Made in America (Clan Soprano)

• James Gandolfini - Tony Soprano
• Lorraine Bracco - Dr. Jennifer Melfi *
• Edie Falco - Carmela Soprano
• Michael Imperioli - Christopher Moltisanti **
• Dominic Chianese - Corrado Soprano Jr.
• Stephen Van Zandt - Silvio Dante
• Tony Siriko - Paulie Galtieri
• Robert Euler - Anthony Soprano Jr.
• Jamie-Lynn Sigler - Meadow Soprano
• Aida Turturro - Janice Soprano Bakkalieri
• Frank Vincent - Phil Leotardo
• Ray Abruzzo - Little Carmine Lupertazzi
• Dan Grimaldi - Patsy Parisi
• Sharon Angela - Rosalie April
• Maureen Van Zandt - Gabriella Dante

* = only shown ** = photo only

Guest Stars

Tony Soprano on the run along with his criminal family. As night falls, he meets with the FBI agent Dwight Harris and gives him information about Ahmed and Muhammad. In exchange, he asks for the location of Phil Leotardo, the head of the rival family with whom he is fighting. Harris says he knows nothing.

Tony meets his family at the place where they are hiding, and they later attend the funeral of Bobby Bakkalieri. Tony visits Janice at her house, which tells him that she will raise Bobby's children. Harris calls Tony with information that Phil used payphones from gas stations in Oyster Bay, Long Island ; Tony's criminal family begins to inspect gas stations in this area.

Phil calls his assistant Butch “Butchi” DeConcini from a payphone and expresses his anger at the fact that Butchi could not kill Tony. He rejects Butch’s offer of peace. Tony meets with Butchi for negotiations, without Phil's knowledge. Butchi refuses to disclose Phil's whereabouts, but agrees to a truce and tells Tony: “Do what you must do.” Tony and his family return to their home in North Caldwell. The people of Soprano, Benny Fazio and Walden Belfiore, track Phil at a gas station and shoot him; Agent Harris is happy with this news.

Anthony Jr. and his girlfriend Rhiannon escapes from his SUV after he caught fire due to the fact that he left the engine to work on dry leaves. He runs to his parents and tells them that he intends to join the army; instead, they employ him at the Little Carmine film production company.

Janice meets with Junior at the Disabled House to tell him about Bobby's death, but Junior is too confused to understand. Pat Blandetto tells Tony that he believes that Janice plans to claim the last money that Junior’s accountant keeps for her. Tony visits Junior and tells him to give money to Bobby's children, but realizes that he will not recognize him. Junior reacts with surprise when Tony reminds him of his involvement in the American Mafia , and Tony leaves with tears in his eyes.

Meadow and Patrick Parisi announce that they are engaged and that Meadow can acquire a lucrative contract at a law firm. At the restaurant, Meadow tells Tony that she wants to protect everyone who is oppressed by the federal government, in particular Italian-Americans, seeing her father being arrested many times from the FBI. Tony visits Silvio Dante, who is in a coma at the hospital.

Capo Carlo Gervasi is missing; Paulie fears that he could become an informant after his son Jason was arrested with charges of drug possession. Tony's lawyer, Neil Mink, tells Tony that Carlo is likely to testify and that Tony will be charged. With the disappearance of Carlo, Tony offers Paulie leadership of the April team; Paulie at first refuses, worried that the team is cursed, but accepts the offer when Tony tells him that he will offer Patsy's place.

The Soprano family meets in a diner. Tony arrives first and watches how customers come and go. Carmela arrives and Tony tells her that Carlo will testify. Anthony Jr. arrives and reminds his father of his advice to " remember the good ." Meadow arrives later and parks his car outside. When the bell in the door rings, Tony raises his eyes.

Design

Showranner David Chase planned the ending of the series and the final scene during the 21-month break between the fifth and sixth seasons, the long break that the HBO provided him. The final scene was shot almost as Chase imagined it. It was not intended for a future film, although Chase later commented: “Maybe someday we will come up with something,” regarding the film “The Soprano Clan.” This then HBO chairman , Chris Albrecht, proposed finishing the series with season six. ^{[1] [2] [3]}

Script

As with every episode of the season, the Made in America storyline was developed by Chase and his screenwriters, which, in the final season, included executive producers Terence Winter and Matthew Weiner and supervisory producers Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider . The episode's permanent director, Tim Van Patten, also provided Chase with some suggestions for the storyline. ^{[4] [5]} After the plot of the episode was outlined, Chase wrote the first draft. After some input from the composition of the scriptwriters, Chase reworked the script into its finished form, although he also made minor changes during the filming. "Made in America" ​​- the 30th and final official designation in the credits as a screenwriter (including plot directions) for the series and the ninth as one episode screenwriter. ^{[6] [7]}

Chase included references to the history and events of the real American mafia in the script for "Made in America." ^[6] In particular, the replica “Damn! We will win this case! ”, Spoken in an episode by agent Dwight Harris after being informed of the death of Phil Leotardo, alludes to former FBI chief executive Lindley DeVecchio. DeVecchio uttered the phrase after he was informed that Lorenzo "Larry" Lampazi was shot dead in front of his Brooklyn house, and was later charged with informing the Mafia , another parallel between Tony Soprano and Dwight Harris. ^{[1] [8] [9]}

Cast

Maureen Van Zandt, who plays Gabriella Dante, was promoted to the main cast and indicated in the opening credits, but only for this episode. She is the last addition to the main cast of The Clan of Soprano.

