A FAMILY HISTORY OF VIOLENCE

SOPRANOS PREQUEL WILL DELIGHT THE FANS, AS WILL THE LATE JAMES GANDOLFINI’S SON MICHAEL IN HIS ROLE PLAYING THE YOUNG TONY

THE Sopranos debuted more than 20 years ago, and you’d have to be a fan to get the best from this prequel movie.

And you’d need to be a superfan to get all the connections.

But The Many Saints Of Newark stands alone as a worthy addition to the Mafia movie pantheon.

We go back three decades from the start of the TV series. In the late 60s, Newark, New Jersey, is burning. Literally.

African-Americans, seething

at prejudice and injustice, set fire to the police headquarters.

Dickie Moltisanti (many saints,

geddit?) also sets fire to the corpse of his mob boss father, Hollywood Dick, after killing him in the family garage in a row over the treatment of Dickie’s mother and Dick’s young new wife.

The stage is set for a battle for control of the city by rival gangsters and for the conflict that will rage inside Dickie.

Stylishly portrayed with equal measures of charm and brutishness by Alessandro Nivola, he wants to be a better man yet can’t escape being a monster.

The Newark of the 60s is lovingly recreated only to be destroyed by flames and bullets. How the set designers must have cried.

It adds to the fun to spot the young Tony Soprano and compare him to the compelling character made flesh by the late James Gandolfini.

Here, he is a fat kid on the fringes of the drama, but then the action shoots forward a decade and we see Tony (competently played by Gandolfini’s real son Michael) as a conflicted teenager, getting into scrapes but dreaming of going to college. He wants to keep his hands clean yet idolises his Uncle Dickie.

Meanwhile, rivals are circling the family. Cue an escalation of wince-inducing violence.

A torture scene in a car repair shop, featuring the unconventional use of a pneumatic wheel nut remover, was particularly hard to watch. A trip to KwikFit will never be the same.

In the end, I suspect both fans and firsttimers will be satisfied. OK, it’s not The Sopranos, but what is?

In cinemas now

Mob scene: Billy Magnussen as Paulie Walnuts, Jon Bernthal as Johnny Soprano, Corey Stoll as Junior Soprano, John Magaro as Silvio Dante, Ray Liotta as “Hollywood Dick” Moltisanti and Alessandro Nivola as Dickie Moltisanti

Livia (Vera Farmiga) and Johnny Soprano

Like father, like son: Michael Gandolfini as young Tony Soprano

On point: Alessandro Nivola as Uncle Dickie