MEDIA ALERT:
UPDATE 12/29/07
HBO's Landscape Drearier Since The Sopranos Faded to Black
The scene of the year in television was 10 seconds of black screen.
With a good portion of the nation riveted, David Chase, the creator of The Sopranos, perhaps the most talked about drama ever presented on television, conjured up an ending that perfectly matched the show's cumulative viewing experience: a jaw-dropping, inimitable and uncompromising climax that inspired everything from outrage to wonder, along with endless analysis.
Did the ending in a homey Bloomfield, N.J., diner called Holsten's really mean to imply that Tony Soprano was about to meet the kind of brutish end he had dished out so many times himself? Was the man who entered the diner and slipped into the men's room an obvious homage to the famous pre-whacking restaurant scene in The Godfather? Then there was parallel parking, along with Journey lyrics and onion rings to parse.
Chase's obsessive control over every aspect of The Sopranos elevated it to what many saw as art. So to Chase watchers, it was unthinkable that anything in those final scenes was pure happenstance. He confirmed that he had settled on an ending years before the series wrapped up, one in which Tony and family would be having dinner “and a guy would come in.” He did not spell out what that guy would signify (his interest in spelling out anything is obviously minimal) but he did say, “There was nothing definite about what happened, but there was a clean trend on view, a definite sense of what Tony and Carmela's future looked like. Whether it happened that night or some other night doesn't really matter.”
HBO may never quite be the same without The Sopranos and neither will the rest of television.
UPDATE 12/20/07
Sopranos Cast Reunites for Charity Event
The cast of The Sopranos will reunite on Saturday, December 22, 2007 to raise money for two former crewmembers' cancer battles.
Six months after the final episode aired, the Soprano family—James Gandolfini, Edie Falco, Jamie-Lynn Sigler; Robert Iler and Michael Imperioli will join up to 20 other cast members at a benefit in New York.
The team is reuniting at the Mirage in Westbury, Long Island, to help raise money for two former employees, one of whom is fighting terminal cancer; the other who has beaten the disease but faces crippling medical bills.
Organiser and backstage assistant Jeff Marchanti says of the two anonymous crewmembers, "(One is) one of our most beloved prop guys, who's been on the show from the beginning. His name is Anthony B., but he wanted to remain nameless.
"He's battling lymphoma and nobody knew about it, until a month and a half after we wrapped. Everybody loves the guy because we are absolutely a true family and we're gonna support him in every possible way we can." The other crewmember, who is in cancer remission, also asked to remain anonymous.
UPDATE 11/26/07
Chase: 'No Sopranos Movie'
The Sopranos creator David Chase has quashed rumours he is planning a blockbuster movie version of the smash hit series. The mob drama bowed out in style this year after six and a half seasons, and, because there was no explosive finale, expectant fans have speculated a big screen adaptation is on its way. In the new issue of GQ magazine, Chase offers a glimmer of hope to fans that the show isn't dead forever, but he warns devotees not to expect a Sopranos movie. Chase tells the American magazine, "There is no thought about making a movie now and I would say chances are we probably will not do it. But, at the same time, I'm a writer, and this is how my mind works: I could wake up some morning or (Sopranos star) James Gandolfini could wake up some morning and say, 'How 'bout it?' "If it was great enough we might be tempted to do it, but I don't think that's going to happen. I think everybody's got their own life now. I think everybody's moved on, including me."
UPDATE 11/16/07
Gandolfini, Winslet and Turturro On Making a Musical
Though he cuts a swath quite different from that of your average musical-theater star, James Gandolfini worked hard to improve his hoofing skills for his new movie, Romance and Cigarettes.
But as he'll happily tell you, it wasn't easy.
"I would leave the dance lessons going: 'Holy Christ, I'm so incredibly bad at this', " said the former star of "The Sopranos." "It was like me doing algebra or something. I had no clue about any of this."
Judging by the film, he had a good teacher.
Starring alongside Kate Winslet and Bedford's own Susan Sarandon, Gandolfini plays Nick Murder, a construction worker who uses songs—often very funny ones—to work out his feelings for the two women in his life. The film, playing now at Clearview's Cinema 100 Twin in Greenburgh, is set in Queens and features several great actors. In addition to the headliners, there's Christopher Walken, Steve Buscemi, Mandy Moore, Aida Turturro, Bobby Cannavale and Eddie Izzard—who bring to life an untamed band of foul-mouthed charmers.
The film was written and directed by John Turturro, an actor best known for his role in "Do the Right Thing" and, most recently, as former Yankees manager Billy Martin in the ESPN miniseries The Bronx is Burning.
Sitting at a conference table in Manhattan along with Gandolfini and Winslet, Turturro said he's been thinking about the ideas and characters that came to inhabit "Romance" since "Barton Fink," a movie he appeared in 16 years ago.
And so he did what any actor with an idea for a screenplay would: He got professional help for his sorry typing skills.
"I had done a lot of research, and I decided that I wanted to type these things for real," Turturro said. "So I went to secretarial school; I was typing with all these secretaries."
Winslet interrupted with a question. "Is that the real reason you went, John?" she wondered. "You were the only man in the room."
"It sounds like heaven actually," added Gandolfini.
In some musicals, all the dialogue comes in the form of song. But that's not the case in "Romance." Characters talk to one another (and sometimes curse at one another)—then, with little warning, break into a tune. Turturro said he opted to include the songs because he thinks they do what conversation sometimes can't.
"I grew up in a tiny house," he said. "Everyone had their own soundtrack, which I'm sure is very usual for most people. My brother was playing Hendrix, I had on Sam and Dave and my mother had Frank Sinatra on."
The movie, set a few decades in the past, derives its plotlines—there's a spicy love triangle, a mother who hates her daughter's future husband, a lech who's a source of bad advice—from Turturro's own youth in New York City's outer boroughs.
"When I was really small," he said, "I used to crawl down the hallway, like, when I was 7, 8 years old, and I used to like to listen to my mother talk to all her girlfriends, talk about all their husbands and the infidelities going on—who wasn't doing it and who resisted it.
"I was saying to James before: I was going to make this documentary once about all these women that my mother [was friends] with. One was English, one was German, a Jewish lady, a black lady."
Instead of a nonfiction approach, Turturro wrote a screenplay that draws on humor that's alternately clever and crude, and characters who feel real, even as they jazz-step through life.
"Just to give you some kind of an idea of how much of a labor of love this was for John—and then eventually for all of us—when I first received the script I was pregnant with my daughter, and she just turned 7," Winslet said. "I was going on vacation to Italy and I remember leaving a message for John and saying: 'Thank you so much for the script, I haven't read it yet, but I'm about to go on holiday, and I'm going to take the script with me.' And so I did."
Winslet, nominated for five Oscars for movies like "Titanic" and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, said Turturro's dialogue displays a measure of appealing unruliness.
"One of the strongest feelings I had when I first read the script—I'm turning the page and I'm literally going: 'He cannot be [expletive] serious,' " she said. "I was incredulous: 'How can this be in a script?' I've never experienced this before, just this very, very specific, individual, unique vision combined with unbelievable fearlessness and daring to just put in every [expletive] thing that he'd ever hoped and dreamed he could stick into a movie."
For example, there's a character who disciplines her children in a way that would horrify many a 21st-century parent. This comes from Turturro's family.
"There used to be an exercise show when I was growing up called 'Jack LaLanne.' He had a one-piece jumpsuit, he had a white German shepherd and he had ballet slippers," said Turturro, who recalled that LaLanne sold a piece of pliable exercise equipment called the Glamour Stretcher.
"I used to watch this show, my grandmother would watch it, and my aunt Tessie, who was one of the greatest characters of all time, she had one of these," he said. "But instead of using it, she would beat her kids with it. She would whip the kids with it, like a belt. She was a very dramatic person. When I would go over there, she would scare my cousin. She would say: 'You did something wrong. I'll get the Glamour Stretcher!' And he'd be going: 'No, Mom, not the Glamour Stretcher.' So for years I was obsessed with getting that in a movie."
Turturro's casting impulses are equally unusual. He said he chose Winslet in part because he liked her performance in a movie called Holy Smoke.
"She did this one thing where she danced and she, like, sniffed her armpit—it was the way she did it," Turturro said. "I was like: 'That girl could do this part.'
"I talked to my mother about it. She said: 'Oh yeah, she's hot.' I said: 'Who do you think is sexy, Ma?' She said: 'That girl's sexy. I'm not a lesbian, but she's sexy'."
For a man who spent most of the last decade as the iconic head of a fictional New Jersey mafia family, the role of a singing laborer is a major change for Gandolfini. But he said it's not one he made with the intention of reinventing himself.
"No, I don't do that," he said. "Life is difficult enough, and I come from a blue-collar place. I don't like movies that are too wallowing or too serious. There's too much [stuff] going on in my life. When I read this thing, basically I was laughing my [butt] off."