Filming

"Made in America" ​​was shot by Chase, and the cameraman was Alik Sakharov . The two worked in the same position in a pilot episode , The Soprano Clan , which was filmed in 1997. The series finale is emphasized the second time Chase officially filmed the episode of The Clan of the Sopranos, although as a show runner, he oversaw most of the episodes during the entire production of the show. ^[10] "Made in America" ​​emphasizes the 38th and final indication of Sakharov as the operator.

The filming period began in late February and ended in late March 2007. Field shots and specific interior scenes from Made in America were shot in Bergen County , New Jersey and Brooklyn and Manhattan , New York , New York . Additional interior scenes - including internal filming of the Soprano residence and the back room at the Bud Bing strip club - were shot in the recording pavilion at Silvercup Studios, New York, where most of the scenes from the series were shot. The final scene of the episode was filmed in late March 2007 at Holsten's Brookdale Patisserie, a store in Bloomfield, New Jersey. Bloomfield's Village Council initially tried to stop HBO from filming in the city because “[they] find the HBO gangster drama offensive to Italo-Americans ” and voted to reject the production company in filming permission. However, since the council did not have the authority to stop filming in the city while the group met the requirements set out in the Bloomfield Code for film crews, permission was subsequently granted. ^{[11] [12]} Since the producers of the show had to make sure that the plot details of the ending were kept secret until the broadcast, the scripts given to the team members had their last pages ripped out. The final scene of these edited scenarios was the one where Tony rakes leaves near his house, a scene that takes place 10 minutes before the real ending in the final installation. Chase received compliments for this scene from people who thought it was a real ending. ^{[6] [13]}

Post Production

"Made in America" ​​was mounted by Sidney Wolinsky, one of the three editors of the show, under the supervision of Chase. ^[10] Chase initially wanted a black screen at the end of the episode until the last, “until the whistling sound of HBO”, that is, no credits should have appeared at the end of the episode, but did not receive a document from the Directors Guild of America to do so. ^{[14] [15]}

Music

“Don't Stop Believin '” plays during the final scene of the series. Journey vocalist Steve Perry initially refused to let David Chase use the song until he knew the fate of the main characters, and did not give a final statement until three days before the episode went on air. Perry feared that the song would be remembered as the soundtrack of Tony's demise until Chase assured him that it would be wrong. ^[16] Immediately after the broadcast of “Made in America”, the song enjoyed a big surge in popularity; its sales on iTunes , for example, grew by 482 percent. ^[17] The renewed attention to the group helped her out of the reportedly difficult times they had at that time. ^[18]

The final scene “Made in America" ​​has been the subject of much discussion, debate and analysis after the initial broadcast. The use of the abrupt transition to the black screen was followed by a few seconds of silence, which led many viewers to believe that their cable or DVR had been cut down at a crucial moment. ^[19] Soon, opposing interpretations appeared among the audience about the ultimate fate of the serial protagonist Tony Soprano , and some claimed that he was killed, while others believed that he remained alive. ^{[1] [20]}

One of the disputes points to the conversation that Tony had in the demi-season premiere episode " Home movies Soprano " with his brother-in-law Bobby, in which Bobby comments on how suddenly and without sound death can happen in their life of gangsters: "You probably you don’t even hear when this happens, right? ”The flashback for this scene also appears in the final minutes of the Blue Comet , the episode preceding Made in America. ^{[21] [22]} When asked about the theory, HBO spokesman Quentin Schaffer said conversation was a “legitimate” hint. ^[20] Also, Butchi DeConcini (the alleged successor to Phil Leotardo) was last seen burdened with reparations following the gang war. He had previously expressed ideas about the murder of Tony (“ Kaisha ”), and Tony was, in the end, the last person from DiMeo to stand out from the three original goals of Lupertazzi, who, as Phil believed, if he was killed, would completely cripple the Jersey family. Consequently, Tony would be a tempting target for murder. The final scene, showing a man who looks at Tony (listed as “Man in Members Only Jacket”) and who later goes to the toilet, was interpreted as a hint to the famous scene from The Godfather , in which Michael Corleone removes the gun from the toilet before shoot your enemies to death (Tony's favorite scene from the movie, as it turned out in the episode " Johnny Case "). ^[23] Speculation also linked the man’s jacket to the title of the opening episode of the season, “ For Club Members Only ”, which Tony was shot at, and also as a symbolic reference to the mystery man’s membership in the Mafia. Actor Matt Servitto said that in the script, the scene continued with the man in the Members Only jacket coming out of the closet and starting to walk toward Tony's desk. ^[24] Servitto later clarified this statement, saying that he did not mean that there was a completely different ending to the script, only the “ingenious” installation was not what he had supposed. ^[25]

