Sopranos Characters – Furio Giunta

Furio Giunta is a soldier Tony imports from Italy on the HBO television show The Sopranos. He is played by Federico Castelluccio. Furio’s character is used in an interesting way early on: he provides a strange sort of comic relief. On one hand, Furio seems a bit out of place, with funny Italian mannerisms. On the other hand, Furio is a thug, who doesn’t actually even run any criminal organization, but serves as pure muscle for Tony Soprano.

This overlay of an awkward “foreign man” routine along with outbursts of violence carries the character through his first two seasons on the show. In a way, the sense of humor behind this is somewhat similar to that seen with the Coen brothers. The comedy peppered with violence leaves the audience not knowing how to react. For example, after the bloody shooting at the end of the third season, he gets hit in the leg and screams uncontrollably. Is this funny or horrible? Furio leaves us in the position of not being sure how we are supposed to react.

However, in season four, they introduce a new role for Furio: a love interest for Carmela. With the collapse of the marriage between Carmela and Tony, she falls in love with Furio. At first it seems like this might not be reciprocated at all, but we see that Furio’s “foreign man” routine has largely obscured what was a real alienation from those around him. He also falls in love with her and ends up leaving the country.

However, like everything related to the mafia, the romance between Furio and Carmela turns out to be incredibly dangerous. Furio can’t just win the affection of the boss’s wife or even his ex-wife. Instead, the question for Furio is whether or not he will kill Tony. What should have been a domestic dispute turns into a possible murder. Instead of killing Tony, however, he runs away, and Tony makes it clear that if they ever find him, they will kill him. This doesn’t bother Carmela as much as you might think, but she may not believe it.

Furio is a curious mixture of violence and comedy. In later seasons, he is used as part of a love triangle that shows the state in which crime corrupts and makes human interaction dangerous.