It was humorous and, because it was new territory, somewhat frightening.
"When I get scared, I get pissed," he said. "I was scared to death of this thing, and I got angry and I said I've got to do this."
His concerns were assuaged when it became clear how important the film was to Turturro.
"On a lot of other movies, you can see directors even getting cynical while you're doing the damn movie, in the middle of it," Gandolfini said. "You never saw that for a second. That's what I enjoyed."
UPDATE 11/11/07
Sopranos' Pork Store No More
KEARNY, NJ—Eight months ago, James Gandolfini drove his white SUV out of the parking lot of Satriale's for the last time, as HBO wrapped up the final season of The Sopranos. Now, the building has followed the same fate as the popular show. It's gone.
Last month, owner Manny Costeira demolished the structure, home to a fictional pork store where TV mobster Tony Soprano and his Jersey crew hung out on the acclaimed mob drama. On TV, a life-sized pig sat atop the building.
"We whacked the pork store," said Costeira, who leased the empty building to HBO.
Nine condo units will replace former storefront. The project is called The Soprano, and prices range from $325,000 to $385,000. Construction is expected to start in the spring and would be finished in about a year.
Costeira said he can't sign any contracts because he hasn't received permits; he said he has commitments for at least three units and a waiting list for the rest.
The show, now popular in reruns, was mostly filmed at a New York City sound stage, but many scenes were shot across the Garden State to provide a real Jersey feel. Several sites, including the fake pork store, were shot in Kearny, a working-class town across the Passaic River from Newark and about nine miles west of Manhattan.
Now that Satriale's has been demolished, Costeira has been using the Internet to hawk chunks of cast stone from the facade. He said he's already sold about 1,000 pieces in two sizes, for $25 and $50, to fans as far away as Ireland and New Zealand.
The 2-inch-square smaller chunks are mounted on a black wooden block with an "authentic porkstore" name plate. A "certificate" that accompanies the larger chunks, about a 5-inch-square, promising it came from the building that once stood as "the familiar location of the fictional Satriale's pork store featured on the hit HBO television series The Sopranos."
"It's quite a little gag gift," Costeira said. "For a real Sopranos fan, it's a real piece of the show. It's a piece of television history."
And the demolished building represents one less piece of television history seen on a popular bus tour of Sopranos sites in north New Jersey.
"The loss of Satriale's of course disappoints a few of our guests, but we always make the effort to keep the route evolving to include additional locations and enrich the experience however we can," said tour guide Marc Baron.
Instead of the fake pork store, which was always shuttered, the tour now includes a trip to the Holsten's, a real-life Bloomfield ice cream parlor where the series' final scene was filmed.
"They now sample onion rings at Holsten's, and sit in the booth that Tony sat in," Baron said.
UPDATE 11/10/07
Romance and Cigarettes Draws Big Stars
The new movie musical Romance and Cigarettes stars some of the most exciting names in screen and TV acting. James Gandolfini of The Sopranos, Kate Winslet, a multiple Oscar nominee, and Oscar-winner Susan Sarandon, who lives in Bedford, star alongside the great character actor John Turturro, who wrote and directed the movie.
It's about a man torn between his wife (Sarandon) and his paramour (Winslet). The former Tony Soprano sings his way through the love triangle in this lyrical and idiosyncratic new film.
UPDATE 10/27/07
Global Gaming Expo: James Gandolfini to Appear With Sopranos Slots
This year's Global Gaming Expo will have a little more badda bang than in past years with Sopranos star James Gandolfini to present the new Sopranos-themed slot machines. He'll also be appearing during the opening ceremonies.
Aristocrat Technologies is unveiling a Sopranos-themed slot machine during the November 13-15 trade show.
G2E as it is called attracts gaming industry employees, executives, corporate management, tribal leaders and buyers from all functional departments within a casino or gaming establishment. Plus, other professionals working within or trying to work within the gaming industry.
UPDATE 10/26/07
Sopranos: Season Six, Part 2
For anyone who hoped The Sopranos creator David Chase might clear up the controversial ending to the series in a commentary on the finale, consider your hope crushed. Chase, who has done excellent commentaries on previous releases, doesn't do any on the final set. However, on the track for the penultimate episode, Steve Van Zandt and Arthur Nascarella quote Chase who, after the table read of the finale, said to the stunned actors: "I didn't want to show that crime paid and I didn't want to show that crime didn't pay." Make of that what you will.
There are four commentaries in all: Steven R. Schirripa (Bobby) marvels over the talent of his co-stars; Dominic Chianese (Corrato) waxes philosophical over the motivations of the actors and theme of the show, and Robert Iles (Anthony Jr.) talks about growing up on the show. There's also a 16-minute featurette devoted to the music, in which Chase talks about the importance of the songs. He says he could have used nothing but Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello and for the entire series still been okay.
There's also a short, funny Making of Cleaver documentary about Christopher's Mafia slasher flick.
All in all, it's a bit of a disappointment, which depending on what you thought of the finale, could be appropriate.
UPDATE 10/21/07
Sopranos Creator Closes Show with a Book
Star News Services
David Chase's The Sopranos: The Complete Book (Time Inc. Home Entertainment, $39) does give some clues after all about what the creator of the series had in mind for the family's future.
Of A.J., he writes he'll probably be a low-level movie producer. But he's not going to be a killer like his father, is he?
"Meadow may not become a pediatrician or even a lawyer, but she's not going to be a housewife-whore like her mother."
And Tony? Chase, whose book will be excerpted in the next Entertainment Weekly, writes that he wasn't surprised that people reacted the way they did to his choice of an ending. He simply faded to black.
"There was so much more to say than could have been conveyed by an image of Tony facedown in a bowl of onion rings with a bullet in his head. Or, on the other side, taking over the New York mob," he says.
"The way I see it is that Tony Soprano had been people's alter ego. They had gleefully watched him rob, kill, pillage, lie and cheat. They had cheered him on.
"And then, all of a sudden, they want to see him punished for all that.
"The pathetic thing—to me—was how much they wanted his blood, after cheering him on for eight years."
The book's official publishing date is Oct. 30. The DVD of the final season of The Sopranos will be released Tuesday.
UPDATE 10/19/07
Everybody's Afraid to Upset Mr. Soprano
Lake Manitoba Narrows residents are buzzing over the news that actor James Gandolfini has bought nearby land on the lake's western shore.
Some jokingly say they don't want word that their tongues are wagging to get out—in case the real-life version of Gandolfini resembles the mafia boss he played for six seasons on television.
"I think it'll just make it a little more exciting for everybody, that's all," said a manager of the Rona hardware store in Ashern, about 30 kilometres east of the Narrows.
"If you want any hits planned," she laughed, "now you know who to talk to. If you believe the shows, anyway."
Asked to give her name, she said Marlene, then giggled: "Don't quote me, though. No, don't quote me. It was just a comical suggestion."
She wasn't the only person to react with both excitement and nervousness (and requests for anonymity) to a Free Press report last week that Gandolfini, star of the acclaimed TV series The Sopranos, could take up residence in a new cottage development off Provincial Highway 68, about 200 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg.
"We've been talking about it, for sure," said the manager and co-owner of the Ashern Chicken Chef restaurant.
The woman said Gandolfini will enjoy exceptional fishing in the area near the Lake Manitoba Narrows, as well as sunsets that "rival anywhere in the world."
The actor's arrival would probably add to the flow of tourists into the area, she said, noting communities around the Narrows already saw a noticeable increase in business this past year.
The development in which Gandolfini has invested doesn't have any residences yet, she said.
Then came the moment to identify herself.
"Are you quoting me in the paper?" she asked. Told she would be quoted, she quickly replied: "Then I'm not going to give you my name."
Even Chad Olafson, the developer who told the Free Press about Gandolfini's property purchase, wanted to downplay the news.
Olafson said he was worried Gandolfini would be upset when he heard of the newspaper article and called the actor himself to mend fences. "He got a kick out of it and he got a kick out of my concern," Olafson said.
Olafson said he hadn't noticed an increase in calls from prospective buyers since the Gandolfini story broke.
About 40 properties remain for sale in the 330-lot development.
UPDATE 10/15/07
McCain Down on Soprano
Red-faced presidential candidate and Vietnam POW John McCain is nursing his wounds after James Gandolfini pulled out of appearing at a Oct. 30 fund-raiser for him. Gandolfini was listed as a "special guest" on the invitation for the New York Young Professionals for McCain event at Marquee. "At this time, Mr. Gandolfini is not committed to any one candidate," a spokeswoman for the Sopranos star said. Gandolfini insisted he wasn't whacking the candidate. "James respects Sen. McCain for his service and his commitment to our country. However, due to scheduling conflicts, he cannot attend the event," the rep said. The two recently dined to discuss HBO's documentary, Alive Day Memories, in which Gandolfini interviewed severely injured Iraq war veterans. McCain raved about the show. A Gandolfini endorsement would have been a coup for the Arizona senator on Republican rival Rudy Giuliani's turf.
