As the movie is based on the hit TV show The Sopranos, which is well-known for its mob mentality violence, The Many Saints of Newark features considerably fewer murders and is fairly tame by comparison. But there are still more than enough gut-punching scenes for any sadist viewer.
As is the case with any gangster movie, The Many Saints of Newark is filled to the brim with violence. Whether it's as brutal as forcing power drills in people's mouths or as innocent as stealing ice cream trucks, Tony Soprano's origin story is typically eventful.
Carjacking At The Ice Cream Truck
Even in his teenage years, Tony Soprano is one of the smartest characters and knows more than most of the adults in the movie. That's perfectly captured when he carjacks an ice cream truck and beats the owner.
Just like The Sopranos, The Many Saints of Newark is full of violent scenes, but it's also meditative and focuses on the family dynamic and all the drama that surrounds them. The carjacking is the best example of that, as it combines both of those elements. The choice to use an ice cream truck was perfect, as it has such innocent connotations, and it's used as Tony's first crime and foray into what he would make a living out of.
Dickie Getting Bottled
It's a blink-and-you'll-miss-it moment, but it's enough to spark Dickie's short fuse. When Dickie is driving through the riots, he gets a bottle thrown right at his head, it's a perfect shot, and blood immediately tickles down his forehead.
The character obviously doesn't take kindly to it, and he instantly starts accusing random Black men passing by. It's one of the subtle examples of the racism that runs through the mafia, along with being one of the many catalysts that leads to the power struggle between the DiMeo crime family and the black gangs.
Giuseppina Getting Thrown Down The Stairs
It is far from the most brutal scene in the movie, but it's the most gut-punching depiction of violence because it feels so real. In the scene, Hollywood Dick disturbingly throws Giuseppina down the stairs, and it all escalates from a tiny, pointless argument.
While gangster movies like Many Saints sometimes get a bad reputation for glamorizing the mob life, the Sopranos spin-off does a great job of showing the scummy side of these characters. The scene is an accurate depiction of the mafia's more disgusting habits, and in this case, it's misogyny. It's especially hard to watch because Giuseppina is the best character in Many Saints.
Dickie's Death
Alessandro Nivola was surprised he was the Sopranos spin-off lead, as he thought he'd only have a few scenes in the movie. However, he turned out to be almost as compelling as Tony in The Sopranos. Despite some of the character's disturbing acts, audiences still connected with him, which made it heartbreaking when he was shot in the back of the head.
The murder is a little underwhelming because, and though fans know that it was Junior who ordered the hit, it isn't clear who it was that actually murdered him. But, if anything, fans should thank their lucky stars that it didn't cut to black before it happened.
The Street Shootout
Even though there wasn't such a thing in The Sopranos, it wouldn't be a gangster movie without a shootout on an open, public street. But despite how many bullets are flying, there are surprisingly few casualties. However, not all of the bullets sprayed are wasted and there are a couple of fatalities.
First off, Buddha is murdered when Harold first orchestrates a drive-by shoot-out. In great, bloody detail, Pussy's father is shot in the head. Then, almost hilariously, Harold accidentally shoots the driver of a VW camper van, which crashes into a parked vehicle and sparks an explosion.
The Riots
For four days in 1967, riots broke out in Newark due to racial prejudice, and in that time, there was looting, property destruction, and the death of 26 people. With the gangster movie being a period drama taking place in the '60s, Many Saints does what The Sopranos never did, which is to interpolate real-life events into the narrative of the film.
The movie doesn't spend much time on the riots specifically, but there is one short montage of all the destruction, including a black man getting shot in the head and mercilessly being left for dead on the street. It's mortifying, as the person's partner holds the body while screaming. The montage is even more heartbreaking because it's beautifully soundtracked by the late, great spoken word poet Gil Scott-Heron with his "Your Soul and Mine."
The Recruitment Centre Shooting
The recruitment center shooting is one of the earliest visceral moments in the new movie. It begins with Leon running from Harold, and he ends up hiding in an Army recruitment center and pretends to be interested in signing up. Harold finds him and blasts Leon in the chest with a shotgun. The scene is fairly ironic as the military worker is left begging for his life.
Leon is a low-ranking gang member who didn't deserve his fate. The character was murdered when he was barely even a man, as he was clearly in his teenage years, especially as the military office worker was attempting to sign him up for the army.
Giuseppina's Death
The intensity of Many Saints is one of the ways the movie is better than The Sopranos, and that's no more clear than when Giuseppina confesses to Dickie that she's been sleeping with Harold. Dickie violently drowned Giuseppina in the sea and then watched her body float away.
Based on the way Dickie has acted instinctually and has had a short temper throughout the whole movie, audiences saw Giuseppina's death coming before it happened. Both Dickie's misogyny and racism peaked at the same time in this scene, as Giuseppina had cheated on him with a Black man, and it led to the most shocking murder in the movie.
Hollywood Dick's Death
A prequel revolving around Hollywood Dick's time in Italy is one of the ways The Sopranos world can continue in the future, especially considering he is one of the most fascinating characters. But he's also the most hated, and that's what made it so satisfying when he was simply bludgeoned to death by Dickie with a car steering wheel.
Dick got what he deserved, and Tony's uncle defended Giuseppina and stood up to the evilest and most vile character in the movie. This is the moment when audiences thought they could get behind Dickie, even if they were let down by him one scene after the next.
The Torture Scene In The Garage
This scene is the closest the movie gets to the absolute grittiness of The Sopranos. When trying to find the whereabouts of Harold, Dickie and his team interrogate Cyril at his garage. They lay him down and force a power drill in his mouth, tearing his teeth, mouth, and throat apart.
The scene ends with Cyril being shot dead by Silvio when he tries to escape. It's the bloodiest scene in the movie, but there's a short break in the violence when Paulie complains about the sheer amount of blood on his new suit.