The Sopranos Ending Debate Rages On...
The Sopranos ending is not ambiguous, April 2, 2008
By Suzanne Kafantaris
Look, I cringe whenever I see the "ambiguous ending" argument, and I've got to say something about it. The ending was not ambiguous. It was definitive. There are masses of eerie evidence throughout the entire body of the show in support of its definitiveness.
For example: In season 2 or 3, when Christopher dies for a minute and goes to Hell, he comes back with a message for Tony and Paulie. That message is: "Three O'Clock." This doesn't refer to a time of day; it refers to a position relative to Tony's (and probably Paulie's) body.
In the last few minutes of the final episode, look at where Tony is sitting in the diner. Look at where the mysterious guy in the Members Only jacket (clue!) would be coming from, relative to Tony's body, when he emerges from the men's room (clue! from The Godfather!). He'd be at "Three O'Clock", relative to Tony's body.
Why does the camera spend so much time on this Members Only guy, on getting him into the bathroom right across from Tony, if he's just some random, unimportant extra?
The mural on the wall behind Tony foreshadows and prefigures everything that happens after the screen goes to black. Go back and watch the scene on your DVD, and pause it at shot of that mural. Take a good look. There's a furious burst of orange from a tiger (clue! from The Godfather! Orange is the color of death; cats are a bad omen). Beside the tiger panel is a panel of a football player, leaning to the left, with an orange tinge on his helmet (who else was a football player? Tony). There's a panel of a building that looks a bit like the Roman Forum (where Caesar was betrayed!), and a bit like the nursing home where Tony's mother plotted to betray him. Think about which member of Tony's "Family" is still alive and intact at the end, and ask yourself who the betrayer might be, for a horrifying little coda. And finally there's a smaller football player in the last panel (A.J.?) There are strange, seemingly random splashes of red color on the sleeves of some of the diners -- scan through the last few minutes and ask yourself what's going on with that. None of this is an accident -- every prop, position and angle of that last shot was carefully planned in minute detail. It's all right there, people. Everything that happens *after* the camera cuts to black is chillingly prefigured, in the mural and on the clothing of the diners. And it's a horrifying thing to go back and look at -- more resonant and frightening than the ickiest cinematic blood and gore.
And as far as foreshadowing goes: Look at what happens to Phil Leotardo as he is waving "bye bye" to his grandchildren. Look at the opening scene of the final episode -- Tony on his back in a coffin-like bed, organ music playing on the radio. That's not an accident.
That's not all. Why does the camera cut with such intensity back and forth between the seemingly mundane scenes of Tony, Carmella and A.J. eating onion rings in the diner, and the seemingly mundane scenes of Meadow repeatedly trying and failing to park her car? Why is there such intensity in the filming as she runs across the street and opens the door to the diner? What reason could there be for the way those scenes are filmed, except this: if Meadow had arrived just a few seconds earlier, she would be sitting beside her father, in the three o'clock position, protecting him from whatever is coming out of the men's room.
People, please! Let's give David Chase the credit he deserves for truly chilling and original film-making. That ending is not ambiguous.
Post a comment
Jeffrey A. Lunt says:
Interesting observations.... I think you may be on to something.
Posted on April 13, 2008 9:05 AM PDT
Rygar says:
There is a 3 O'Clock reference in Scarface
Tony Montana kills Frank and the detective on his payroll, when he walks in the room, the clock in the background says "3:00"
Your post: April 18, 2008 7:16 PM PDT
John P Bernat says:
But wait - there is even more evidence...
Orange is the color of the University of Tennessee football team.
Orange is also the color of Tony the Tiger from Sugar Frosted Flakes.
Oklahoma State University's Big Orange Bus is a shuttle service between the Stillwater and Tulsa campuses.
Big Orange Productions is a talent management agency which represents Gulden's zesty honey mustard, which might have been what the Soprano family put on the onion rings.
Big Orange Butyl Floor Cleaner, which is manufactured by Zep and shown inside the diner's men's room, is a non-caustic, orange granulated powder formulated for cleaning finished and unfinished concrete floors. It's no coincidence that this cleaner's anti-redepositing agents keep dirt and grime suspended for easy rinsing.
What could be more obvious??
