We meet Dickie as he’s welcoming his father, Aldo “Hollywood Dick” Moltisanti (Ray Liotta), home after a trip to Italy. The first part of the movie - when an even younger Tony is portrayed by William Ludwig - takes place during an especially tumultuous time, when race riots broke out in the New Jersey city. In doing so, Christopher takes us back to the era in which “Newark” is set, the late 1960s and early ’70s.

Soon, we hear the voice of Christopher, who leads us into the story to be told and telling us exactly what he thinks of Tony given what’s transpired between them. “Many Saints” opens on a gloomy day in a cemetery, and we begin to hear the voices of the buried from beyond the grave.

In fact, that aforementioned “Sopranos”-centric perspective in the film comes courtesy of Christopher.

Tony Soprano (Michael Gandolfini) is highly influenced by his so-called “uncle,” Dickie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola) in “The Many Saints of Newark.” (Courtesy of Warner Bros Pictures) Never seen on the show, Dickie is a mentor to Tony and the father of key series character Christopher Moltisanti (Michael Imperioli), who, in turn, is Tony’s protege. Written by series creator David Chase, along with Lawrence Konner, “Many Saints” is - as we were led to believe prior to the debut of the Tony-focused trailer - the story of Dickie Moltisanti (Alessandro Nivola), who desires to do some saintly good in amongst all of his bad. Honestly, there probably are more references to the show than one can absorb in a single viewing. It’s that the film is so heavily invested in adding context to what happens on the show, filling in some historical cracks and showing us an incident or three recounted by characters from their memories or stories they’d been told. It’s not that “Many Saints” is hard to follow - you’re given all the information you need, including some “Sopranos”-centric perspective. However, as you might imagine, “Many Saints” is designed to be able to stand on its own, offering a cinematic experience to a viewer who’s not seen a minute of “The Sopranos.”įor someone who’s seen the entire series (twice), it’s impossible to say what the movie would be like for the uninitiated. As you’ve probably seen for yourself in the previews, the younger Gandolfini looks and acts just as we imagine a younger Tony would have.

And, yes, we do spend time with a teenage Tony Soprano, portrayed by Michael Gandolfini, son of the late James Gandolfini, the actor who brought Tony to such memorable life in the series.

Stuart little movie 1999