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NFT: David Chase finally answers Tony Soprano question

DanMetroMan : 8/27/2014 11:52 am
Apparently during a recent rendezvous at a tiny coffee shop (how apropos!), Nochimson asked Chase point blank whether or not Tony had died. Chase’s answer?
“No. No [Tony Soprano] isn’t [dead].”
Link - ( New Window )
He's deader than fried chicken  
djm : 8/27/2014 11:54 am : link
Move on...
djm  
DanMetroMan : 8/27/2014 11:55 am : link
you know more than the guy who created the show?
With gandolphini's recent passing  
djm : 8/27/2014 11:55 am : link
Does anyone think chase would have answered that question any differently?

RE: With gandolphini's recent passing  
Del Shofner : 8/27/2014 11:56 am : link
In comment 11827539 djm said:
Quote:
Does anyone think chase would have answered that question any differently?


that's what I was thinking as well. I don't think his answer had to do with the plot of the show.
Dan  
djm : 8/27/2014 11:57 am : link
Years back didn't chase say it was all subject to your own interpretation?

He's dead or alive. You're choice. Nothing happened on screen so there is no true answer.

Since the actor is dead i would think it's safe to say that tony soprano will never return to the silver screen. The character is unquestionably dead.
..  
DanMetroMan : 8/27/2014 11:59 am : link
Here is the full article
Link - ( New Window )
I thought it was a perfect ending to the series  
cjac : 8/27/2014 12:00 pm : link
thats exactly what would happen if anyone was shot in the head.
Why would  
pjcas18 : 8/27/2014 12:01 pm : link
Gandolfini passing force Chase to answer that Tony Soprano isn't dead?

Wouldn't it be the opposite? If that even factored into his answer.
I thought it was the perfect ending, too  
Milton : 8/27/2014 12:05 pm : link
But not because he was killed, because it left you with Tony's state of mind. Maybe the guy in the Members Only jacket is a killer, maybe he's just another guy in a Members Only jacket. Maybe Tony is going to get killed that day, maybe he isn't. Maybe he's going to go to prison next week, maybe he is going to prison next year. Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee...maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of his life.
Reading the full article on Vox  
Jim in Fairfax : 8/27/2014 12:09 pm : link
I am more than skeptical of his answer. I think he was just pissed at the question and gave a pissy answer.
How Chase really feels.  
vibe4giants : 8/27/2014 12:13 pm : link
Quote:
Why are we even talking about this?
"thats exactly what would happen if anyone was shot in the head."  
mamu : 8/27/2014 12:13 pm : link
If we were watching from Tony's POV, I agree. But we were watching Tony when the screen went blank. Maybe the audience got shot in the head?
There was no answer,  
Randy in CT : 8/27/2014 12:15 pm : link
clear cut in the show. That's how stories end sometimes. Nut up?
For all intents and purposes  
EricNY33 : 8/27/2014 12:25 pm : link
when Gandolfini died so did Tony Soprano. So yes... he's dead.
I see it close to Milton's take...  
LarmerTJR : 8/27/2014 12:25 pm : link
Chase mentions a reference to the Edgar Allen Poe poem "Dream Within a Dream" as an influence in the ending. I think he lives, but as Meadow walks in, he is contemplating where this life has left him, as in it, and those close to him, continue to slip away. When is it his time? Now? Tomorrow? Does he live it out like his mother?

On a side note, i always wondered what perspective Chase was aiming for on the black screen. I clearly see it has not being from Tony's. Meadow's? The audience's life within Tony's "Dream" (TV Life)....still lots of questions.
RE: I thought it was the perfect ending, too  
PaulBlakeTSU : 8/27/2014 12:27 pm : link
In comment 11827558 Milton said:
Quote:
But not because he was killed, because it left you with Tony's state of mind. Maybe the guy in the Members Only jacket is a killer, maybe he's just another guy in a Members Only jacket. Maybe Tony is going to get killed that day, maybe he isn't. Maybe he's going to go to prison next week, maybe he is going to prison next year. Do not ask for whom the bell tolls, it tolls for thee...maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of his life.


This is essentially how I've always interpreted the finale.

The entire series began with opening up into Tony's world as he's having a panic attack. There wasn't a cute introduction to the show-- it just began at the moment David Chase decided to allow us to begin our window into viewing Tony's world. Similarly, it ended just as suddenly with a cut to black when David Chase decided to close our window into Tony's world.

The gripping suspense of watching Meadow meaninglessly try to parallel park while listening to "Don't Stop Believin'" and with Tony constantly looking up everytime the bell rings, while doing the most mundane thing-- eating with his family conveyed the level of anxiety that will always be with Tony because of the life he chose.

