Is there anything left to say about "The Sopranos" ending?
Of course there is. There will always be. That's the genius of it (even though I STILL don’t like it): Without resolution, there is endless speculation, and anyone's speculation can be right and anyone's can be wrong. It's kind of what - and please forgive the highfalutin' reference here - physicists might refer to as a Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle paradox applied to my favorite TV show: Tony either lived or Tony died, or he's alive AND dead at the same time. (There's another famous physicist paradox called Shroedinger's Cat, which means that a cat hidden inside a box is both alive AND dead...and what this means…oh forget it.)
If I haven't turned you off thoroughly at this point, then read on. Last week, "American Gangster" premiered – how’s that for a segue! - and there's an actor who appears here but who also labors in the long shadows of Denzel Washington and Russell Crowe. (He plays McCann, opposite Josh Brolin's Trupo.) That would be Bobby Funaro - a terrific character actor who also appeared over the years in "Sopranos" as Eugene Pontecorvo, a harrowing member of Christopher's crew who inherited a million bucks from his aunt and decided he wanted out of the family. Tony said no way, and Gene began cooperating with the Feds. Finally, realizing there was no way out of his predicament, he killed himself in the episode entitled "Members Only." Bobby Funaro – in other words – soared in one of the finest episodes of maybe the greatest “Sopranos” season. It was also a pivotal episode, and here’s why:
Whachoo looking at? Funaro: Scary guy, fine actor.
“Members Only” was not only the premiere episode of the final season, but it also mirrored some elements of the finale as well, including the (famous) moment when someone wanders in to the diner wearing a "Members Only" jacket. Signifying? That there's no way out for Tony e la sua famiglia.
Whether he's alive or dead, his fate is an endless loop. There is simply no escape from this peculiar kind of hell.
Anyway, I had a long chat with Funaro recently; he's a good guy, smart, and like a lot (if not all) "Sopranos'" regulars harbors - I suspect – just the slightest ambivalence about starring in the greatest drama in TV history. His – their - professional fortunes will be forged by “The Sopranos” from this day forward. That's good, but also troubling (if from now on, the only roles they can get are mobster ones…)
We had along talk about his recent career (he starred in an off-off-Broadway production, called "The Lady Swims Today"), his hometown (Brooklyn/ Coney Island), and his future (he's using - what else? - the Internet to market himself. Here's the official website.)
So, Bobby, your thoughts on The Ending? "I enjoyed the ambiguity....and it gave it that kind of twist that was open ended. It was thrilling to watch [and] I was rooting for Tony, that he didn't get killed and that he pulled through the whole thing. He's a survivor, the ultimate carnivore. He's one of the guys that gets by. A lot of people wanted some sort of finish, but even David Chase said, 'how can I kill this guy...? He gave the audience such a thrill...’ But if you look at crime, it goes on.
Funaro said there was a screening for cast and crew at the HBO building, and people later gathered at the Hard Rock Cafe for a party. "When I walked out, I was surrounded by the press and everyone was looking for a reaction. I was one of the first to walk out...It was kind of surreal. I said 'I loved it [the ending] and the press was like, ‘get outta here! We wanted to hear that you hated it...’[Chase and producers] told us don't even try to defend it, and we shouldn't have to defend it because it ends the way it ends...”
He said Peter Bogdanovich (Dr. Elliot Kupferberg) offered the best defense: If "you look at the final scene [with] all those symbols of America, that's a whole collection of who we are...that there isn't any security, there isn't any sanctuary for anyone…We have this sense that as we grow up in TV world and watch TV, that there's always a happy ending. But when you get to be an adult, there’s something entirely different. You’re really hungry the next day - happiness is ephemeral, short-lived. Tony's happiness? It's there one second, but look what’s around him? The guy with the Members Only jacket...You can never get out of there. The last scene at first suggests that he has it all back together, but he doesn't have it all back together at all."