Sinatra: The True Story Of The Man And The Legend is a two-disk collector edition that is being released on the 10th anniversary of his death to celebrate the life of a remarkable artist. The executive producer of this miniseries was his daughter, Tina Sinatra, and provides a recounting of the life of Frank Sinatra.
Sinatra covers over 20 years of the life of Frank Sinatra beginning with his youth as he grew up in Hoboken, NJ and ending with his 1974 return from retirement. Over two dozen Sinatra standards are included on Sinatra including "That's Life," "That Old Black Magic," "Come Fly With Me," "New York, New York," and more.
Sinatra stars Philip Casnoff (Law & Order:SVU) who was nominated for his performance, Oscar-winner Olympia Dukakis (Moonstruck, Steel Magnolias) portrays his mother, Dolly, while Gina Gershon (Ugly Betty, Showgirls) plays Sinatra’s wife, Nancy. Oscar-nominee Marcia Gay Harden (Mystic River, Pollock) plays Ava Gardner.
Emerging from Hoboken, Frank Sinatra begins his career as a singer for the Harry James and Tommy Dorsey bands. Struggling to keep his marriage afloat, he finally explodes into music and movie stardom, but soon finds that his personal failings cannot keep his personal life together. Through a number tumultuous marriages with starlets and finding friendships with the likes of Senator John F. Kennedy and mob boss Sam Giancana, his life is anything but normal.
Beyond the fact that Sinatra won a Golden Globe for Best Miniseries, this story works on a couple of levels. First, is that it contains great acting not in the least is the one by Philip Casnoff. While his look is similar to Sinatra, it is more about how he draws you in to believing that he is Sinatra. The songs he performs are lip-synched, but he performs as though he was the man. He is able to pull off the mixture of vulnerability and arrogance that at once catapulted Sinatra to stardom, and made him impossible to work with and live with.
The second level that this works on is the fact that even though it was overseen by the Sinatra family; primarily Tina, it doesn't try to hide any of the blemishes that the singer had. Even though he never wrote any of the songs that he performs, he still changed the music world by making the songs his own. He did this by imposing personality into the music. He painted the songs with his light and dark sides, his happy and angry persona. Even to this day, no matter who does the song, it still is called a Sinatra song.
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