At that point, no one posed an immediate threat to Tony nor wanted to have him whacked then. the only reason Members Only jacket guy seemed suspicious is because he walked towards Tony and made eye contact-- and so in Tony's world, nothing will change, and he will always have to live with that anxiety.

Perhaps the only reason the final moments were suspenseful is because it was the finale of the show and so just as Tony is generally, we as the audience were on high alert, having our own anxiety/panic attack, and perceving every inoccuous thing as a cause for concern (e.g. Meadow's parking errors creating the idea that she is going to be late and miss "something"; the bell ringing with someone entering while Tony's head is down; an unfamiliar guy walking in Tony's direction).

But if it weren't the finale, if we weren't anxiously sitting on the edge of our seats, we would have merely watched Tony emotionlessly devour onion rings, while Meadow parallel parks a car.
RE: Why would  
djm : 8/27/2014 12:32 pm : link
In comment 11827551 pjcas18 said:
Quote:
Gandolfini passing force Chase to answer that Tony Soprano isn't dead?

Wouldn't it be the opposite? If that even factored into his answer.


You don't think chase would have a hard time saying " tony is dead" months after gandolphini dropped dead of a sudden heart attack? Cmon..you know how Hollywood works.. "Too soon"

I believe Chase was quoted as saying it was subject to interpretation years back. Now tony is alive and well. No he's not. He's never returning to the screen. He's done.
Remember, Chase wanted 1 full minute of black screen  
Stan from LA : 8/27/2014 12:32 pm : link
before the credits rolled. HBO said no, so there was only a few seconds.

Interpret what 1 full minute of nothingness meant.
As to the ending of the show  
djm : 8/27/2014 12:35 pm : link
I think tony was alive as the blackout hits. If they wanted to kill him they would have done just that.

But tony died a few years later from congestive heart failure.
RE: RE: Why would  
pjcas18 : 8/27/2014 12:39 pm : link
In comment 11827619 djm said:
Quote:
In comment 11827551 pjcas18 said:


Quote:


Gandolfini passing force Chase to answer that Tony Soprano isn't dead?

Wouldn't it be the opposite? If that even factored into his answer.



You don't think chase would have a hard time saying " tony is dead" months after gandolphini dropped dead of a sudden heart attack? Cmon..you know how Hollywood works.. "Too soon"

I believe Chase was quoted as saying it was subject to interpretation years back. Now tony is alive and well. No he's not. He's never returning to the screen. He's done.


I guess. was it that recent? Seems like a couple years ago, but you're probably right. Just seemed like if there was a reason for keeping Tony Soprano alive it was purely a commercial one. and that is no longer viable.
I think Chase was implicitly honoring Gandolfini by saying that  
Del Shofner : 8/27/2014 12:47 pm : link
the character Tony Soprano lives on - not in the literal sense of what did or didn't happen in the plot of the show, but in the sense that Gandolfini brought Tony to life and that character will always live on for those who wish to watch or remember the shows.

(Or it was just a pissy answer to a stupid question as someone else indicated above ...)
Paul  
Greg from LI : 8/27/2014 12:49 pm : link
I've always believed something along the lines of what you've written. If you look at the series as a whole, Tony's fear was that his family would be trapped into the same pattern of life that he was by his own family. So where are we at the end?

Tony's own life will forever be one of paranoia and danger. After his sort-of re-examination of his life following his near-death experience, he falls smack back into his life again. He is incapable of being anyone other than Tony Soprano, mob boss.

Meadow's not going to be a doctor, she's going to be a lawyer "to defend persecuted Italians", plus she's getting engaged to Pat Parisi's son. She's going to remain entangled in mob life.

AJ's now working for Little Carmine, and his father tells him that he might bankroll AJ in the nightclub business in the future. He will remain in the mob's orbit.

Carmela almost left Tony, but couldn't do it. She can't give up the wealthy lifestyle and the status Tony's position provides her.

Everything goes in circles on The Sopranos. People don't change. It's like Meadow futilely trying to park over and over again - they keep trying to do something that they simply can't do. Look at Chris - he bottoms out with his addiction, seems to clean up and then ends up right back in the throes of heroin, which kills him the way mob life killed his old man. Tony tried to talk Phil into letting go of old hatreds and rivalries, but Phil couldn't do it because that's who he is, and ultimately so was Tony. Janice is the same scammer throughout the series regardless of what mask she's wearing (born again Christian, new age hippie, etc). The only character that actually changes is Little Carmine, and he's a malpropism-spouting nitwit.
no mamu  
Dave : 8/27/2014 12:50 pm : link
wasn't the last scene of the doorbell, from TS's perspective?
and wasn't a common theme throughout the show  
Dave : 8/27/2014 12:54 pm : link
'you never see it coming'
I'm not sure I take that as a definitive statement by Chase.  
bceagle05 : 8/27/2014 1:23 pm : link
It may have been an homage to Gandolfini or to the show itself. I've always been torn about it. Someone put together an incredible shot-by-shot breakdown of the final scene that compiles a boatload of evidence pointing to Tony getting shot. Specifically, Bobby's line a few episodes earlier about not even knowing when it happens.

