Watching Tulsa King makes me wonder why it took so long for Sylvester Stallone to show how great he is at playing a gangster. Stallone stars in Tulsa King as Dwight Manfredi, a capo from a New York City mafia who was sent to Tulsa, Oklahoma to start his own criminal empire. Tulsa King has also been a massive success for Stallone, and it’s one of the best shows on Paramount+. I’m a big fan of both Tulsa King and Stallone, but the show has also highlighted something really confusing about the actor’s career.
Sylvester Stallone is one of the most legendary actors in Hollywood. He’s been an icon of both the action genre through his Rambo franchise, and the sports genre through Rocky. Though Stallone’s best movies often dominate their genre, there’s one area he’s only recently broken into through Tulsa King: the crime genre. Though it’s a genre full of legendary actors like Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and even Denzel Washington, I can’t help but wonder why Stallone never got into it earlier, especially considering how good he is in Tulsa King.
Sylvester Stallone Plays A Great Gangster In Tulsa King
Tulsa King is, simply put, Sylvester Stallone’s best performance as a gangster, and it might be one of his best performances in general. Watching Stallone play Dwight makes me think he was purpose-built to play a mobster. He has everything a good gangster needs: Stallone is oozing with charisma to charm both enemies and allies, he’s more than capable of being an intimidating and imposing figure in suspenseful scenes, and he’s nearly perfect at proving how important and powerful Dwight is. Tulsa King has also drawn out one of Stallone’s most emotional and versatile performances in years, and it’s shown me a side of the actor I rarely get to see.
Stallone doesn’t just serve Tulsa King well, though, as the show also serves him. There have been a few great moments, like the ending of Tulsa King season 2, episode 3, where Stallone got a chance to play out some fantastic gangster scenes. Whether the show has him in a gunfight with a rival gang or in an attempted hit, Stallone has proven he can make a gangster scene as well as the likes of De Niro or Pacino. Tulsa King is so good, in fact, that I can’t help but wonder why Stallone never broke into the crime genre in the prime of his career.
Sylvester Stallone Has Played Gangsters Before – To Mixed Reviews
While Tulsa King is certainly Stallone’s most recent outing as a gangster, it isn’t his first time playing a Mafioso. Stallone has played a handful of mobsters over the years in films like Oscar, F.I.S.T., Avenging Angelo, and Get Carter. Most of those films, however, didn’t really capture just how well Stallone can play a gangster. Aside from F.I.S.T., which was fairly well-received, the highest Rotten Tomatoes score Stallone received for a crime project before Tulsa King was 13%. With one notable outlier, most of Stallone’s gangster roles have been in underwhelming movies.
Another problem with Stallone’s previous crime movies is that he never played a gangster in the traditional sense. Avenging Angelo was an action-comedy that saw Stallone play a bodyguard for the mob, while F.I.S.T. saw him as a blue-collar worker who ran his trucking union like a mob. Even the two movies where Stallone played proper gangsters don’t fit well into the crime genre: Oscar was a comedy, and Get Carter was more of a revenge actioner than a crime film. Tulsa King just proves that with the right script, Stallone can play an amazing gangster.
Sylvester Stallone Could Have Been An All-Time Great Crime Actor
I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching Stallone in Tulsa King, but it also highlights something I find extremely disappointing: Sylvester Stallone could have been an all-time great crime actor. Tulsa King – and even F.I.S.T. to an extent – is proof that Stallone has had the chops to play a gangster for most of his career. If he had started acting in the genre earlier, and taken roles in better movies, the name “Stallone” would be just as synonymous with mafia movies as Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Al Pacino or any of the other greats.
I feel like the crime genre has been robbed of Stallone’s talents for decades, specifically because he could have told some great stories those other actors weren’t necessarily capable of. Stallone, for most of his career, was known for his physicality and strength. He could have filled a unique niche in the crime genre, and he could have played a mob boss who also served as his own muscle. I can only imagine how good a young Stallone would have been in a Martin Scorsese movie, and it’s a shame that we’ll never get to see that.
Even though Stallone didn’t break into the crime genre in his acting prime, Tulsa King proves the old adage “better late than never” true. It’s been a treat to watch Stallone take over Oklahoma, and I’m glad that he’s gotten a chance to play a mob boss for two full seasons. The possibility of Tulsa King season 3 is also really exciting, just because I’ll take as much of Stallone playing a gangster as I can get. While it’s not the same as a Scorsese movie, I’m still glad that Tulsa King has given Sylvester Stallone a chance to prove how good of an actor he is.