UPDATE 10/8/07
WatchWi-FiTV.com Honors Kobold as First Internet-Based Watch Company as James Gandolfini Lets Kobold Keep Time
NEWPORT BEACH, CA—WatchWi-FiTV.com, the first global 24/7 Internet TV station devoted to watches, will honor Kobold, the first Internet-based watch company. Wi-Fi TV Inc. (PINKSHEETS: WTVI) announced today that its exclusive WatchWi-FiTV Station will feature a special tribute to Kobold when the station launches in November.
Kobold's Soarway Diver Seal, designed as a collaboration with actor James Gandolfini, Kobold's large Soarway Diver, a collaboration between Michael Kobold and famed diver Phillipe Cousteau, and the The Rattrapante Stirling Moss, designed in collaboration with all-time great race car driver Stirling Moss, have also been nominated for consideration in WatchWi-FiTV.com's Top 100 watches of 2007.
"Kobold Watch Company has a unique history. We are a competitor of other well-known brands such as Rolex, Breitling, IWC and Panerai. By guaranteeing to manufacture no more than 2,500 watches in a given year, we have created something of a cult following among out clients with many of them owning more than one of our timepieces," said Nicole Amato, V.P. Marketing, Kobold Watch Company.
"I think Kobold is No.1," actor James Gandolfini The Sopranos says in Kobold ads. Mr. Gandolfini is not a star that was initially pursued for an endorsement. He doesn't talk to journalists and doesn't do product endorsements. Rather, he is a fan of Kobold watches, supports Kobold for free and reportedly bought over a million dollars worth of Kobold watches for cast and crew of
The Sopranos (400 Soarway Divers in titanium and 40 Soarway Divers in gold) when the show wrapped production.
UPDATE 9/27/07
McCain Dines With Tony Soprano
Republican John McCain shared a meal Wednesday night with more than the typical political colleague. He dined with Tony Soprano.
In New York to give a speech on the military, the Arizona senator held a private dinner with James Gandolfini, the actor who played the New Jersey mob boss on Mob drama HBO's The Sopranos.
McCain said the two talked about a host of issues, including Gandolfini's HBO documentary about Iraq war veterans, Alive Day Memories.
Curious minds wanted to know: Any endorsements in the works? How about a pledge to help with fundraising? In The Sopranos, Tony had some unique hiding places for piles of cash.
McCain answered in the negative, then was asked where their relationship is heading.
"Next step? Maybe have some of my opponents' legs broken?" he said as he laughed through his words. "Ahhh, accidents happen..."
In other endorsements, GOP rival Rudy Giuliani has the backing of actor Robert Duvall, the consigliere in The Godfather movies.
UPDATE 9/25/07
Piecing Life Together
HBO's Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq, 60 min., HBO, 2007.
The documentary's quasi-cryptic title finds its source in what is known as a soldier's "alive day," the day that he or she narrowly escaped death. The product isn't simply an impression of life after Iraq for ten soldiers. Rather, it delves into the psyches of these physically and emotionally scarred soldiers, and what it finds is at times horrifying. The production as a whole is spartan: It makes use only of a black background, black furniture, bright white lights and little additional media interlaced with the actual interviews. It is, in most ways, the antithesis of a Ken Burns or Michael Moore documentary. There isn't any preaching; it's just simple statements from these men and women with a few small facts about the war interlaced with the dialogue. Narrator James Gandolfini wisely chooses to listen and ask very few questions. In that way,
Alive Day Memories deftly sidesteps the explosive political issues associated with the war and provides valuable insight into the healing process.
As the Iraq War drags on, the percentage of veterans returning home as amputees is at a historical high. They cheated death only to face a life of physical or mental impairment.
One feels compelled to ask, "How bleak is life after brain damage or amputation?" Pvt. Dexter Pitts's answer, "I don't want to live like this anymore," reels the viewer with its disconcerting frankness. He is clearly not considering suicide, but it is also obvious from his demeanor that his disabilities have made life burdensome and joyless. When Sgt. Bryan Anderson, who lost both his legs and his left arm, is asked about his alive day, he tells Gandolfini that if he had lost his other arm, then, "at that point, it wouldn't be worth it to be around." Anderson is optimistic in the crudest sense: at least he's still independent. There seems to be a precarious mental tipping point between preserving life and choosing death.
Another soldier, Sgt. Eddie Ryan, who has essentially lost two-thirds of his brain, provides additional insight into the mentality surrounding these questions. Two strikingly different images are provided of Sgt. Ryan. Ryan is shown dancing in a video clip, but the Iraq veteran sitting across from Gandolfini exhibits little of the exuberance he once had. Sure, he remembers the Marines' Hymn and wants to become a drill instructor, but it's hard to call him the same wholly able man.
And then there is a soldier—SSgt. Jay Wilkerson—who is clearly unnerved by all the different forms of therapy he must endure every week. His speech and mannerisms indicate that the trauma and its aftermath are exacting a harsh mental toll. There's a cry for help in his tone.
The documentary also sheds a bright light not only on the veterans' current predicament, but also on the path each faces for the future. Each of these soldiers is under an incredible amount of stress, and whether or not they can survive the pressure remains an open question. Cpl. Michael Jernigan is clearly in pain. He lost his sight, and then his wife left him. He had the diamonds ground out of his wedding band and put into one of his prosthetic eyes. Pvt. Pitts can't sleep without medication and has become a pariah within the military community because he suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome, an illness that is frowned upon and mocked by soldiers. But he also doesn't feel welcome in the civilian world, and so he's left with a general feeling of isolation. Each of these soldiers gives a viewer a peek into what goes through the mind of a person with a disability.
Although the road ahead looks bleak, many of these soldiers push on, thanks to an outlook that is equal parts optimism, resignation and stubbornness.
Perhaps the documentary's most poignant moment is when Lt. Dawn Halfaker, shaken up by the thought of being a bad mother, slowly pulls herself together and says, "I hope I'll still be a good parent. You know, what can you do?" Even Sgt. Anderson speaks in a positive—though not cheery—voice, he's "getting sensation back in three of his fingers," and he says that that gives him hope. It is the cumulative perspective offered by these soldiers that is vital to a viewer's understanding of what keeps these soldiers going.
There's something more, though. In the photos shown of hospitals, almost all of the patients are smiling. Two men, both with missing legs, have huge grins on their faces as if nothing bad had happened to them. It is an astonishing testament to human resiliency. Even tepidly hopeful Sgt. Anderson has a shirt that proudly says "Stumpy" in large, bold, black letters. These veterans' willingness to keep going, even in the gloomiest circumstances, is what makes this documentary riveting. Perseverance and acceptance seem to be the keys to moving forward, and the disabled veterans seem to have that quality in spades. "I'm just happy to be alive," several soldiers say in the documentary.
For all its bleakness, the documentary holds a startlingly optimistic message at its heart: Even when the body has been damaged beyond repair, we—slowly but assuredly—can heal.
UPDATE 9/24/07
'Home' Grown
HBO's Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq is alive with the real stories of severely wounded veterans.
"Alive Day" refers to the day they survived their injuries, one celebrated along with their birthdays. James Gandolfini (Tony Soprano, robbed of an Emmy!) interviews them, but what he really does is listen, including to one brain-damaged, 22-year-old Marine who breaks startlingly into song: "From the Halls of Montezuma to the Shores of Tripoli..."
At the end, Gandolfini individually says goodbye to each of the 10, sometimes with a handshake, sometimes with a hug. "Thank you," they say to him. He says back, "Thank you for talking to me."
UPDATE 9/21/07
Gandolfini Stops for Cigar at Emmys
James Gandolfini, star of The Sopranos, was one of several celebrities who stopped by the HBO Emmy Awards Luxury Lounge last week to receive the new
C.A.O. SopranosSM Edition Gift Pack of cigars.
C.A.O. International Inc., based in Nashville, Tennessee, was the cigar sponsor of the lounge, which was located at the Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills.
UPDATE 9/20/07
A Personal and Painful Look at Some of Those Disabled in Iraq
Even if our obdurate President, George W. Bush, refuses to face the facts, it's obvious that his war in Iraq is one of the most unpopular our nation ever has had to fight.
Not much has gone well with this odd war. Although Saddam Hussein was removed, the United States and its allies have lost more than 4,000 lives, and the count continues.
