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intereact!Actor: Sopranos
Rated: NR (Not Rated)
Retail Price (not our price): $299.92
Release Date: 2003-04-01
Theatrical Release Date: 1999-01-10
Studio: Hbo Home Video
Run Time: 2156 minutes
Format: Array
Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, DVD-Video, Widescreen, NTSC
Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
Discs: 12
Editorial Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
1) Amazon.com
The Sopranos, writer-producer-director David Chase's extraordinary television series, is nominally an urban gangster drama, but its true impact strikes closer to home, chronicling a dysfunctional, suburban American family in bold relief. And for protagonist Tony Soprano, there's the added complexity posed by heading twin families, his collegial mob clan and his own, nouveau riche brood. The series' brilliant first season is built around what Tony learns when, whipsawed between those two worlds, he finds himself plunged into depression and seeks psychotherapy--a gesture at odds with his midlevel capo's machismo, yet instantly recognizable as a modern emotional test. With analysis built into the very spine of the show's elaborate episodic structure, creator Chase and his formidable corps of directors, writers, and actors weave an unpredictable series of parallel and intersecting plot arcs that twist from tragedy to farce to social realism. While creating for a smaller screen, they enjoy a far larger canvas than a single movie would afford, and the results, like the very best episodic television, attain a richness and scope far closer to a novel than movies normally get. Alternately seductive, exasperated, fearful, and murderous, James Gandolfini's Tony is utterly convincing even when executing brutal shifts between domestic comedy and dramatic violence. The first season's other life force is Livia Soprano, Tony's monstrous, meddlesome mother. As Livia, the late Nancy Marchand eclipses her long career of patrician performances to create an indelibly earthy, calculating matriarch who shakes up both families; Livia also serves as foil and rival to Tony's loyal, usually level-headed wife, Carmela (Edie Falco). Lorraine Bracco makes Tony's therapist, Dr. Melfi, a convincing confidante, by turns "professional," perceptive, and sexy; the duo's therapeutic relationship is also depicted with uncommon accuracy. Such grace notes only enrich what's not merely an aesthetic high point for commercial television, but an absorbing film masterwork that deepens with subsequent screenings. In its second season, The Sopranos repeatedly defies formula to let the narrative turn as a direct consequence of the characters' behavior, letting everyone in this rogue's gallery of Mafiosi, friends, and family evolve and deepen. That gamble is most apparent in the rupture of the relationship that formed the spine of the first season, the tangled ties between Tony and Livia, whose betrayal makes Tony's estrangement a logical response. Filling that vacuum, however, is prodigal sister Janice (Aida Turturro), whose New Age flakiness never successfully conceals her underlying calculation and opportunism. Soprano's relationship with therapist Melfi also frays during early episodes, as she struggles with escalating doubts about her mobbed-up patient. At home, Tony contends with wife Carmela's ruthless ambitions on behalf of college-bound Meadow (Jamie Lynn Sigler), as well as son Anthony Jr.'s (Robert Iler) sullen adolescent flirtation with existentialism--the sort of touch that the show handles with a smart mix of sympathy and amusement. In the brutal and controversial third season, The Sopranos justified its 11-month hiatus with some of its best, and most hotly debated, episodes. It continued to upend convention and defy audience expectations with a deliberately paced, calm-before-the-storm season opener that revolves around the FBI's attempts to bug the Soprano household, and a season finale that (for some) frustratingly leaves several plot lines unresolved. "Employee of the Month," in which Dr. Melfi is raped and considers whether to exact revenge by telling Tony of her attack, earned Emmys for its writers, and is perhaps Emmy nominee Lorraine Bracco's finest hour. Other story arcs concern the rise of the seriously unstable Ralph Cifaretto (Joe Pantoliano) and Tony's affair with "full-blown loop-de-loo" Gloria (Emmy nominee Annabella Sciorra). Plus, there is Tony's estrangement from daughter Meadow, his wayward delinquent son Anthony, Jr., Carmela's crisis of conscience, bad seed Jackie Jr., and the FBI--which, as the season ends, assigns an undercover agent to befriend an unwitting figure in the Soprano family's orbit. Stay tuned for Season Four.
