Did Christopher Moltisanti go to hell for Tony Soprano?

hey sopranos fans welcome to another episode here on soprano street and today we will discuss whether or not christopher went to hell for tony not whether or not he went to hell because of tony we already know that but whether or not he went to hell for tony now this is something chris stated throughout his life that's the guy adriana my uncle tony the guy i'm going to hell for and even after his death that's the guy my uncle tony the guy went to health which not only puts to rest paulie walnut's theory that he would be in purgatory but also opens the door to truly evaluate if he did go to hell for tony in this episode we will look into whether or not he did by examining christopher's life the level of tony's active participation michael imperioli's own revelations on the character and an almost completely overlooked statement he made after his death which provides remarkable insight into christopher's character and may hold the answer to this whole question it is important to note here that christopher did have other goals in life outside of the mafia despite not being particularly talented he greatly desired to write and break into the movie industry this is a desire he has shown since the beginning of the series you know my cousin gregory's girlfriend is what they call a development girl out in hollywood right she said i could sell my life story make [ __ ] millions and even goes on to make a movie cleaver also in sharing these desires with adriana he made this statement i'll get back to the writing someday but from a position of great wealth implying not only that the movie industry was his first interest but also that the mafia was a means to an ends so this may not have been a situation like henry hill and goodfellas as far back as i can remember i always wanted to be a gangster or even jimmy burke never wanted to be a sports star never wanted to be a fireman never wanted to be anything other than a criminal also unlike those two chooches saunders monty and matthew bevalaqua who weren't capable of doing anything else christopher knew he had other options as far as male modeling i'd probably be success but i wouldn't want to be around those [ __ ] people so what was the reason christopher went down the mafia path and to what degree was tony responsible for it now while tony's intentions with a groan christopher were well documented throughout the show so over the next couple of years more and more i'm going to be giving my orders through you and then finally only to you his intentions with christopher since childhood can't really be known since chris is a baby when the movie ends and a grown man when the series begins that middle portion of his life is left almost entirely up to the imagination however this interaction essentially comparing tony's treatment of a young jackie jr to his treatment of young christopher what else did you say that the life's good enough for me but not for little lord [ __ ] pants certainly implies that even if tony didn't encourage christopher to enter the life he didn't try and stop it like he did with jackie jr so the issue then becomes the degree to which christopher was trying to pull away versus the degree to which tony was trying to keep him in it's important to note here that tony did offer chris and everyone else a chance to get out before their making ceremony all right you know why we're here so we're going to announce the reservations now's the time to say so no one will think any less of you now i've seen interviews with ex-street guys where they say they've turned down the offer to get made sometimes more than once but i've also seen interviews with ex-mob guys that say it's kind of an offer you can't refuse so to speak and with tony it seems to be more the latter while it may be easy to justify tony's opposition in the beginning of the series as a fear of being snitched on more so than a fear of christopher leaving [ __ ] kill you what are you going to do go this next interaction leaves the distinct impression that christopher's freedom to leave before being made wasn't as secure as tony made it out to be during the ceremony i'm gonna go back in there and be with my guests ten minutes i'm gonna look up if you're not here i'm gonna assume that you went to look for whatever the [ __ ] it is it's calling you out there and that i will never see you again so not only did tony make it clear to christopher that he shouldn't leave despite the superficial invitation to do so he also actively encouraged chris down the mafia path both in word and in action in addition to giving some general wisdom and words of advice which wouldn't be uncommon for an older wise guy to give to a younger one tony shows a specific intent of keeping christopher on the mob path forget hollywood screenplays forget those distractions huh and even goes so far as to make sure chris is covered when his trip down that path goes a bit off-road incidents such as christopher's first hit which wasn't approved and robbing conley trucking which belonged to junior could have had far more severe consequences for chris had it not been for tony's intentions with him here he's good he's coming up okay he works for me now and as we now know junior had chris's father killed for laughing at him so just imagine if christopher did have to switch cruz tony not only encourages christopher towards a life of crime in the general sense he channels the memory of dickie maltasanti which is bound to be a sensitive issue for chris in order to get chris to commit specific crimes like the murder of detective barry hayden killing your old man wearing a can together really stabbed your old man's soul mate to death so when your woman got paroled he tracked down jilly took