, whom the young Tony idolizes, leads him to the world of crime, leading him to become the infamous and all-famous mob boss, Tony Soprano of The Sopranos.
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