The Sopranos: Phil Leotardo - The Last Real Mobster

thank you let me tell you a couple of three things forget that philiotardo is a closet homosexual forget that he's a walking meme forget the fact that he has the power to transform himself into a house Uncle Philly Uncle Philly my ass philiotardo is one of the most recognizable characters from The Sopranos played by the legendary Frank Vincent he has some of the most memorable and funny quotes in the entire show but Phil is much more than just a meme he's not only the final antagonist of the series he also represents the end of the old school days of the mafia both in a literal sense and in a meta textual one so in this video Let's examine philiotardo the last real mobster on the show no more Butchy no mortis philiotardo is a captain in the lupitasi crime family of New York he's introduced at the beginning of the fifth season after having served a very long prison sentence though we're never given an exact answer as to how long he's been in prison 20 years in the can 20 years inside I did 20 [ __ ] years after he gets out he serves as one of Johnny sacks key enforcers in the war between him and little Carmine after killing Carmine's supporter Angelo garappi his close friend Tony blandetto seeks revenge and ambushes him Phil survives but his younger brother Billy is killed in the attack Phil is enraged by this and demands the opportunity to avenge his family Tony Soprano ends up killing his own cousin to prevent Phil from torturing him which robs him of the opportunity for Revenge though the beef is eventually squashed resentment continues to linger and fill after Johnny sack ends up dying in prison Phil takes over as boss of the lubertazi family seeing the New Jersey family as beneath them he refuses to negotiate as equals and instead takes a hard line this leads to conflict between the two families which eventually turns into all-out war though Phil manages to take out many of Tony's key guys like Silvio and Bobby Tony is able to turn Phil's men against him before eventually taking him out Phil's dreams of being boss end up crushed like a watermelon under a car tire oh [ __ ] all right real quick before we get into the analysis of Phil's character we have to get something out of the way Phil is gay or at least subconsciously he's in the closet I've avoided making a video on this topic because it's just so obvious and plenty of other people have done it already but I would be remiss if I didn't mention it here in the sixth season it's revealed that Vito spatafor is gay Phil is outraged by this seemingly because Vito is married to his cousin and he views this as a disrespect against his family he becomes absolutely obsessed with killing veto focusing on it even more than his actual business however it becomes clear that his deep fixation on killing veto goes beyond the typical Mafia homophobia and it's actually self-hatred over his own conscious or unconscious desires there are a ton of hints that Phil is gay when he and his guys attack veto in the hotel room he literally emerges from the closet when they beat Vito to death he grabs the sheets almost as if he's getting a sexual thrill from the encounter also after they kill him they shove a pool cue up his ass which while you may say is an attempt to humiliate veto still has really obvious sexual overtones I know veto's bottom was impacted if that's what you're referring to it's commonly believed among fans that Phil leotardo had gay sex while he was in prison all those years and that he was projecting that shame on DeVito when he talks about all of the compromises he made in prison he specifically brings up sex I wanted to [ __ ] a woman but I compromised I jacked off in a tissue but we all know that another compromise in that situation would have been sex with a man after all you get a pass for that what are you gonna do there's no women there five ten years there are other hints as well he has a line about his ass that sounds kind of suss my ass the way he orders the bodybuilding video turned off and I hate to bring up a thorial intent into discussions like this because it ruins the fun but David Chase has confirmed that all this stuff was intentional this seems like there's subtle allusions to Philly Atara possibly being in the closet or yeah that's intentional right some of those those Illusions were intentional now I actually think that most of this was done for humor and that him being secretly gay isn't a huge part of his character but I do think it is related to the main theme of his story arc which is the death of tradition in the mafia you see Phil represents the old school mafioso archetype he believes in the rules about honor and tradition being more important than anything Phil is specifically stated to be one of the few guys left that still practices the old ways shown by the fact that he did his time in prison quietly you're a man Phil it's saying a lot