Customer Reviews (supplied by Amazon.com):
Average Customer Rating: 5.0 out of 5
1) Quite possibly the best television show ever. [Rating: 5 out of 5]
I read an article once about "The Sopranos." Some of the people who were interviewed were former mob affiliates who said that the show is actually quite realistic and that funny things like the events depicted on the show (the Russian guy coming back to life in the woods, for example) happen all the time in real life. (It makes you wonder where David Chase is getting some of his information, doesn't it?)In addition to being a show about the mafia, it's a show about family and a show about morals. Who doesn't love Tony Soprano? We'll watch him in a tender scene with his kids or see his affection for a horse (I think I'm jumping ahead to season four here), and then the next minute he'll be screwing some random whore while his wife is cooking dinner at home or he'll take one of his best friends out on a boat ride and fire a dozen bullets into him before dumping his body into the ocean.Everything about this show amazes me: the acting, the writing, and the intense emotional response that you're bound to experience after watching an episode. (One thing I enjoy is listening to how some of the actor's accents have changed since the first few episodes of the series. If you listen to Tony talking in the pilot episode and then hear him talk in season three, they don't even sound like the same person.)I'll be sad when this series finally ends.2) More Addicting Than Cigarettes!!! [Rating: 5 out of 5]
I am one of the millions I'm sure addicted to the Sopranos. However, I always miss the shows when they are on HBO, So I get these...WAY BETTER!!! For one, you can watch them at you're leisure and two you can watch them one after another BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!! You'll never leave the house and you'll even catch yourself talking like Tony after a four to ten hour stint(I know, I'm a dork!). So addictive...In fact, if there was one word to sum up the Sopranos it would be: ADDICTIVE. I can't wait for season five, I'm foaming at the mouth already!!! Well worth the money, and definatly a gift no one would ever forget!!3) A Television Work of Art [Rating: 5 out of 5]
I originally bought the 1st Season DVD set of the Sopranos as a Xmas gift for my Stepfather, but never had seen the show myself. When my parents got through the whole season in a week, I figured I'd check it out and rent it off Netflix. Within 2 weeks, I had bought all 4 seasons! It is completely engrossing and is probably one of the top 5 works of entertainment I've ever seen. It's a bit violent and risque, but the storylines, acting, and especially the production, are so good that the liberal language and nudity is almost secondary (but it's definitely for the over 16 crowd). The casting is brilliant, and the DVD sets themselves are attractive and well-presented, though a little light on special features. I am actually considering getting HBO just to be able to see the 5th season, which starts in March 2004. The New York Times has hailed the Sopranos as the greatest achievement in American pop culture in the last quarter-century, so if you haven't seen it yet, you owe it to yourself to check it out.Don't put off the show thinking it's another mob/crime drama. This truly lives up to the hype. It's extremely rich entertainment.4) Rough language and violence. Entertaining though [Rating: 4 out of 5]
An elderly aunt got me this package for my birthday thinking it had something to do with the Three Tenors, who I love. Well, this has nothing to do with opera, that's for sure except for the Italians. This was a mini-series about the Mafia. It reminded me of the hit movies The Godfather I, II, and III except it is based in current times and not the 1970's. Thestar, Tony Soprano, is played by a former guitarist for the Bruce Springsteen Band and is now seeing a psychiatrist. In the show, Mr. Soprano owns a business of some kind but he doesn't seem to spend much time on it, preferring to hang out with his seedy friends and relatives. There is a lot of rough language in this movie because it is based in New Jersey and that is how they talk there. Also, don't be surprised to see violence galore as that is what the Mafia is known for. It is entertaining, but if you watch it all in one sitting like I did it will take you about two and a half days. I don't remember a bunch from the middle part, but it all still made sense to me. I hear a sequel is in the works for 2004!5) The best TV has to offer!! [Rating: 5 out of 5]
The Sopranos is by far the most developed and cinematic show ever to be seen on television. The characters are incredibly in-depth and the plot is beyond that of any TV show and majority of movies. The world of the mobster is highly intriguing. The most fascinating aspect of it is that we can all still relate to many areas of that world. And, we can easily relate to the family life of Tony Soprano. The Sopranos is a masterpiece, and the chance to pick up these timeless works of art on DVD should not be passed by.