Wake up, people!
By Suzanne Kafantaris
Look, I cringe whenever I see the "ambiguous ending" argument, and I've got to say something about it. The ending was not ambiguous. It was definitive. There are masses of eerie evidence throughout the entire body of the show in support of its definitiveness.
For example: In season 2 or 3, when Christopher dies for a minute and goes to Hell, he comes back with a message for Tony and Paulie. That message is: "Three O'Clock." This doesn't refer to a time of day; it refers to a position relative to Tony's (and probably Paulie's) body.
In the last few minutes of the final episode, look at where Tony is sitting in the diner. Look at where the mysterious guy in the Members Only jacket (clue!) would be coming from, relative to Tony's body, when he emerges from the men's room (clue! from The Godfather!). He'd be at "Three O'Clock", relative to Tony's body.
Why does the camera spend so much time on this Members Only guy, on getting him into the bathroom right across from Tony, if he's just some random, unimportant extra?
The mural on the wall behind Tony foreshadows and prefigures everything that happens after the screen goes to black. Go back and watch the scene on your DVD, and pause it at shot of that mural. Take a good look. There's a furious burst of orange from a tiger (clue! from The Godfather! Orange is the color of death; cats are a bad omen). Beside the tiger panel is a panel of a football player, leaning to the left, with an orange tinge on his helmet (who else was a football player? Tony). There's a panel of a building that looks a bit like the Roman Forum (where Caesar was betrayed!), and a bit like the nursing home where Tony's mother plotted to betray him. Think about which member of Tony's "Family" is still alive and intact at the end, and ask yourself who the betrayer might be, for a horrifying little coda. And finally there's a smaller football player in the last panel (A.J.?) There are strange, seemingly random splashes of red color on the sleeves of some of the diners -- scan through the last few minutes and ask yourself what's going on with that. None of this is an accident -- every prop, position and angle of that last shot was carefully planned in minute detail. It's all right there, people. Everything that happens *after* the camera cuts to black is chillingly prefigured, in the mural and on the clothing of the diners. And it's a horrifying thing to go back and look at -- more resonant and frightening than the ickiest cinematic blood and gore.
And as far as foreshadowing goes: Look at what happens to Phil Leotardo as he is waving "bye bye" to his grandchildren. Look at the opening scene of the final episode -- Tony on his back in a coffin-like bed, organ music playing on the radio. That's not an accident.
That's not all. Why does the camera cut with such intensity back and forth between the seemingly mundane scenes of Tony, Carmella and A.J. eating onion rings in the diner, and the seemingly mundane scenes of Meadow repeatedly trying and failing to park her car? Why is there such intensity in the filming as she runs across the street and opens the door to the diner? What reason could there be for the way those scenes are filmed, except this: if Meadow had arrived just a few seconds earlier, she would be sitting beside her father, in the three o'clock position, protecting him from whatever is coming out of the men's room.
People, please! Let's give David Chase the credit he deserves for truly chilling and original film-making. That ending is not ambiguous.
Post a comment
Jeffrey A. Lunt says:
Interesting observations.... I think you may be on to something.
Posted on April 13, 2008 9:05 AM PDT
Rygar says:
There is a 3 O'Clock reference in Scarface
Tony Montana kills Frank and the detective on his payroll, when he walks in the room, the clock in the background says "3:00"
Your post: April 18, 2008 7:16 PM PDT
John P Bernat says:
But wait - there is even more evidence...
Orange is the color of the University of Tennessee football team.
Orange is also the color of Tony the Tiger from Sugar Frosted Flakes.
Oklahoma State University's Big Orange Bus is a shuttle service between the Stillwater and Tulsa campuses.
Big Orange Productions is a talent management agency which represents Gulden's zesty honey mustard, which might have been what the Soprano family put on the onion rings.
Big Orange Butyl Floor Cleaner, which is manufactured by Zep and shown inside the diner's men's room, is a non-caustic, orange granulated powder formulated for cleaning finished and unfinished concrete floors. It's no coincidence that this cleaner's anti-redepositing agents keep dirt and grime suspended for easy rinsing.
What could be more obvious??
Wake up, people!
posted by John Bernat @ 7:26 PM
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