Product Details

• Actors: James Gandolfini
• Format: Box set, Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 5
• Studio: Hbo Home Video
• VHS Release Date: December 12, 2000
• Run Time: 680 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (310 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00003CXOO
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #4,312 in Video (See Bestsellers in Video)

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• This is item 1 in The Sopranos Series.

Editorial Reviews

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: Like 1999's other screen touchstone, American Beauty, the HBO series chronicles 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.

Unlike Francis Coppola's operatic dramatization of Mario Puzo's Godfather epic, The Sopranos sustains a poignant, even mundane intimacy in its focus on Tony, brought to vivid life by James Gandolfini's mercurial performance. Alternately seductive, exasperated, fearful, and murderous, Gandolfini is utterly convincing even when executing brutal shifts between domestic comedy and dramatic violence. Both he and the superb team of Italian-American actors recruited as his loyal (and, sometimes, not-so-loyal) henchmen and their various "associates" make this mob as credible as the evocative Bronx and New Jersey locations where the episodes were filmed.

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. --Sam Sutherland

From the Back Cover
EPISODES 1 - 13

THE SOPRANOS - Written by David Chase, Directed by David Chase
In the series opener, we meet Tony Soprano and his two families -- the genetic one and the one in the Mob -- and see how pressure from both causes him to see a therapist.

46 LONG - Written by David Chase, Directed by David Chase
Can't anybody manage two minutes without Tony's supervision? Livia needs household help; Chris and Brendan are setting up their own jobs; and Anthony, Jr. needs someone to find his science teacher's stolen car.

DENIAL, ANGER, ACCEPTANCE - Written by Mark Saraceni, Directed by Nick Gomez
Everybody wants something: Meadow and Hunter want Chris to help them score some crank, a Hasidic man wants Tony to help his daughter get a divorce, and Tony wants to help a friend in the hospital.

MEADOWLANDS - Written by Jason Cahill, Directed by John Patterson
Tony decides to find out about Dr. Melfi's personal life, while Anthony, Jr. finds out about his dad's professional one.

COLLEGE - Written by Jim Manos, Jr. and David Chase, Directed by Allen Coulter
On a trip to Maine to visit colleges with Meadow, Tony thinks he spots an old friend with whom he has some unfinished business.

PAX SOPRANA - Written by Frank Renzulli, Directed by Alan Taylor
Uncle Junior gives everybody "agita" by announcing he's not honoring any deals made by Jackie Aprile. What's Tony going to do about it?

DOWN NECK - Written by Robin Green & Mitchell Burgess, Directed by Lorraine Senna
Anthony, Jr.'s troubles in school cause Tony to look back on his own formative years and his relationships with Livia, Uncle Junior, and his father.

LEGEND OF TENNESSEE MOLTISANTI - Written by Frank Renzulli and David Chase, Directed by Tim Van Patten
Everybody's got "agita" over rumors of impending federal indictments, and Christopher's looking for a purpose to his life -- like writing a screenplay.

BOCA - Written by Jason Cahill and Robin Green & Mitchell Burgess, Directed by Andy Wolk
Tony learns a secret about Uncle Junior; Uncle Junior learns a secret about Tony, and it has serious consequences for both of Tony's families.

A HIT IS A HIT - Written by Joe Bosso and Frank Renzulli, Directed by Matthew Penn
Tony tries moving in new social circles, and a rap star tries moving in on Hesh's music profits.

NOBODY KNOWS ANYTHING - Written by Frank Renzulli, Directed by Henry Bronchtein
Somebody in the "family" is wearing a wire for the Feds -- and Tony's afraid he knows who it is.

ISABELLA - Written by Robin Green & Mitchell Burgess, Directed by Allen Coulter
While Tony strikes up a friendship with a beautiful Italian exchange student, his enemies strike a deal to move against him.

I DREAM OF JEANNIE CUSAMANO - Written by David Chase, Directed by John Patterson
The season closer, in which the "merda" really hits the fan: Wise guys are arrested, rats are whacked and Tony and Livia finally see eye to eye.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely fantastic!, December 24, 2000

By	Nicole Hamilton "KD1UJ" (Redmond, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Sopranos: The Complete First Season (DVD)

I'd been hearing about The Sopranos all last year but honestly, I just never have time to catch a series every week. I just don't watch TV with any regularity and I'm not crazy about missing episodes or seeing them out of order when I know there's continuity. When I saw that whole first season of The Sopranos was coming out, I figured that would be just right for me.

