Richie was that character you couldn't wait to see get whacked in your first run through, but on the rewatches, you wish you had seen more of him. He played the role so well, and every time he and Tony had a verbal exchange, it was awesome. The fact that Tony was half a foot taller than him and usually scolded and talked "down" to him like he would a child was awesome.
fully agree , that scene at the motel when he disrupts the poker game and their conversation outside , man
You get the feeling that Ritchie only managed to stay alive as long as he did because of his brother's position (and I suspect Tony knew this well). Ritchie made stupid miscalculations again and again since his prison release (and probably many before that). Junior pinned some hope on Ritchie, but quickly learned it was misplaced.
I don't think I could have stomached him for another season. I felt like I needed a shower after every scene he was in. Like all the characters he was so well written and flawed in such serious ways, but I was glad that his subplot was resolved before Sal's.
And this week, show runner/creator David Chase just revealed that Tony Soprano did, in fact, die in the climactic scene: "...they asked you to talk about the June 10, 2007, series finale with of course, “Don’t Stop Believin'” and the famous cut to black. You said, “Well, I had that death scene in mind for years before.” A) Do you remember specifically when the ending first came to you? And, B) Was that a slip of the tongue?" And Chase answers "no." The Sopranos David Chase On Tony’s Ending & The Many Saints of Newark – The Hollywood Reporter
I finished my third run through of the show yesterday and I enjoyed it more than ever. Man, that final run of episodes is killer. Tony definitely died at the end, I've always believed it. The final 5 minutes is technical wizardry and one of the most tense scenes ever. It's a perfect ending.
Although the music and the scene cutting to black for like 15 seconds was a cheap shot. At least to me.
I stumbled on this some time ago and thought it was a pretty good summary of all the clues that spelled out exactly what happened to Tony. The guy did the vid on his cellphone so the quality is poor, but the content is good for anyone who's interested.
What were the alternatives that would have been acceptable? Seeing Tony shot multiple times? Blood splattering onto Carm and AJ? Maybe they're shot too? The horrified look on Meadow's face? I'm grateful Chase didn't go there. No one needs to see that. What are the alternatives? Dragging Buscemi back as the eternal footman as he appeared when Tony was in his Kevin Finnerty coma? Cutting to Tony's last dream as he's dying in Holsten's, where he finally hands his briefcase in? I think that's too labored as forced symbolism. Cutting to black was exactly the right approach. There is no important insight. The narrator of that video is not looking at data points objectively or explaining the images logically. Tony's troubles didn't start with AJ's attempted suicide or overreacting to the insult to Meadow, where it's his prerogative to respond that way. The narrator doesn't "see" anything physically wrong with AJ's girlfriend, so assumes she is integral to some setup of Tony, which isn't supported. Frankly it's offensive that a girl who says she's bulimic and depressed is called a liar by this narrator.
I read this a while back & thought it was pretty much the definitive interpretation of the ending. Page 1
If you buy into the theory that the editing establishes that we get into Tony's POV then the cut to black makes absolute sense. Doorbell sounds, Tony looks up, then from his POV we see whomever enters. This is done a few times to establish the pattern, so as Meadow runs in, the bell rings, Tony looks up and from his POV it turns black. The implication being that he dies at that moment I feel like the editing makes it all pretty clear, so the cut to black makes all the sense in the world to me. I love the debate though. Crazy that it's still going all these years later.
There are other tasteful ways Chase could have conveyed that Tony was dead. A slow crane pullout from the restaurant with police cars approaching, for example. He didn't do that because he wanted it to be ambiguous.
I can't remember any instance of cop cars showing up at the scene of any crime in any Sopranos episode of any season. Can you? For one thing, cops take several minutes to arrive on scene and the Holsten's presentation was in real time. So you're talking about a cut scene to a show cop cars at a later time, which creates more ambiguity than the cut to black. All kinds of questions can come up if you show police cars approaching. How is that a more conclusive ending than cutting to black?
I think in the back of Chase's mind, he hoped to do a 2-hour wrap-up movie with Gandolfini sometime in the future. The actor's death in 2013 ended any chance for that happening. There were about a half-dozen plot threads left dangling by the end of the episode, so the fate of some characters is still unknown.
I think by the end of Sopranos, they were barely talking. Chase felt snubbed by Gandolfini. David Chase says he and James Gandolfini were ‘barely talking’ by The Sopranos’ end The subplots left unresolved were by design, as Chase has said. Like real life, things don't need to resolve right away, if ever. That was one of the great qualities of the show, adding a lifelike evolution to the episodes that hooked fans and kept them riveted to see what might happen next. Most shows proceed with a simple plot line until it resolves. Sopranos wasn't afraid to have many subplots going simultaneously, letting some drag on indefinitely, quickly resolving others, folding some into others, and keeping the audience guessing.