There is also a somewhat hidden side of the fight that most of us deeply regret. It's not simply the number of American lives that have been lost, but the number of men and women who have suffered severe disabilities, including loss of the full use of their arms, legs, eyes and minds. As politicians, pundits and presidential aspirants yammer endlessly about the war, more than 27,000 men and women have been victimized by bullets, bombs, explosives and other weapons. Lives, families and futures have been ruined.
This is made clear in a stunning 56-minute HBO documentary,
Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq, directed by the award-winning actor James Gandolfini. He vividly reveals the extent of the damage to Americans from this futile and melancholy war.
Gandolfini brings his cameras in close so that viewers cannot escape the crushing reality of the 10 men and women he interviews, all severely injured while serving their country. Each speaks candidly about his or her wounds and future. Perhaps most surprising is their lack of bitterness. While their lives have been changed forever, their love for America remains starkly intact.
Army Cpl. Jonathan Bartlett, 22, of Norfolk, Va., a bilateral amputee with many shrapnel wounds, speaks about his reality: "I try to move my limbs, to stretch some of this odd weariness out of me when the pain sears into my mind. The pain lights me up like a nuke on a foggy day. I then begin to yell and scream the most obscene and natural curses....After I calm down and my tears have cleared, I look about and actually see the source of my pain and my family's woe; I appear to be a mass of bandages from the waist down. I realize to my horror that my legs are mostly missing."
Dawn Halfaker is a native of San Diego. She was 27 and a first lieutenant in the Army. Her right arm and shoulder were amputated in an explosion. She suffered lung damage and multiple internal shrapnel injuries. She says: "My dark memories are inescapable; they are the fiber that shaped the threads of my new life, and I must accept them for what they are and persevere through them."
Jay Wilkerson, 41, an Army staff sergeant from El Sobrante, Calif., suffers long- and short-term memory loss. He has lost the use of eight fingers, and the left side of his body is damaged. His two children call him daily at the hospital. "They call to make sure I'm OK," he says, "and it's weird, because I'm the parent. But they call me to make sure I'm OK." Then he laughs.
Crystal Davis, 23, is a soldier from Camden, S.C., who lost her right leg below the knee and had every bone in her left leg broken. She plans to help rehabilitate other injured military personnel: "Who better to help those in need than someone who has been there themselves?"
Resilience is the key word. No one in this powerful documentary has given up. They all see a future and are working to make it the best it can be. They underscore for all of us what it means to love family, life and country, even under conditions they may not fully understand. In some ways, many of them are far more dedicated and powerful than many of the people in Washington who lead us.
UPDATE 9/16/07
Bada Bing, Bada Bam! Sopranos Battle Heroes for Primetime Emmys
Mob drama The Sopranos is battling it out with Heroes Sunday night at the Primetime Emmys, as both shows compete for the best drama award.
The Sopranos, whose final season ended in June, could be going out in a blaze of glory as it heads into the gala in Los Angeles with 15 nominations.
Actor James Gandolfini, shown in June, is up for a best actor in a drama trophy. His series, The Sopranos, has 15 nominations.
The HBO show, which captivated audiences for six seasons, is also running against Boston Legal, House and Grey's Anatomy.
Stars James Gandolfini and Edie Falco and three other cast members are all up for acting honors.
Gandolfini will have to beat off Hugh Laurie (House), Denis Leary (Rescue Me), James Spader (Boston Legal) and Canadian actor Kiefer Sutherland (24).
Falco faces off against Mariska Hargitay (Law and Order: Special Victims Unit), Patricia Arquette (Medium), Sally Field (Brothers & Sisters) and Kyra Sedgwick (The Closer).
The 59th Annual Primetime Emmys airs at 8:00 PM ET Sunday.
UPDATE 9/15/07
Soprano Factor: Emmys Mobbed Up Whoever Wins
HOLLYWOOD, CA—Will Tony Soprano get cut by Gray's Anatomy, out-litigated by Boston Legal, disintegrated by Heroes or operated on by Dr. House? Whatever happens, it is likely the 2007 edition of the primetime Emmys will be defined by what happens to the Soprano family whether the mob saga wins or loses.
To harvest a second best drama Emmy after six previous nominations (every year it was eligible), the trailblazing HBO drama must break what some call "a curse"—no drama series has ever won the top Emmy prize for drama for its final season.
If The Sopranos wins, it will also be only the second time a cable series has triumphed as best drama. The first time was when The Sopranos won for the first time in 2004. The gang from New Jersey lost in 2006 to 24, which isn't even nominated this year, although Gandolfini does face off again against last year's winner, Kiefer Sutherland.
Going in, The Sopranos has more nominations than any other show, with 15. The show has previously won 18 Emmys and scored 111 total nominations. That puts it only nine behind ER, which brought its total up to 120 nominations this year, which put it ahead of second place holder Cheers, which had 117 nominations in its time.
The Sopranos is the darling of critics, and was ranked fifth by TV Guide in a list of the greatest shows of all time. And it is coming off the huge hype of its controversial and unorthodox blackout style ending. Win or lose, the show will be honored. The Emmy producers have scheduled a rare end of the run tribute to the show by the cast of the Broadway musical Jersey Boys.
UPDATE 9/14/07
Sopranos' Tipped for Gold at Emmys Swan Song
LOS ANGELES, CA—US mob drama, The Sopranos, was expected to whack the competition at the 59th annual Emmy awards on Sunday, when television's equivalent of the Oscars are held in Los Angeles.
The HBO series, which ended in June after an eight-year run, was tipped for the top drama series prize, while James Gandolfini was expected to take home the outstanding lead actor award for his portrayal of mob boss Tony Soprano.
Despite losing out on the outstanding drama award five times in the past—winning only once before, in 2004—the show was still favorite to take home the most sought-after winged statuette of the evening.
"It still may be the front-runner because it's the greatest TV show ever—and if any series can break the curse, The Sopranos can," said Tom O'Neil from industry insider Web site The Envelope.
Edie Falco, nominated as best lead actress in a drama for her role as Tony's long-suffering wife Carmela, faced some tough competition, lined up notably against two-time Oscar winner Sally Field from the series Brothers & Sisters.
The Sopranos has been richly rewarded at the Emmys in the past, with Gandolfini and Falco each holding three awards under their belts, but the show only picked up one statuette last year, in the best drama writing category.
UPDATE 9/12/07
James Gandolfini on Alive Day Memories
HBO's documentary, Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq lets veterans of the war take center stage. James Gandolfini interviews soldiers who returned from the war with lost limbs and other injuries. The actor wanted to give the veterans the spotlight in press for the documentary, but his role was significant.
Gandolfini Gives Troops Home from Iraq Center Stage
"I went to Iraq because I was playing this tough guy on TV and I guess I wanted to go meet a few real ones or something like that," said Gandolfini. "I was angry about the lack of attention that was being paid. I wanted to do something. There are plenty of people that have gone to Iraq. There are a lot of entertainers and various people that go. I thought if I could just go there, I asked them, 'Is this really something that the soldiers do want? I don't want to go for myself.' They said, 'Yeah, it takes their minds off of certain things. It breaks the monotony.' I thought it was the last I could do."
The series of 20-30 minute conversations with soldiers was simple, getting to the heart of the issue without huge production value. "I think one of the benefits was us not going to Walter Reed, was the fact that we didn't have a lot of time. It wasn't over-produced. I just read their stories and I sat down and asked them questions basically. Jon and Matt, the directors, helped me, guided sometimes. This isn't something I do for a living. I just asked their questions and these are all, as you can see, intelligent people who wanted to talk, who wanted to tell their story."
It was not invasive journalism either. "We didn't put anyone in a place to drag things out that they weren't ready to speak about. It was just a discussion. It's kind of like this. It was just to try to find out what was going on and get it out there a little bit because I don't think you see this a lot and that infuriates me."
The stories were such that even a tough guy got emotional. "There were a few times that it was very disturbing. It still is. How could you not. There are stories that make you angry. Of course I felt a lot of things. I'm not a trained interviewer. I'm not Barbara Walters. I don't know, maybe she cries. Of course I did, yes."
UPDATE 9/11/07
Gallopin' Gandolfini! As Sopranos Star Storms Past Press, Colleagues Praise His Performance in Coens' New Comedy
UPDATE 9/10/07
When the War Comes Home
A few months ago, an actor named James Gandolfini ended his career as a mythologized crime boss on a television series called The Sopranos, which had drawn considerable attention for nearly a decade. Why all the fuss? Well, in the teensiest nutshell, The Sopranos served as a kind of mirror of the national consciousness, and Mr. Gandolfini, in the role of Tony Soprano, as a symbol of contorted morality and middle-class aspiration. He bore such a huge share of the cultural trust that when The Sopranos finished, he must have felt like a statesman who leaves office still bound to furthering the public good.