nowadays with this in mind we can see that his hatred of veto isn't just about homophobia it's about defending the traditional values that the mob is supposed to represent in his mind Vito being gay is an affront to their code and accepting it is tantamount to breaking the rules that they're all supposed to be living by in your Father's Day we wouldn't be having this conversation a fanoic in his crew he knew how to handle that Phil also takes the ceremonies of the mob very seriously one of the reasons he has such contempt for the Jersey Mobsters is because of their apparent disregard for proper making ceremonies again even though logically this kind of stuff doesn't matter all that much in his mind this is a denigration of everything they stand for either it has meaning or no meaning the fact that he is played by the legendary Mafia actor Frank Vincent also really contributes to this old school Vibe this show is obviously playing off of his Goodfellas appearance one of the great mob movies were meant to associate Phil with the classic mob portrayals of older films contrasted against James Gandolfini as Tony which is a much more modern portrayal I'll go home and get your [ __ ] shine box this difference is also why Phil comes into conflict with Tony who despite all of his own problems is something of a progressive in the mob though I wouldn't call him an ally or anything Tony admits that fundamentally he doesn't care about Vito being gay some inside me says God bless I salute who gives a [ __ ] now again I'm not saying that Tony is out there trying to make the Mob More inclusive or anything it's just that he cares more about making money than anything and to him a lot of these old school rules just get in the way of that and what we are here for in the end is to put food on the table for our families our sons the future that's what's important part of this is the fact that Phil has been locked away in prison for all this time he's literally from a different era and the world has moved on without him we see this conflict play out with other Mafia guys like Richie April and Peach lamanna who are resentful of the younger guys who have passed them up while they were away in prison and that's another thing I don't want to hear no more about how it was in your day you just keep your antidotes the local color like dinoflows or Maguires this is a [ __ ] like that otherwise shut the [ __ ] up the conflict we see between Tony and Phil in the final episodes is essentially a war between tradition and progress within the mafia itself will The Mob change with the times or stick to its traditional roots neither philosophy is perfect we see that the erosion of Mafia values like omerta have led to a rise in informants no one is willing to uphold the Code of Silence and partly that is because no one believes that anyone else is willing to follow the rules anymore but the problem is nobody listen no more not Tony not nobody Tony's men also recognize his hypocrisy demanding that everyone else follow the rules that benefit him as boss while not living up to the principles himself [ __ ] you're a [ __ ] hypocrite the [ __ ] did you say you preach all this Wise Guys [ __ ] and meanwhile the only ones who gotta play by the rules are us however feels stubbornness and refusal to evolve is what ultimately leads to his demise after the loss of his brother Phil refuses to compromise ever again believing that it makes him weak however when the war creates problems for his men he refuses any talk of Peace as well his men lose faith in his ability to lead them and in the end they choose to side with Tony over him in many ways the death of Phil represents the death of tradition in the mafia both in the story and in a meditexual sense in the context of the show the old school days of the mob are gone replaced with an age of businessmen and informants Tony himself admits this in the pilot but lately I'm getting the feeling that I came in at the end the best is over and on a meta textual level Phil's demise is a statement about the end of the mob genre the show serves as kind of a deconstruction of the mob genre and there are reasons there really hasn't been another great mob movie after the show ended there was just nothing left to say what is Tony rank Goodfellas so I hope I've shown you that Phil is much more than just a bunch of jokes his role on the show serves as one of the most important themes we see and with his focus on tradition and the old school ways Phil really is the last real mobster there's no scraps in my scrapbook I wanted patrons but I compromised I started in only fans instead Ops racing media Daz J kit Sam cedarland Celery Man Jenna Marie Johnson Brad Smith Studios Uncle Mike Matt Joyce Countess vonzarevic and Luke p [Music]

Channel: Pure Kino

Views: 397,049

Keywords: pure kino, kino

Id: LVvt3XGJpg0

Length: 11min 15sec (675 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 03 2023