Myth of Sysiphus

[SilvioMancini]

In a recent inerview after the finale, David Chase made comments comparing the arc of the Sopranos story with the arc of the Myth of Sysiphus. In this thread we try to compare different examples of the ways the two storys are paralell.

[wizdog]

Tony as Sysiphus?
Hmmm...
I don't know how others are with it, I generally find myself amazed how envious I can be at sometimes when I was watching the show as Tony woke up at 12 went staright to the Bing for lunch, then hanging around perhaps moving out to Satriales, only to gulp it down with a bowl of Ice Cream at home. And all the while, what he said all the time? That he is busting his chops to bring food on the table. :D That was the moment when Carmela always looked cross at him.
Still most of the things that Tony does it always falls back on him.
Remember when Tony compared himself to King Midas, but as he said it all turns into shi.t? :D

[SharpAsACueBall]

I'm not familiar with the story of Sysiphus, but I did a quick search. It says, for those who don't know the story, Sysiphus "was a king punished in Tartarus by being cursed to roll a huge boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll down again, and to repeat this throughout eternity."

Two pieces of evidence from the show to support Tony being Sysiphus are when Chris was comatose and the last scene of the show. When Chris woke up from his coma, he said hell for them was an Irish bar, and every night (I'm trying to remember exactly what he said) you're killed the way they were in real life, or something like that.

And in the final scene of the show, the Journey song "Don't Stop Believing" contains the line, "the movie never ends, it goes on and on and on and on..."

I love reading this stuff!

[badabellisima]

Check out this thread on David Chase's Latest Comments after the Finale: we discussed The Myth of Sysiphus quite a bit...:smile:

http://thechaselounge.net/showthread.php?t=2232

[turangawaewae]

Tony as Sysiphus?
Hmmm...
I don't know how others are with it, I generally find myself amazed how envious I can be at sometimes when I was watching the show as Tony woke up at 12 went staright to the Bing for lunch, then hanging around perhaps moving out to Satriales, only to gulp it down with a bowl of Ice Cream at home. And all the while, what he said all the time? That he is busting his chops to bring food on the table. :D That was the moment when Carmela always looked cross at him.
Still most of the things that Tony does it always falls back on him.
Remember when Tony compared himself to King Midas, but as he said it all turns into shi.t? :D

The use of camera angles in the final scene was done to give us the world from Tony's point of view. In my opinion, the potentially dodgy characters in the diner were there to show us what Tony lived with on a daily basis. The piano constantly hanging over his head. He may have appeared to have a nice lifestyle, getting BJ's from strippers, but remember he was also in therapy, and he suffered from panic attacks. Not normally things associated with a content man.