Mr. Gandolfini's reappearance on television comes in the form of
Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq, a documentary about gravely injured war veterans to be shown tomorrow night on HBO. Mr. Gandolfini functions here both as executive producer—through his company, Attaboy Films—and host, though "host" seems too colloquial a term to describe a role that he approaches with a Calvinist dignity and reserve.
A prisoner of his imposing corporeality, he is aware of his project's potential for perverse visual imbalance. Over the course of the documentary, Mr. Gandolfini shares the bare frame with 10 men and women, many of them amputees, leaving him to compensate not merely for his celebrity but also for the tactile gift of all that size and flesh.
Shot almost entirely in hunched-over profile, he recedes from the camera and speaks with an apposite economy, rarely asking questions that last more than a fraction of a second. (Imagine Anderson Cooper doing that.) Introducing himself to one of the wounded, Jonathan Bartlett, a corporal who lost both legs when his truck was felled by a bomb near Falluja, Mr. Gandolfini repudiates presumption.
"My name's Jim," he says, as if, perhaps, he were his own assistant.
The stories to which Mr. Gandolfini gives uninterrupted voice display no uniformity of emotional response, leaving each all the more affecting. Michael Jernigan, a 28-year-old corporal who lost both eyes, tells of replacing one with a prosthetic that had embedded into it the diamonds from his wedding band. His marriage, like his vision, failed to survive his tour in Iraq, and he seemed to require a permanent sign of his collateral losses, perhaps to indicate to the world that he weighed neither sadness more heavily than the other.
Alive Day dares to show that war affects the psychology of its combatants in ways that are not either purely ruinous or emboldening but are, on a base level, genuinely interesting. The film permits a voyeurism that never feels exploitive.
And, on another level, it conveys that the results of war are often not as harrowing as the circumstances that lead young people in this country to it. When Mr. Gandolfini asks 23-year-old Crystal Davis why she joined the Army, she answers that the military was her only avenue for staying out of trouble. "This town will suck you up," she says of Camden, S.C., where she grew up, "and keep you."
If the film is without a maudlin moment, it is a credit not only to the subjects and to the process by which their accounts have been edited, but also to Mr. Gandolfini's refusal to attempt a sort of empathy that is inconceivable in this context.
"I found this leg," Ms. Davis begins, recounting the circumstances of her attack and gesturing to the space her limb once occupied. "It was underneath the seat."
UPDATE 9/9/07
James Gandolfini's Interviews with Soldiers Home from Iraq Make for a Poignant HBO Special
When James Gandolfini and HBO set out to make a program shining the spotlight on wounded soldiers back from Iraq, the plan was to visit the veterans at Walter Reed Army Medical Center—until Pentagon officials refused permission at the last minute.
Scrambling for another option, executive producers Gandolfini and HBO's Sheila Nevins commandeered stage space at an off-Broadway theater, set up cameras and chairs and brought the veterans to them.
Importing the soldiers to neutral ground, and having quiet conversations in a stark, sparse place, turns out to have been a stroke of good fortune.
Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq premieres at 9:30 PM Sunday night, capping the network's powerhouse night of Tell Me You Love Me and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
On this particular evening, HBO has saved the very best for last.
The program includes home and in-country movies of the soldiers before they were wounded, and even, on occasion, some horrific images of the explosions themselves, set off and filmed by insurgents.
Most of Alive Day, though, homes in on 10 soldiers—all of whom came close to dying in Iraq and carry the physical and emotional scars of combat.
They talk of their Alive Day, "the day they narrowly escaped death," and of their injuries, their dreams, their determination and their regrets. Gandolfini is the conduit, asking brief questions, but he keeps himself out of frame most of the time until bidding each veteran goodbye. And while Gandolfini seeks neither attention nor praise for himself regarding Alive Day Memories, he absolutely deserves some in this regard: For a guy who dislikes being interviewed, he sure is a gifted natural interviewer.
When one veteran falls silent for several seconds, he asks her matter-of-factly, "What were you just thinking about?" She tells him, and it's one of the most poignant moments in the hour, prompted by Gandolfini's curiosity.
But it's the answer, not the question, that is so stirring. And for that, you must tune in. Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq is too compelling, and too important, to miss.
UPDATE 9/8/07
Gandolfini's 'Alive' Honors War Wounded
Just days before HBO film crews were to descend on Walter Reed Army Medical Center to record the plight of the Iraq war's wounded soldiers, the Pentagon nixed the plan—fearful of publicity about to surface over lax outpatient care.
HBO's longtime documentary chief, Sheila Nevins, had lined up Sopranos star James Gandolfini and 24-7 access on the heels of 2005's Emmy-winning Baghdad ER. A dozen filmmakers were stationed throughout the hospital.
Nevins and Gandolfini were forced to Plan B. The result: Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq (Sunday, 10:30 ET/PT), a stark, intimate look at the physical and emotional toll for many of the military's more than 25,000 war wounded.
Alive Day—the phrase is an homage to the date the wounded survive death—was set on an off-Broadway theater stage, where Gandolfini interviewed 10 Army soldiers and Marines with injuries ranging from brain damage to triple amputations. Filmed by Baghdad ER co-directors Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill, Alive Day is interspersed with home videos, pre-injury tapes in Iraq and harrowing insurgent tapes of roadside bombings.
Army Sgt. Bryan Anderson, who lost most of two legs and his left hand to an explosion in October 2005, is seen earlier as a spunky high school gymnast. Now, Anderson tells Gandolfini, he's grateful he can still use a fork.
Gandolfini, whose Tony Soprano was TV's quintessential tough guy, says he was more disturbed by the emotional toll on the wounded than by their catastrophic injuries. At times, he was moved to tears.
"All of them in their own way get to you," says Gandolfini, who conducted the interviews while wrapping the Sopranos finale. "But I was proud at how dignified, strong and smart they came across."
The press-shy actor has repeatedly deflected the media spotlight from himself to war veterans, such as Marine Cpl. Jacob Schick, who has had 46 operations. "I'm trying very hard not to make this political or about me. It's about what they need and what they're going through," Gandolfini says.
Gandolfini hoped his fame would attract viewers as well as help Alive Day's wounded open up. "These guys watch The Sopranos. They feel that they know you. That helped talking to them," he says.
Retired Capt. Dawn Halfaker, a former high school and West Point basketball star whose right arm and shoulder were amputated after a rocket-propelled-grenade attack in June 2004, momentarily breaks down in the documentary as she tells Gandolfini her fears over potential motherhood and whether she'll be able to pick up her child—which she hadn't expressed in previous media interviews.
"I was able to reflect and open up about realities I don't want to face," says Halfaker, now head of a defense consultancy and a Georgetown University graduate student.
Gandolfini visited troops in Iraq on a USO tour in 2004. He brought unexpected sensitivity to the documentary, Nevins says. "When we first met him at Walter Reed and saw him going from room to room, he insisted on no cameras and anonymity," she says. "I knew there was a connection with the warriors. Celebrities tend to ruin documentaries. (For Alive Day), he was a good interviewer. He made them comfortable and at ease."
Alive Day is HBO's third Iraq war documentary, after Baghdad ER and Last Letters Home: Voices of American Troops From the Battlefields of Iraq. It won't be its last.
"More of these severely wounded are coming home," Nevins says. "It's sort of a sad sweetness. They survive. But what kind of future do you have at 21 when your legs have been blown off and your dreams are deflated?"
UPDATE 9/7/07
Former Local Marine in HBO Special
A former Shreveporter wounded in Iraq will be featured Sunday in an HBO special hosted and produced by Actor James Gandolfini.
Jacob "Jake" Schick, 24, was the most seriously wounded member of Bossier City-based Bravo Co, 1/23rd Marines, a Reserve unit that deployed in 2004 and returned to the area at the end of March 2005.
Schick, then a lance corporal, had his right leg blown off below the knee when he was wounded in an attack on Sept. 20, 2004. The bones in his left leg and foot were broken, and a large chuck of his left hand and arm were blown away.
"Although this is the hard, day-to-day reality of my personal situation, I would not hesitate to go back and fight for our great nation tomorrow," Schick says in his page on the HBO Web site. "I say this because every Marine and soldier I know would do the same for me, my family and you and yours. I look at myself as one of the 'Blessed ones' because although coming home almost completely broken, I came home. I am alive. I won."
Though the Web site gives Schick's home town as Gretna, that's just where he lives now. He grew up in both Shreveport and the Dallas, Texas, area.
Soon he will move back to Dallas so his wife, Laura, a surgeon, can further her education at Baylor University, says Schick's mom, former Shreveport theater figure Debby Schick.
Debby Schick, who traveled to New York to be videotaped for the special along with her son, said Gandolfini, best known perhaps for his work as Tony Soprano on "The Sopranos," has done a great job with the special, even though her part in it was edited out. The special looks at the effects the War on Terror has had on the lives of 10 wounded military personnel.
