The Sopranos Series - Re-Watch (Spoilers!!!)

Neo. The Only. The One.

Neo. The Only. The One.

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Whips-n-Chains said:
Definetly No...

They technically have the same position of "Boss," but Michael was the Boss of a Five Families, family, all of which are bigger, and more powerful than the Jersey fam.

Different Eras...Michael was boss in the golden era of the mob (30s-80s, but particularly the 40s & 50s) when they wasn't a powerful investigative force at the federal level, and the mob owned J. Edgar Hoover to the extend to where Hoover even denied the mob's existence. Reminds me of that line from Goodfellas "it was a glorious time, before Apalachain (1957 meeting), before crazy Joe took on a boss" etc. The Mafia was still a secret society to the general public until about 1963 Senate hearing. There wasn't even an informant until Joe Valachi in 1963...

In Tony's era he's paranoid about wiretaps, informants, survelliance, and most of all RICO-act from 1970 , but used more in the mid-80s-present. RICO is the real reason the mob has been crippled compared to their heyday. Corleone Family owned judges and politicians, even had sway in the media and by GFIII they were doing billion dollar deals with the Vatican.

The Soprano's goes great-lengths to show how Tony "came in at the end" and the "best is over" (his words from Ep 1 in the first scene) This is both about the American Mafia, and about "Americana" as a whole (think 1950's white male Americana vs. today or early 2000s). The Mob in the 40s-early 80s was building and controlling Vegas, Atlantic City, operations in Cuba and aborad....Tony's guys are still shaking down bookies and card games...

Most powerful criminal on the show is Carmine Lupertazzi, and even he's not more powerful than a boss in the Corleone Family era.

Michael Corleone is like what Carlo Gambino, Vito Rizzuto, Frank Costello, Athony Accardo, etc. were in real life.
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Incredible history lesson, brother. I didn't know the details on this. Thank you. Repped.
 
Whips-n-Chains

Whips-n-Chains

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Neo The Resurrected ONE said:
So when they talk about the NY families, those would be the five families that Don Corleone would have been a part of?
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Yes..."NY" in the show's terms means Lupertazzi Family (Johnny Sack, Carmine Lupertazzi), but also the braoder Five Families/Commission.

Comission at one point was the NYC Five Families + Chicago, Detroit and a couple others depending on the time period...by the 80s it became just the 5 NYC families as there wasn't really a reason for Chicago or the other families around the nation to be be involved. Nowadays, there likely isn't a Comission at all, as that's one big walking conspiracy. These days, the mob is much more compartmentalized. But you still see families working together...the "East Coast Enterprise" case from about 6-7 years ago was 3 or 4 of the 5 fams + philly, all working together on schemes up & down the eastern seaboard.
 
Whips-n-Chains

Whips-n-Chains

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Neo The Resurrected ONE said:
Incredible history lesson, brother. I didn't know the details on this. Thank you. Repped.
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Most def...when I was a youngin I used to love all those old mob documentaries on history channel...I read this book called the five families, all about the NYC families from the 1930s-current day.

If you want to see what the current mafia is doing at the int'l level you should check Gomorrah & ZeroZeroZero. Both shows are a lot different than sopranos but are still fire af. The actual italian mafias in italy are cartel-levels of powerful, doing billions dollars of dirt every year.
 
Neo. The Only. The One.

Neo. The Only. The One.

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Whips-n-Chains said:
Most def...when I was a youngin I used to love all those old mob documentaries on history channel...I read this book called the five families, all about the NYC families from the 1930s-current day.

If you want to see what the current mafia is doing at the int'l level you should check Gomorrah & ZeroZeroZero. Both shows are a lot different than sopranos but are still fire af. The actual italian mafias in italy are cartel-levels of powerful, doing billions dollars of dirt every year.
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I'm gonna check these out :ohhh:
 
NinoBrown

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Neo The Resurrected ONE said:
Is Tony on a Michael Corleone level? Does he have the same position that the Don had?
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Nowhere near close and David Chase was using the American Mafia as comparison of the American way of life, in general has experienced a major state of decline and the Boom era is long gone. The Lucky Luciano, John Gotti, Five Families era of the Mob is done...gone.

Take a look at Junior, barely enough money to fight a major RICO(and he is a boss), Jackie Aprile Jr. left with ugatz, and most of the crew willing to catch a body over a couple bands...


It is made abundantly clear in later seasons that Tony's money is short like Leprechaun and his influence has pull in North Jersey but he bends the knee for NY ultimately....
 
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