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Sopranos Go To Hollywood
By Rickie Vega
Hollywood makes a movie out of everything these days, books, TV shows, games, politics. Then why on earth, have they not transferred the great HBO series Sopranos to the big screen. Ironically, it seems that what is good enough to be on TV is on the screen and what’s on the screen isn’t even half as good as the stuff they show Lifetime or even a public access channel.
The Sopranos has those characters that really fill the screen and engrain themselves into your psyche until you wake up in the morning thinking that you’re either sleeping next to one of them or one of those wise-guys is holding your wife hostage next door. While that may be a good thing to some people, it doesn’t explain why that great writing and performances haven’t been seen more in the theatres.
Machiavelli Hangman seems to be the answer for all those Sopranos fans who had been waiting for a hardboiled gangster movie a la Godfather that would grace the silver screen since those glorious days of the Godfathers and Goodfellas.
While many films try to duplicate these films, very few have succeeded because they missed that single element of surprise. Gangster films – the good ones that is – always have that unique approach into that underworld. The Godfather revolved around a young man who wanted to say away from "the family business" but despite his wishes, he was forced into it to save his family. Goodfellas was the story of another man who was initiated into the underworld because he wanted to climb the steps of that lifestyle’s ladder. This was also the case in Scarface. Interestingly enough, Al Pacino and DeNiro appeared in all four films. They may not be in the low-budget production Machiavelli Hangman, but the film does carry an impressive cast and the storyline weaves in and out of the gangster genre and into others that it leaves behind this refreshing feeling.
The plot of MH is based around the story of Sara Lockhart who has married into the mob without her knowledge and is now desperately trying to find a way out. After she realizes that everything is in vain and all her attempts end in dead-ends, she decides to kill herself.
The movie really begins to sizzle when she dies in a car accident and the filmmakers begin to introduce the characters in the "family" and how they each react to her passing. The great thing about this film is that it plays with time structures and locations, you get the see the same scenes over and over like in some Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino films.
There are fascinating elements in the psychology of the characters and witty dialogue like in the Sopranos. While there may not be so many filmmakers who could pull of such a treat as adapting the feel and look and power of the Sopranos onto the screen, Machiavelli Hangman may just have achieved it. The filmmakers bring together all the right elements in this cinematic tour-de-force, and keep up the pizzazz right up to the final credits!
About the Author
Rickie Vega is a television and movie
reviewer. He is excited to share with
you the news about the upcoming,
original, independent film called
the Machiavelli Hangman.
http://www.hangmanmovie.com
Article Source: http://www.simplysearch4it.com/article/6109.html
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