"Jimmy has really taken the politics out of it," she said in call to The Times today. "He was tremendous. He was wonderful."
Jacob Schick has become more active in veterans rights matters, serving on the board of the non-profit American War Heroes Foundation. His mom, who lives in Flower Mound, Texas, says she plans to become more active with him in these matters, particularly in efforts to address issues with the level of medical care provided by the Department of Veterans Affairs.
"We're starting a political action committee to reform the VA system," she said.
UPDATE 9/6/07
Gandolfini's Iraq Documentary Blunt, Honest, Vital
It's easy to think of a long list of things that James Gandolfini could do with his star power.
After playing Tony Soprano for eight years in HBO's The Sopranos, he could have easily lined up projects and endorsements that would only increase his personal fame and fortune.
Instead, for his first post-Sopranos project, he's made Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq (9:30 PM Sunday, HBO), a documentary in which he interviews 10 injured Iraq veterans.
If there's one problem with this moving, necessary film, it's this: It could easily have been twice as long.
Alive Day Memories could have been an eat-your-vegetables, plodding documentary, but the veterans Gandolfini interviews are far too feisty and interesting for that. As this deftly edited film progresses, you barely feel as though you've met one of 10 veterans before it has moved on to the next, and the stories they tell about themselves, their service and their lives since they almost died in Iraq are fascinating. They're honest and blunt and even funny at times.
Forget those calls for a Sopranos movie: I'd rather see an Alive Day Memories sequel.
The veterans explain what the term "alive day" means: It's the day that a member of the armed forces cheated death. A screen that notes his or her name, rank, unit and age, and also his or her Òalive dayÓ introduce each soldier or marine.
The soldiers and Marines do most of the talking; Gandolfini himself is mostly off-camera. The actor is notoriously press-shy, but he proves himself to be an adept interviewer here: He knows when to pause and say nothing, and his questions are gentle but to the point.
The veterans don't actually need much prodding to tell their stories. One soldier matter-of-factly talks about where she found her legs after an explosion blew up her vehicle; a marine's mother explains that two-thirds of her son's brain was affected by the two bullets that ripped through it.
"I think people come away from the war wanting to feel that they made a difference, wanting to feel like their sacrifice or their time or their energy was worth it," says 1st Lt. Dawn Halfaker, who lost an arm. "War is horrible. I don't like the sounds associated with it, the smells I associate with it. But I'm glad I did it."
Aside from the interviews, we see glimpses of the veterans as they try to resume their prewar lives (one former soldier's goal is to line-dance again). And there are clips of the veterans before their injuries, including video footage of Rolling Meadows native Sgt. Bryan Anderson competing in a local gymnastics event several years ago (there's also preinjury footage of him in an Army boxing match in Iraq).
In several cases, we see the soldiers interviewed for this documentary receive their injuries, via videos made by Iraqi insurgents. It's disturbing footage, but the film doesn't shy away from looking squarely at what these veterans have been through. Nor does it editorialize about the war, but it does point out that 90 percent of those hurt in Iraq survive their injuries (a higher percentage than in any other conflict), and that the number of injured during the past five years stood at more than 25,000 as of June.
For the most part, the tone of Alive Day Memories is matter-of-fact; the soldiers and Marines are eloquent in their descriptions of what it's like to lose limbs, eyesight, chunks of flesh. One vet had the diamonds from his wedding band put into one of his prosthetic eyes—that was the use he found for them after his wife divorced him.
Despite the film's low-key tone, Alive Day Memories is something that will stick with you for a while. If you are not choked up by the scene near the end of the film of a memorial service for injured veterans, you're unlikely to be unmoved by a scene of a Marine, who lost both legs in Iraq, taking his two small children ice-skating.
As he takes to the ice, Staff Sgt. John Jones is a little unsteady, but he does surprisingly well. His small son looks up at him and says, "Daddy, I'm so proud of you."
UPDATE 9/4/07
ODU Student Featured in HBO's Home from Iraq
UPDATE 8/30/07
Gandolfini Visits Convict
"The Sopranos" star James Gandolfini went behind state prison walls to mark the 36th birthday of a Suffolk man whose sensational murder case has gained national attention itself.
Gandolfini drove hundreds of miles to the Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock yesterday to visit Martin Tankleff, the Belle Terre man convicted of the September 7, 1988, killings of his parents, Arlene and Seymour Tankleff, on the day he was to start his senior year of high school.
A spokeswoman for HBO confirmed Gandolfini met with Tankleff, who is serving a 50-years-to-life sentence.
Tankleff and his supporters say an overzealous detective who tricked him into saying he had committed the murders coerced him into confessing to the murders.
Tankleff's supporters said Gandolfini learned of the case through Great Neck-based private investigator Jay Salpeter, a former New York Police Department homicide detective, who gathered witnesses and evidence for Tankleff's evidentiary hearing. The case is now pending before the state appellate division.
UPDATE 8/26/07
One Veteran's Story
A Q&A with Jonathan Bartlett, one of the injured soldiers featured in Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq, an HBO documentary that debuts next month.
UPDATE 8/25/07
Source: The New York Times
War's Chilling Reality
Bryan Anderson, a 25-year-old Army sergeant who was wounded in Iraq, was explaining, on camera—to James Gandolfini, of all people—what happened immediately after a roadside bomb blew up the Humvee that he was driving.
“I was like, 'Oh, we got hit. We got hit.' And then I had blood on my face and the flies were landing all over my face. So I wiped my face to get rid of the flies. And that is when I noticed that my fingertip was gone. So I was like, 'Oh. O.K.'
“So that is when I started really assessing myself. I was like, 'That's not bad.' And then I turned my hand over, and I noticed that this chunk of my hand was gone. So I was like, 'O.K., still not bad. I can live with that.'
“And then when I went to wipe the flies on my face with my left hand, there was nothing there. So I was like, 'Uh, that's gone.' And then I looked down and I saw that my legs were gone. And then they had kind of forced my head back down to the ground, hoping that I wouldn't see.”
HBO's contribution to an expanded awareness of the awful realities of war continues with a new documentary, Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq.
Mr. Gandolfini, one of the executive producers of the film, steps out of his Tony Soprano persona to quietly, even gently, interview 10 soldiers and marines who barely escaped death in combat.
The interviews are powerful, and often chilling. They offer a portrait of combat and its aftermath that bears no relation to the sanitized, often upbeat version of war—not just in Iraq, but in general—that so often comes from politicians and the news media.
Dawn Halfaker, a 28-year-old former Army Captain, is among those featured in the documentary. She lost her right arm and shoulder in Iraq, along with any illusions she might have had about the glory of war.
“I think I was a little bit naïve to what combat was really like,” she told me in an interview on Sunday. “When you're training, you don't really imagine that you could be holding a dying boy in your arms. You don't think about what death is like close up.
“There's nothing heroic about war. It's very tragic. It's very sad. It takes a huge emotional toll.”
Still, she said, there was much about her experience in Iraq that she was grateful for.
“Nobody in the film is asking for pity or sympathy,” she said. “We're just saying we had this experience and it changed our lives, and we're coping with it.”
The term “alive day” is being used by G.I.'s to refer to the day that they came frighteningly close to dying from war wounds, but somehow managed to survive. There are legions of them.
Miraculous advances in emergency medicine, communication and transportation are enabling 90 percent of the G.I.'s wounded in Iraq to survive their wounds, although many are facing a lifetime of suffering.
It's become a cliché to talk about the courage of the soldiers and marines struggling to overcome their horrendous injuries, but it's a cliché embedded in the truth. Sergeant Anderson, a chatty onetime athlete, is doing his best to put together a reasonably satisfactory life without his legs or his left hand, and with a damaged right hand.
He told Mr. Gandolfini, “If I didn't have my hand, if I lost both my hands, I'd really think, you know, it wouldn't be worth it to be around.”
Last year HBO produced a harrowing documentary called Baghdad E.R. that showed the relentless effort of doctors, nurses and other medical personnel to save as many lives as possible from what amounted to a nonstop conveyor belt of G.I.'s wounded in combat. At the time, Shelia Nevins, the head of documentary programming at the network, said, “We tried to put a human face on the war.”
They've done it again with Alive Day Memories, which is scheduled to premiere September 9, 2007.
There are no politics in either production. They are neither pro- nor anti-war.
But the intense focus on the humanity of the men and women caught up in the chaos of Iraq, and the incredible sacrifices some of them have had to make, is an implicit argument in favor of a more thoughtful, cautious, less hubristic approach to matters of war and peace.
UPDATE 8/23/07
JAMES GANDOLFINI RETURNS TO HBO WHEN THE
Three-time Emmy® Winner James Gandolfini returns to HBO with the documentary special ALIVE DAY MEMORIES: HOME FROM IRAQ, his first project after The Sopranos—and the first production for his Attaboy Films. Debuting Sunday, September 9, 2007 (10:30-11:30 PM ET/PT), the documentary about wounded soldiers surveys the physical and emotional cost of war through memories of their “alive day,” the day they narrowly escaped death in Iraq.