I like the "Tony paranoia" angle better, and hope that's how it was intended.
Tony dies at the end  
Mr. Nickels : 8/27/2014 1:50 pm : link
everything is telegraphed. From the you don't hear it coming. The ENTIRE series is a morbid realistic outlook on death. The final scene features and establishes Tony's POV with cut shots. Bell rings. Tony looks up. We see Tony's POV. The series ended with what should have been Tony's POV except he got shot in the back of the head and killed instantly. You hear no sound because he didn't "hear it coming". So it is just instant death.

You don't kill made guys in front of their families like how Phill was whacked. This was New York's revenge and the washing of the hands of the entire war.
Anyone who thinks he is "dead"  
NYGmen58 : 8/27/2014 1:58 pm : link
is clueless.

You can imagine anything you want but the theories are absolutely laughable.

It was never the intention for him to die. Chase simply wanted to show to "end" without any real conclusion. He didn't want to bring a show that ran for a decade to some bizarre climax so simply had a very ordinary scene then cut-out.

It's a show that simply ended. To think Tony Soprano is killed eating onion rings is pathetic.
RE: Tony dies at the end  
NYGmen58 : 8/27/2014 2:01 pm : link
In comment 11827795 Mr. Nickels said:
Quote:
everything is telegraphed. From the you don't hear it coming. The ENTIRE series is a morbid realistic outlook on death. The final scene features and establishes Tony's POV with cut shots. Bell rings. Tony looks up. We see Tony's POV. The series ended with what should have been Tony's POV except he got shot in the back of the head and killed instantly. You hear no sound because he didn't "hear it coming". So it is just instant death.

You don't kill made guys in front of their families like how Phill was whacked. This was New York's revenge and the washing of the hands of the entire war.


LOL this shit is the gift that keeps on giving. Dream on my friend.
You hear the bell on the door ring  
Peter in Atlanta : 8/27/2014 2:02 pm : link
and an angel gets his wings.
RE: You hear the bell on the door ring  
NYGmen58 : 8/27/2014 2:12 pm : link
In comment 11827818 Peter in Atlanta said:
Quote:
and an angel gets his wings.


And the onion rings are symbolic of his Halo right? Tony Soprano was an angel afterall right?

And the catsup was a metaphor for all of the blood that he spilled to get into heaven?

And Meadow parallel parking represents all these parallels that add up, right?


The question itself  
natefit : 8/27/2014 5:59 pm : link
feels creepy. Id have no commented out of respect personally.
he didn't die  
bc4life : 8/27/2014 6:04 pm : link
we entered Tony's life as he was doing gangster sh*t.

As we leave he has an indictment hanging over his head and is always worried about an enemy trying to kill him (looking over shoulder, sitting so he can face the door waiting to see who comes in) - that's the life of a gangster.

And that's the point we walk out of Tony's life. Never understood why that was so hard to get one's mind around.
RE: The question itself  
Chris in Philly : 8/27/2014 7:39 pm : link
In comment 11828231 natefit said:
Quote:
feels creepy. Id have no commented out of respect personally.


It's disrespectful to ask him the one question people have been wanting to ask him for years? Okay.
The most laughable thing...  
Chris in Philly : 8/27/2014 7:42 pm : link
is the idea that he would change his idea based on Gandolfini's death. Chase is a huge egomaniac who has had this stuff in his head for decades. He's not changing it on a whim.
Chase has issued a statement via his publicist:  
Wuphat : 8/28/2014 6:59 am : link
Quote:
“A journalist for Vox misconstrued what David Chase said in their interview. To simply quote David as saying,” Tony Soprano is not dead,” is inaccurate. There is a much larger context for that statement and as such, it is not true. As David Chase has said numerous times on the record, “Whether Tony Soprano is alive or dead is not the point.” To continue to search for this answer is fruitless. The final scene of The Sopranos raises a spiritual question that has no right or wrong answer.”

http://time.com/3199270/david-chase-tony-soprano/ - ( New Window )
RE: RE: You hear the bell on the door ring  
Peter in Atlanta : 8/28/2014 7:07 am : link
In comment 11827838 NYGmen58 said:
Quote:
In comment 11827818 Peter in Atlanta said:


Quote:


and an angel gets his wings.



And the onion rings are symbolic of his Halo right? Tony Soprano was an angel afterall right?

And the catsup was a metaphor for all of the blood that he spilled to get into heaven?

And Meadow parallel parking represents all these parallels that add up, right?



Actually, I think it is the audience that gets the bullet in the head.
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