I wasn't disappointed. Matter of fact, I was blown away. It's a great show, at times hysterical, at times very dark. The characters are sometimes over the top but they stay close to basic story, unlike a lot of shows where, struggling to fill 60 minutes and having run out of any sensible ideas, they'll have doctors from an ER show caught in an improbable plane crash in the Andes or whatever.

The most interesting thing for me is the way they've used Tony Soprano's sessions with his therapist as a way to stitch everything together and let you get inside Tony's head. The actors playing both Tony and the therapist turn in remarkable and very believable performances.

This set is also a heck of a bargain. You get 13 episodes, four per DVD, plus some bonus materials, which is a lot of viewing time for the money.

I recommend this set as easily the best DVD purchase I made all year (this from someone who buys nearly everything that comes out.)

54 of 59 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I love the full season in one package, December 16, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: The Sopranos: The Complete First Season (DVD)

Once again--see Sex and the City--HBO has had the good sense to release a show with an entire season in one package, as compared to the horrible dribbling of, say, 3 Twilight Zone episodes at a time. Why don't they put out the whole of "Dobie Gillis" or "I'm Dickens, He's Fenster" in one nice, juicy package. I'd buy.

But quite aside from that. The Sopranos is at the absolute highest level of visual art. No movie and certainly no TV is at a higher level. I am amazed at how much I've seen in an episode on first viewing and then how much more on second and third viewing. There are lots of little things, connections, that emerge on repeated, highly pleasurable viewings. There are so many surprising details, little throwaway lines, cues that lead to something later on, that really show the filmmakers respected the intelligence of the viewer.

The richness of the interwoven comedy and drama, the inventive ways found to tell the multiple stories--I love it. I love all the actors, but would just take a minute to single out Nancy Marchand, who plays one of the most marvelous mother characters ever recorded. The merging of comedy and drama in her performance is sublime. Every little line matters. The way she walks. Everything she does is beyond wonderful.

The greatness of The Sopranos you've heard about is really true. You will not regret having this set on your shelf to watch over and over again.

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Larger than life and full of humor, irreverence and humanity, July 12, 2002

By	Linda Linguvic (New York City) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Sopranos: The Complete First Season (DVD)

I didn't have HBO when The Sopranos came out in 1999, and so I am delighted that it is now on a set of DVD discs. I'm a big fan of books and movies about the Mafia and so I was prepared to love it. I must say that my expectations were all met, and more. There is nothing like being able to watch the series, in its entirety, all at once, at my own pace. And there is nothing like watching several video interviews and behind the scenes featurettes on the discs to enhance the viewing experience with background information. This series has won many awards. I can understand why.

James Gandofini stars as Tony Soprano, a very human individual, who just happens to be a gangster. He's living in modern times though, and so he's plagued with depression and goes to a therapist, played by Lorraine Bracco. Tony's domestic scenes, which include his wife, Edie Falco, his daughter, Jamie-Lyn Sigler, his son, Robert Iler, and - especially his mother, Nancy Marchand, are all unique and slightly off-center examples of brilliant writing and editing. Add to this his criminal activities and his violent temper, and there's a mix that fascinates me completely.

One of the delights of the series is that I can't quite figure what will happen next. I'm constantly on edge as I watch the story unfold, and there are always surprises. I like the humor and the irreverence. And best of all I like the fact that each episode is commercial free and a complete movie in itself. I love it when the scenes move back and forth between the actual crime stuff and his family life. And I love the humanity that Tony exhibits. In a way he is "everyman" as he struggles with decisions and hard choices in his life. And yet, he is larger than life, and a bit of a hero to our culture. Couple this with really fine acting and an excellent script, and a winner emerges.

I'm not into dream sequences and these were the only parts that dragged down the action, but there were only a very few throughout all the episodes. However, now that I look back on it, I'm glad they were there, because even though I was annoyed with them at the time, I can now see how they really helped develop the characters. These on-target characterizations are what drive the series and make it soar above its nearest competitors. The Sopranos on DVD is a winner in every sense of the world. And it is not only recommended for aficionados of the gangster genre. It gets my highest recommended for everyone.