Other HBO playdates: September 13 (9:00 PM., 3:00 AM), 16 (4:10 AM) and 19 (12:30 AM), and Oct. 8 (11:30 PM).
HBO2 playdates: September 12, 2007 (4:55 AM), 15 (4:30 PM), 20 (8:00 PM) 25 (11:00 PM), 28 (1:00 PM) and 30 (9:00 AM).
ALIVE DAY MEMORIES: HOME FROM IRAQ is a multi-platform event. The documentary will be available on HBO On Demand from September 10 through Ocotber 8, and will be streamed on hbo.com beginning Sept. 10.
“Everybody makes a big deal about your 'alive day,' especially at Walter Reed,” comments Sgt. Bryan Anderson. “And I can see their point, that you'd want to celebrate something like that. But from my point of view, it's like, 'OK, we're sitting here celebrating the worst day of my life. Great, let's just remind me of that every year'.”
First Lt. Dawn Halfaker says, “I think people come away from the war wanting to feel that they made a difference, wanting to feel like their sacrifice, or their time, or their energy was worth it. War is horrible. I don't like the sounds associated with it, the smells I associate with it. But I'm glad I did it.”
In a war that has left more than 27,000 wounded, ALIVE DAY MEMORIES looks at a new generation of veterans. For the first time in American history, 90% of the wounded survive their injuries, but a greater percentage of these men and women are returning with amputations, traumatic brain injuries and severe post-traumatic stress. More than half these injuries are too severe to permit a return to active military service.
Gandolfini, who has visited the troops in Iraq on behalf of the USO, serves as executive producer. In ALIVE DAY MEMORIES he interviews ten soldiers who reveal their feelings on their future, their severe disabilities and their devotion to America. Their first-person stories are augmented by harrowing footage from the war-torn streets of Iraq, and from embedded cameras in the vehicles of the soldiers, which was shot when they were injured, as well as disturbing video of IED (Improvised Explosive Device) bombings released by insurgents, and soldiers' personal home videos and photographs.
The soldiers who speak with Gandolfini on a sparse New York soundstage range in age from 21 to 41; six are from the Army and four are Marines. Their injuries range from triple amputees to severe traumatic brain injury to blindness.
“The fight doesn't stop when you get home. In our cases, it's just begun,” says Corporal Jake Schick.
Interviewees include:
Sgt. Bryan Anderson, 25, U.S. Army, 411th Military Police Co. Alive Day: Oct. 23, 2005.
Sgt. Eddie Ryan, 22, Marine Sniper Team-Reaper 6. Alive Day: April 13, 2005.
Spc. Crystal Davis, 23, U.S. Army, 54th Engineers, Bravo Co. Alive Day: Jan. 21, 2006.
First Lt. Dawn Halfaker, 27, U.S. Army, 293rd Military Police. Alive Day: June 19, 2004.
Pvt. Dexter Pitts, 22, U.S. Army, 10th Mountain, Alpha Co. Alive Day: January 2, 2005.
Cpl. Michael Jernigan, 28, U.S. Marine Corps, Weapons Platoon, Easy Co. Alive Day: August 22, 2004.
Cpl. Jonathan Bartlett, 21, U.S. Army, Infantry Regiment Air Assault, Delta Company. Alive Day: September 25, 2004.
Staff Sgt. Jay Wilkerson, 41, U.S. Army, Multinational Security Command. Alive Day: March 28, 2006.
Cpl. Jacob Schick, 24, U.S. Marine Corps, 1/23rd Marines, Bravo Co. Alive Day: September 20, 2004.
Staff Sgt. John Jones, 29, U.S. Marine Corps, 1/7th Marines, Charlie Company. Alive Day: January 3, 2005.
In addition to streaming the entire film, hbo.com will feature extensive soldier profiles, including personal videos and blogs, as well as exclusive portraits by photographer Timothy Greenfield-Sanders. HBO Video releases the film on DVD October 23, 2007.
ALIVE DAY MEMORIES: HOME FROM IRAQ marks HBO Documentary Films' third production focusing on the war in Iraq, following the Emmy® and Peabody Winner Baghdad ER and Last Letters Home: Voices of American Troops from the Battlefields of Iraq.
For Attaboy Films: Executive Producer, James Gandolfini; Co-Executive Producer, Alexandra Ryan; Associate Producer, Trixie Flynn. For HBO Documentary Films: Executive Producer, Sheila Nevins; Supervising Producer, Sara Bernstein; Directed by Jon Alpert and Ellen Goosenberg; Produced by Ellen Goosenberg; produced and photographed by Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill (whose previous credits include Baghdad ER); Edited by Paula Heredia.
UPDATE 8/21/07
Legacy of The Sopranos
It was the cast reading of the swansong script for The Sopranos and Edie Falco felt the pain.
Falco, who plays Carmella Soprano in the landmark mob drama, couldn't contain her emotions when contemplating the imminent break-up of her "family", the show's cast and crew.
"I cried and cried," the three-time Emmy winner says.
"I can be pretty stoic, but I couldn't hold it together. It was intense. I was overcome. I couldn't stop. It was embarrassing."
All actors say their castmates feel like family—Sarah Jessica Parker (Sex and the City) and Jennifer Aniston (Friends) come to mind—but Falco says it's the real deal with star James Gandolfini and others on The Sopranos.
"Working with these people all these years, they have become family in the truest sense of the word. I nauseate myself. They're as much family as any I've ever known."
No surprise, then, that Big Jim leaned over and gave his TV wife a peck during her crying jag. His eyes were dry, but one other wiseguy was weeping. She won't name names "to protect the innocent."
Nobody is innocent on The Sopranos. That's why the blogosphere was ablaze with theories about which member of Tony's immediate family, if any, would get whacked this season.
The entertainment analysts at
BetUS.com say boss Tony's odds were 2-1, with Carmella at 3-1. Their kids, Jamie-Lynn Sigler's Meadow and Robert Iler's A.J., were at 5-1 and 6-1 respectively.
If it will be all over for the long-suffering Carmella, Falco would never say it.
Under Sopranos mastermind David Chase, all plotlines go into Witness Protection. Actors are sworn to silence. When your family members are serious Sopranos fans, that's not easy.
"My family really tries. They're funny and adorable," Falco, 43, a Brooklyn native, says.
"My mother tries to couch questions in different ways. I say, 'Mum, stop. I'm on to you'."
Launched in 1999, The Sopranos has won a host of TV awards. In 2004, it became the first—and remains the only—cable series to score an Emmy for best drama.
Falco was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2004, the same year she adopted a baby boy she named Anderson, after her mother, actor Judith Anderson.
Her health is now good, she says.
"I'm totally fine," Falco says. "It's a big club I'm a member of. I talked to another person with cancer who said, 'Man, a year later, you're bitching about the same stuff'. He was right."
So what is the legacy of The Sopranos? "People are complicated. When you think you know them, you don't," Falco says.
Or, as Gandolfini has said: "Fat men have sex, too."
UPDATE 8/19/07
Bada Bing! Sopranos' Club Relics Up For Bids
LODI, NJ—With some relics from "The Sopranos" up for grabs, the club that doubled as Bada Bing in the hit show is hoping cash registers will ring.
Now that the HBO mafia drama is over, the owners of the real-life club, Satin Dolls, said that they will auction off the 12-foot stripper poles and other relics on eBay later this week.
Also up for sale are 10 bar stools that James Gandolfini and his crew sat on in the show.
Not surprisingly, Satin Dolls is a popular New Jersey tour bus stop. It already sells "Sopranos" souvenirs, including T-shirts, hats and coffee mugs.
The Sopranos ended its eight-year run in June with an open-ended black screen conclusion, leading viewers to contemplate the uncertain fate of Tony Soprano (Gandolfini).
The show recently grabbed 15 Primetime Emmy nominations to lead the pack of television series nominees. Five of the show's cast members were nominated, including Gandolfini, Edie Falco and Michael Imperioli.
UPDATE 8/13/07
Gandolfini Returns to HBO for "Camp"
Sopranos star James Gandolfini will return to HBO when he plays Sonny Vaccaro, who signed Michael Jordan to the first million-dollar shoe deal at Nike.
Gandolfini will star in "ABCD Camp," which he'll exec produce through his Attaboy Films banner with partner Alexandra Ryan. Attaboy has an exclusive producing deal at HBO.
Dan Halsted also will be exec producing with Baron Davis, the star guard for the Golden State Warriors who formed the production company Verso Entertainment with Cash Warren.
"Friday Night Lights" screenwriter David Aaron Cohen pitched and will write a drama chronicling the last youth basketball camp established by the corporate sports scout Vaccaro.
