Chronicle: Sylvester Stallone, the cowboy

Photo credits: Paramount+

Some fans of The Sopranos (1999-2007) were certain: king of tulsa – Sylvester Stallone plays a New York mobster who, after his prison sentence, builds a new criminal life in the American state of Oklahoma – would be a hit. Not a weird thought per se: sometimes screenwriter Taylor Sheridan is – see Against all odds (2016) and Yellowstone (2018-) – very accurate. The actor – known for Sons of Anarchy (2008-2014) – who started out writing screenplays has since established himself as a chronicler of the frontier; of the Wild West. Stallone is in this era – after Jeff Bridges Against all odds and Kevin Costner Yellowstone – the duty cowboy.

It’s ironic: Stallone (76) is a movie star. Who in the fall of his life turns to television. Perhaps because he can play the roles to which he aspires. Or because television pays better? I read this week Cinema Speculation, the new book by filmmaker extraordinaire Quentin Tarantino. A pure hymn to cinema, and to Stallone. Tarantino loved muscle in his youth, and his breakthrough film in particular Rocky (1976). The boxing movie is awesome, according to the director of classics like pulp Fiction (1994). The embodiment of the American dream.

This is often what today’s westerns revolve around: nostalgia for times past. When the world was – supposedly, supposedly – ​​much less complex. One must be careful with such a premise. Soon you’re doing TV or movie dramas that just say things were “better” before. See also English (2022-) – a passion project of actress Emily Blunt, who also produces – as a nice counterexample. This British-American Western series revolves around a cowgirl (Blunt) instead of a cowboy and also focuses on “minorities”, i.e. the original inhabitants of the United States. United, who were once in the majority.

But back to Stallone. fans of The Sopranos had high expectations king of tulsa. Because Stallone plays it. But also because Max Casella – Benny Fazio from The Sopranos – plays there, as well as Domenick Lombardozzi, whom the spectator will recognize Thread (2002-2008). In short, it should be fine. However, of course, it doesn’t work that way. Stallone + Sheridan + Fazio + Lombardozzi = no guaranteed success. Above all: Stallone hasn’t made a memorable movie in years – he recently appeared on Prime Video Samaritan (2022) is sad proof of this. A flawed superhero western shot in the big city.

king of tulsa – the crime series from the Paramount+ streaming service is not yet available in the Netherlands – has received good reviews. But is therefore not a successor in terms of artistic level The Sopranos, according to the American television press. Nor should we compare everything to this near-perfect TV epic. Even though James Gandolfini’s vehicle also sometimes looked like a western: Tony Soprano sometimes felt so lonely, as if he was crying out for water in a very dry desert. Rocky is also a western in this respect, with a boxer as its archetype lonely. Sometimes cowboys – Stallone was born in New York’s Hell’s Kitchen – just come from the metropolis, that’s for sure.

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