out his eyes so bad he couldn't even put a glass loyal your own man now it would be very easy to argue that christopher killing detective hayden was revenge for the murder of his father and not the result of some sort of machiavellian puppeteering by tony that tony just pointed him in that direction and the rest was on him but christopher's interaction with heidi before killing him suggests otherwise you're being set up he's lying to you whoever he is wouldn't make any difference what do you mean it wouldn't make any difference he wants you dead chris let it be known in no uncertain terms that this is for tony his own personal interests or motives are completely irrelevant he is committing murder for tony this dynamic is further reinforced later in the series when christopher chooses tony over the love of his life adriana and sells her out to get murdered at this point all signs are pointing towards tony being the reason chris goes to hell tony didn't try and prevent him from joining he encouraged him to engage in violent crimes while shielding him from the consequences of those actions and even got him to give up aid for execution but this is where things get interesting and the door gets open to look into christopher's own nature as well as his overlooked statement from hell that puts everything into focus michael imperioli recently did an interview with the hollywood reporter and when referencing how dysfunctional the sopranos were he described christopher as being doomed from the start from birth it's almost like it's imprinted in his genetics which definitely brings up the nature vs nurture debate because as dr melfi would say it's not always a simple one-to-one proposition and the other aspect of this is addressed later in the interview when he said that he imagined dickie before the movie as being more like christopher more hot-headed but he wasn't he was a more composed character which made me think that a lot of christopher's defects and addictive compulsive nature actually come from not having a father this characterization of dicky as a more composed character can be argued especially when contrasting how the two reacted to being betrayed by the loves of their lives and it's in that difference that the truth of christopher is revealed and his path to help comes into focus the supposedly more composed dickie killed giuseppina immediately upon learning of her betrayal whereas christopher stopped short of killing aid and walked away now it could easily be argued that chris didn't have the heart to do it and that's the only difference i can't i can't do it don't no please don't make me do what i am doing i can't do it now while it may be true that chris just didn't have the heart to do what his father did it is irrelevant in terms of this conversation because after he left he had time to think and he chose tony over adriana or did he do you know why a shark keeps moving they gotta keep moving or they'll die they can't breathe or something there's a psychological condition known as elixithymia common in certain personalities the individual craves almost ceaseless action which enables them to avoid acknowledging the abhorrent things they do abhorrent or certain personalities anti-social personalities even though this took place during a session between dr melfi and tony it applies to many of the sopranos characters including chris uh we get a glimpse into this side of christopher early in the series look at this [ __ ] place you imagine spending day after day in here year after year but it is brought into focus after he walks away from eight he is contemplating leaving the mob life which is essentially the path to hell until he sees this and changes his mind he isn't picturing memories of him and tony when he decides to give up aid he is picturing himself in a boring life and couldn't take it he chose excitement over safety and tony offers that through the mob life but that still doesn't necessarily mean that tony was his path to hell since the movie industry would have offered the same excitement so was it the mob life that christopher craved or was it just excitement in general the truth to that question is found in an overlooked statement that chris made after his death 60s ended neil young gave that speech then came the rico statues around when i was born i wish i had come before them i wish i had been born before rico that statement tells you everything you need to know about christopher maltasanti now it's important to note here that he is in hell at this point and knows it this isn't some abstract idea that someday i'm going to hell like we see throughout the series he is there now and his wish was that he was born before rico why because that would have made it easier to be a gangster even in hell and outside of the influence of tony he is still thinking on how he would have been a better gangster this tells me that despite chris's blaming of tony he was a gangster to his core and entry into the show business would not have changed that chris was destined to go down that path and tony's role in his life in that sense was interchangeable chris would have went down that same path with paulie sill johnny sack or some random gangster in chicago if he had been born there but he was born a multisante in newark so tony's filling of that role was due entirely to proximity well thanks for watching another episode on soprano street as always please like comment and subscribe and i'll see you at the next score

Channel: Bully Whispers

Views: 92,020

Keywords: Sopranos, Junior, Tony, hell, Moltisanti, Multisanti, Many Saints of Newark, dickie moltisanti, Chris moltisanti death, adrianna la cerva, mafia, mob, gangster, mobster

Id: Mys70B8h9to

Length: 12min 18sec (738 seconds)

Published: Mon Oct 25 2021