Vaccaro is credited with launching the careers of dozens of NBA stars, including LeBron James and Tracy McGrady. He made a fortune brokering deals with college coaches to outfit teams in brand-name shoes, and then signing multimillion-dollar shoe-endorsement deals with Jordan, Kobe Bryant and others. Vaccaro worked first for Nike, then Adidas and Reebok.
Vaccaro was a thorn in the side of the NCAA. The governing body of college athletics tried to crack down on Vaccaro in its role of restricting compensation of amateur athletes. Cohen begins writing "ABCD Camp" after completing HBO Films' "Dare to Dream," a drama based on the HBO documentary about the rise of the U.S. women's soccer team that defeated China in the 1999 World Cup. Team Todd and Ross Greenburg will produce that film, which is on a fast track at HBO/Picturehouse.
Attaboy's first project, the documentary "Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq," premieres September 9, 2007.
UPDATE 8/10/07
Owner Selling Bricks from "Sopranos" Hangout
KEARNY, NJ—The meats and sandwiches are long gone, but fans of HBO's Sopranos can comfort themselves with some of the rocks that made up the facade of the fictional Satriale's Pork Store, one of Tony Soprano & Co.'s favorite hangouts.
The owner of the building is selling the white stones online before the structure is demolished next month. A condominium complex named The Soprano will be built on the site.
Building owner Manny Costeira said the 2,000 bricks will sell for $25 to $50 apiece, and will include a serial number and certificate of authentication.
Costeira told The Jersey Journal of Jersey City the "silly idea" popped into his head. But he also said he's received a few angry e-mails from people asking why he's demolishing Tony's joint.
UPDATE 8/5/07
Bada-Buy Sopranos Mob Car
How's this for a family car!
Tony Soprano's Chevy Suburban is up for grabs on eBay, with the bidding starting at $30,000.
The eBay listing boasts the maroon 4x4 is one of two vehicles leased by the producers of "The Sopranos" to be used as Tony's car.
"The interior still smells faintly of cigar smoke," the announcement claims.
James Gandolfini, who played Tony, added a safety warning when he autographed the driver's side visor: "Be nice to my car."
The car, which has 53,743 miles on it, sports a gray leather interior and a black front grille with two additional driving lights.
But the TV wise guy's wheels won't come cheap.
The seller, from Calabasas Hills, Calif., hopes to get between 30 and 50 large for the SUV—which comes with a letter of authenticity from Movie Time Cars, which provided the car to the show.
The iconic opening credits of every show in the HBO series featured a cigar-puffing Tony driving a Suburban on the highways of New Jersey to his home. The show aired its controversial final episode on June 10.
UPDATE 7/24/07
Gandolfini, Winslet, Walken to Star in New John Turturro Flick
Christopher Walken will boogie to the Tom Jones hit "Delilah" and Kate Winslet will bump and grind to a production number staging of Elvis Presley's "Trouble" in a new flick from John Turturro.
Musicals with a global accent have provided an unexpected energy source for the summer of '07 movie season, which has seen characters breaking into song in Dublin ("Once"), Paris ("La Vie en Rose") and Baltimore ("Hairspray").
Queens will soon join the global tunefest, as Turturro's third directorial effort makes a late-summer splash on September 7th. Inspired by the actor's childhood, "Romance & Cigarettes" is described by the Queens-born Turturro as a "down-and-dirty musical love story" which interpolates old hit songs into dramatic action. Some of the songs are mimed to old recordings, a la Dennis Potter ("The Singing Detective") and some of them are sung or croaked by the actors, a la Woody Allen's "Everyone Says I Love You."
In this instance, an eclectic cast that includes James Gandolfini, Winslet, Walken (who appeared in the film version of Potter's "Pennies from Heaven," and also co-stars in the new "Hairspray), Mandy Moore, Susan Sarandon, Eddie Izzard, Mandy Moore and Steve Buscemi sells an array of pop hits made famous by Jones, Engelbert Humperdinck, James Brown and Bruce Springsteen.
The numbers are used to express the internal life and sexual fantasies of a working class family, led by Gandolfini as a bridge maintenance worker with an English mistress (Winslet). Elaine Stritch, as Gandolfini's mother, has been recruited to provide some bona fide Broadway showmanship.
"Romance & Cigarettes" will have its New York premier at the Film Forum.
UPDATE 7/23/07
HBO Grabs 86 Emmy Nominations, the Sopranos Nabs 15
HBO's mafia drama The Sopranos, which ended its six-season run last month, received nominations that included Best Drama Series, James Gandolfini for Best Actor in a Drama and Edie Falco for Best Actress in a Drama.
The Sopranos stars Gandolfini as New Jersey crime boss Tony Soprano, who struggles to run the family business while coping with his turbulent home life. Falco co-stars as his wife, Carmela.
Academy voters, who ignored Gandolfini and Falco last year, were anxious to take the last opportunity to honor the pair for their work on the show, said Ed Martin, a TV analyst for the industry newsletter the Jack Myer Report.
In response to critics, the academy changed the method it uses for nominations to include a mix of votes from judges and the popular vote of its members.
UPDATE 7/21/07
Sopranos Lead Emmy Nominations
Recently ended mob drama The Sopranos garnered a total of 15 nominations for the 2007 Emmy television awards unveiled on Thursday, notably in the top three drama categories.
The long-running HBO drama, which wrapped up in June after eight years on the screen, earned nominations for outstanding drama and saw nods for James Gandolfini and Edie Falco as outstanding leading actor and actress in a drama.
The Sopranos, which has been richly rewarded at the Emmys in the past, including three awards each for Gandolfini and Falco and a best drama award in 2004 has now been nominated for a total of 111 awards and awarded 18.
Last year, however, it picked up only one gong—for best drama writing.
The 59th annual awards ceremony will be held in the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles on September 16, 2007.
UPDATE 7/14/07
Up Close and Way Too Personal with HBO
James Gandolfini met with 10 Iraq War veterans, all of whom suffered brutal physical and mental wounds from combat, and interviewed them for a documentary, "Alive Day Memories: Home from Iraq," airing on September 9, 2007.
HBO brought several of the interviewees on stage with Gandolfini, and they did most of the talking, just like in the film. One, Dawn Halfaker, was missing an arm. Two, Bryan Anderson and Jonathan Bartlett, were missing their legs. The other two, Dexter Pitts and Jay Wilkerson, carried PTSD—in Pitts' case, proudly. "A lot of people are afraid to stand up and say what happened," he said. "Some injuries go away, but memories are forever."
This bold and thought-provoking, 10-part drama series gives viewers an intimate look into the lives and bedrooms of these couples who are all in different stages of their relationships. Dave and Katie who are in their 40s, are outwardly happy, but have stopped having sex; 30-somethings Carolyn and Palek, want to have a baby, but the pressure to get pregnant is taking a toll on them; while Jamie and Hugo, in their 20s, are engaged, but trying to resolve issues with fidelity.
The presence of these walking wounded effectively short-circuited any attempts to ask Gandolfini what he thought of being cut off mid-scene at the end of The Sopranos. Only one critic timidly tried to ask about it, and Gandolfini immediately batted it down. "Let's have a different question," he said.
Afterward, a writer for The New York Daily News did get him to admit that he thought "it was a great ending." Well, stop the presses.
UPDATE 7/11/07
The Sopranos mysterious finale even caught HBO's Co-President by surprise
Turns out we weren't the only ones taken aback by the unorthodox finale of "The Sopranos." HBO Co-President Richard Plepler told writers at the TV Critics Association Press Tour Thursday that he previewed the last episode in his office three weeks before it aired. When the screen abruptly went blank at the end, he immediately got on the phone to executives supervising the show, thinking they had decided to hold the last minute from him.
"I thought, 'What are you doing?'," he said.
Plepler said that, after some thought, he thinks creator David Chase meant to leave the impression that Tony Soprano will spend the rest of his life looking over his shoulder in fear.
Chase himself is still on sabbatical in France, but he's expected to return to Los Angeles next week, in part to pick up an award from the critics. One hopes he'll be more vocal about the finale than star James Gandolfini, who was on hand to promote a new HBO documentary, "Alive Day Memories: Home From Iraq"; he deflected any questions that came close to being about him.
As for why he has gotten so involved in the Iraqi War, including a visit to see soldiers there, he said: "I guess I was playing a tough guy on TV, and I wanted to meet some real ones."
UPDATE 7/6/07
Gandolfini to Keep Up the Violence?
That's the word on the street from a
Source: The New York Observer
Source: Vanity Fair
By BOB HERBERT
HBO DOCUMENTARY FILM ALIVE DAY MEMORIES: HOME FROM IRAQ
DEBUTS SEPTEMBER 9, 2007