Nucky goes as booze flows

epa04421116 US singer-songwriter Willie Nelson performs at the Harvest the Hope concert, on a farm near Neligh, Nebraska, USA, 27 September 2014. US singer-songwriter Willie Nelson and Neil Young performed a benefit concert on a family farm to help stop the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that if built will cut a north to south swath across Nebraska and also through the historic Ponca Tribe 'Trail of Tears'. EPA/Steve Pope

epa04421116 US singer-songwriter Willie Nelson performs at the Harvest the Hope concert, on a farm near Neligh, Nebraska, USA, 27 September 2014. US singer-songwriter Willie Nelson and Neil Young performed a benefit concert on a family farm to help stop the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that if built will cut a north to south swath across Nebraska and also through the historic Ponca Tribe 'Trail of Tears'. EPA/Steve Pope

Published Oct 20, 2014

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Boardwalk Empire comes full circle in the fifth and final instalment, which takes place during the Great Depression. In this series biopic of notorious politician and racketeer, Enoch Lewis “Nucky” Johnson, Hollywood veteran Steve Buscemi has been incomparable. Debashine Thangevelo looks at how season five flashes back to Nucky’s childhood and why creator Terence Winter felt the time had come to end the series.

 

HIS crooked teeth and indistinguishable appearance has always made Steve Buscemi the poster boy for either dark and deadly characters or, on the flip side, uproarious roles. And he has proved adept in the action and comedy genres.

While the actor-director-writer has enjoyed an illustrious career and worked in some of Hollywood’s biggest hits such as Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Fargo, Con Air, The Big Lebowski and Armageddon, his TV credits were nothing to rave about until the plum role of Enoch “Nucky” Thompson in Boardwalk Empire was offered to him.

Two Screen Actors’ Guild Awards, a Golden Globe honour and two Emmy nominations are indicative of the influence his character has wielded.

But, as gripping as the period gangster tale has been for four seasons, creator Terence Winter felt – in the middle of the last season – that it was time to put this story to bed. And, with Nucky’s tale starting at the beginning of the Prohibition era, which is when the politician’s racketeering by permitting the use of alcohol, gambling and prostitution started to gain momentum, Winter thought it fitting to conclude it with the end of Prohibition.

In an interview with hitfix.com, Winter revealed: “Somewhere towards the middle of season four, Howard Korder (writer and producer) and I said: ‘I feel like we are inadvertently winding down Nucky’s story. He has his eye on an exit and he’s so desperate to get out of this business’. The whole idea of trying to move his operation down to Florida and Cuba, we seemed to be wrapping it up. It wasn’t our intention to end it this quickly, but it was certainly looking like that. The more we talked about it and the more we talked with HBO, we felt we were really getting towards the end. The one thing nobody wanted to do was feel that we were treading water, bringing back the Villain of the Year, keeping it on the air beyond what felt like the natural progression of what the story was.

“Then it just became a question of how we wrap it up and when we wrap it up. And the decision was made to jump ahead and bookend with the end of the Prohibition, because we started on the day before Prohibition, and 1931 was the first year it became clear that Prohibition was going to go away.”

Sadly, the eight-episode season finale, which jumps forward to 1931, meant the termination of crime boss Arnold Rothstein (played by Michael Stuhlbarg), who was murdered in 1928.

Expanding on the events that had to be encompassed in the new instalment, Winter offered: “I thought about it in the broad scheme of things. In terms of tying it to historical events, not a lot happened in the gangster world between 1924 and 1931. And 1931 was really attractive to us for a lot of reasons: Capone went to jail; Luciano formed The Commission, which became the governing body of the mob; it was clear that the Depression wasn’t going away and the country was settling in for a long period of economic decline. It was very clear that the party that was the 1920s was over.”

This time around, viewers will be transported to Nucky’s childhood and see him as a young man in these flashback scenes to get a clearer picture of the incidents that moulded him into the man he became.

In a separate interview with hitfix.com, Buscemi said that he would miss many things.

He admitted: “I will miss the people around me, like Shea (Wigham), who played Elias ‘Eli’ Thompson, Kelly Macdonald ( Nucky’s estranged wife Margaret) and Michael Kenneth Williams (Chalky White – Nucky’s criminal counterpart in the black community).

“I will miss the team. Terry Winter is a great writer and Tim Van Patten is my favourite director ever.”

On playing Nucky, he offered: “I loved playing Nucky. He could be a hard character because he did some awful things. It was a challenge, all the dark places he took you as an actor. At the beginning, he was a politician. And he loved that. He liked meeting people, doing things for people. Then Prohibition came along and he thinks he’s on top of the world.

“But instead it causes problem after problem after problem. He kept getting hurt by everything people tried to do. And, of course, he hurt himself, too. He had no idea what was coming. I don’t think anybody did.”

This season will definitely cast a different light on Nucky – but his actions have already dictated his fate.

As far as TV series go, Boardwalk Empire is up there with the best. Fans won’t want to miss the nail-biting build-up to this finale – it promises to be an action-packed ride… gangster-style.

 

• Boardwalk Empire season 5 starts on M-Net Edge (DStv channel 102) tomorrow at 9pm.

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