Also, some viewers note the peculiarity of the installation of the scene in the diner. Each time someone enters the restaurant, the bell of the front door rings, the next frame shows the reaction of the protagonist, and then shows a view from the eyes of Tony Soprano. Bell. Camera on Tony. Carmela Soprano enters. Bell. The camera shows Tony. A man in a Members Only jacket comes into the diner, followed by Anthony Soprano the Younger. Bell. The camera shows Tony. Black screen without sound for 10 seconds (at this moment Madou Soprano should go into the diner).

Facts indirectly indicating the death of Tony Soprano:

• - the mansion in the picture in the diner, as in a vision during the main character's coma.

• - the person who entered the diner in the Members Only jacket is watching Tony. At the end of the series he leaves the toilet and goes straight to the table of the Soprano family (quote from the scene of The Godfather and the favorite scene of Tony Soprano).

• - Bobby's comment about death and that a person does not hear the sound of a shot, since the bullet is faster than the speed of sound.

• - scene editing algorithm showing events alternately from and on behalf of Tony Soprano. At the moment when the viewer should see on behalf of Tony, his daughter enters the diner - a black screen and the absence of sound.

Then a spectator camp appeared with opposing interpretations. It has been suggested that the final scene portrays that while Tony’s life is fraught with fear and danger that could come from anyone and anywhere, and that for now Tony must constantly watch his back and look out for any problems that arise (he watches the entrance to the diner), life nonetheless continues and that the viewer does not need to continue to see this. The words of the closing song, saying “ Don’t stop believin ' ” to the viewer, are believed to support this and that the silent black screen is designed to allow people to imagine and believe in their own continuation of Tony’s story. ^[26] It can be stated that due to Tony’s peace agreement with the Lupertazzi family, their tacit consent to kill Phil, and Butchi’s apparent reluctance to continue the fighting, there were few legitimate grounds for Tony’s murder from Lupertazzi and the threat to him, although he was always present, was no more than ordinary. ^[27]

Comments from David Chase

Chase made various comments about the finale, but avoided providing explanations for the meaning of the final scene. In his first interview after broadcasting the final with The Star-Ledger Jersey, Chase stated:

Chase also turned to the opinion of those for whom the open finale was offensive to longtime fans of the show:

Regarding the future of the Soprano children, Chase said:

In a December 2008 radio interview with Richard Belzer , Chase also mentioned scenes from Stage Five and Soprano's Home Cinema in relation to the final scene. ^[29] At the 2008 TCA Award Ceremony on July 22, Chase commented:

Ratings

According to a Nielsen rating , 11.9 million viewers watched "Made in America" ​​at the premiere on Sunday June 10, 2007 in the United States . The rating grew by 49% compared to the previous episode and it became the best rating for both parts of the sixth season. It has also become the largest audience for the show since the premiere of the fifth season . ^{[31] [32]}

Reaction

Initial

"Made in America" ​​received mostly favorable reviews from critics, while the early reaction of the fans was mixed, described by one critic as "a mixture of admiration and anger." Within a week of the original broadcast of the episode, "Made in America" ​​and, in particular, its final scene, became the subject of wide discussion and analysis. Several new interpretations and explanations of the ending were presented in magazines and blogs , which led many critics and fans to rethink the ending. ^{[2] [15] [19] [28] [33]}

Marissa Carroll of PopMatters awarded Made in America a rating of 8 out of 10 and, in particular, praised the final scene as one of the best in the series. ^[34] Mark Farinella of The Sun Chronicle called the episode “the perfect ending to the perfect series.” ^[21]

Retrospective

Retrospective Made in America reviews were very positive; The episode was included in several lists of the best finals of the series of all time. Alan Sepinwall of The Star-Ledger wrote in his essay analyzing the finale a year after the original show that he felt the episode was "brilliant." ^[33]

Rewards

In 2007, Made in America won the Emmy Award for Best Screenplay for Drama Series at the 59th Emmy Awards . This was the only category in which the episode was nominated. This is the third and final time the series creator / executive producer David Chase has won the award for writing the script for the series. ^[35] In 2008, Chase was nominated for the Director's Guild Award in the Drama Series (Night) category, but lost to his partner in the Soprano Clan director Alan Taylor , who won the director’s award for the pilot episode of Mad Men former screenwriter of The Sopranos, Matthew Weiner . ^{[36] [37]} Also in 2008, editor Sidney Wolinsky won the Eddie Award for Best Editing for a One-Hour Series. ^[38]

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