Letters to the Editor
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it was indeed a great end.
really...how else could he have done it? the more i think about it the better the end seems.
the whole point of the show (imo) was that tony and his family are americans, just like us, the viewer. we are overfed, self centered, anxious, confused, sympathetic, unsympathetic, etc etc. we like to see ourselves as good and justified....but are we really? that is debatable. nobody ever accused chase of not having a dark outlook.
the poster who pointed out that a blood relative of phil leotardo (son?) was the guy sitting at the counter and then going to the bathroom godfather style confirmed this for me. tony is shot in the back of the head as his daughter walks into the diner. although i love the ambiguity and originality of the ending it really does seem like we the audience are seeing david chase's depiction of what it feels like to be shot in the head....for the first time the victim (rather than the voyeur) of the horrendous violence we have seen depicted in this show. chase is saying "admit it...you got off on the violence even as you cringed...now this is what it is like when you are the target". welcome to "the big nothing" or "the big sleep" if you prefer that.
as coppola has said he linked oranges to death when don corleone is gunned down at the fruit stand...and chase is nodding to this.
it was the ultimate answer to the terrible six feet under "here's how every single main character's life ends in cheesy sentimental detail" ending. in real existence there is no epilogue at the end...just blackness.
freakin brilliant. not exactly cheery....but hard to argue with.
here is another thing: what do people make of the scene of tony walking into the diner and "seeing himself" sitting in the booth already???? just like the end of 2001. chase is a big kubrick fan indeed.
and as for all the "get a life" posters....are you kidding? who needs to get a life if you took the time to post on this thread about a show you hate in the first place? if people can write dissertations about literature and drama of the past we can spend a little time dissecting our taste in entertainment/art.