“The Many Saints of Newark” (MA) *** and a half

I CONFESS without a skerrick of shame that I have never watched any episode in the American TV series “The Sopranos”. 

Which puts me somewhat behind the eight ball when reviewing this two hours of big screen punishmentless (relatively, at least; in a real world, its events would have had police forces scrambling to arrest a large proportion of its characters) crime.

“The Many Saints of Newark” is a prequel to “The Sopranos”. In one way, that makes my task of reviewing it easier. Tell it as I found it.

Which is, that it’s a very unpleasant crime drama manifesting a continuing flow of murder, vile behaviour, unprintable vocabulary and other moral turpitudes.

The writers are David Chase (creator and producer of the TV series from 1999 to 2007) and Lawrence Konner. Director Alan Taylor’s career (38 titles) has been mostly in TV series – including nine “Sopranos” episodes. In places, his visual style struck me as quirky.

Ray Liotta and Vera Farmiga lead a cast of 70 credited characters and 80 extras named by IMDb but otherwise uncredited. 

Its narrative is packed with ethnic differences – bad Italian guys bullying and shooting Afro-American prey. It subjugates women to minor status.

The automobile cast includes some very big gas-guzzlers. Some get crushed in the rush.

Is the film a cautionary tale targeting the impressionable? Will its crime-may-pay-but–risks-of-early-death-are-high message reach and convert any young hoodlum who sees it? The only moral or creative reason that I can perceive for making it is possible box-office success. For which I am not optimistic.

At all cinemas