Sylvester Stallone’s role as Dwight “The General” Manfredi in the Paramount+ crime drama Tulsa King has been turning heads for all the right reasons, in contrast to the actor’s recent theatrical releases. The show also corrects a big-screen misstep Stallone took 25 years ago, when he starred in the American remake of the British mobster movie Get Carter. In both cases, he stars as a mafia heavy forced to move thousands of miles away from where he lives. But Tulsa King brings the best out of Stallone as an actor, leaning into his imposing physical presence and harnessing his underrated comic timing.
Perhaps most importantly, Dwight Manfredi is a genuine character, someone with different layers, contradictions and likability that the show’s audience can invest in getting to know. His mafia kingpin exploring the American Southwest is a welcome antidote to the aging action-man performances we’ve come to expect. Even better, Dwight still has plenty more to give, with Tulsa King and Stallone returning for a third season this year or next.
Tulsa King Has Similarities To Get Carter – But Is Far Better
As Dwight Manfredi, Stallone Gives One Of His Best Ever Performances
It’s true that elements of Tulsa King’s plot bring to mind Stephen Kay’s remake of Get Carter, in which Stallone played the eponymous anti-hero. Jack Carter was a mob enforcer whose criminal connections got him wrapped up in avenging his brother’s murder and the rape of his niece, in the Northwestern city of Seattle. Dwight Manfredi, meanwhile, moves to the Southwestern city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, suffers the death of his brother, and avenges his daughter following her rape. Stallone himself has noted the comparison between Tulsa King and Get Carter, suggesting that the movie serves as a prequel to his latest role.
This suggestion considerably undersells his performance as Manfredi, who commands his own mob fiefdom, like Tulsa’s answer to Tony Soprano. The 2000 remake of Get Carter was a mess of haphazard storytelling that completely mishandled its difficult source material, with Stallone directed more like a WWE wrestler than the protagonist of a gangster movie. In Tulsa King, for the first time in what feels like a long time, Stallone actually gets to act like his best movies allowed him to. He throws punches when required, but he talks the talk as well as walking the walk.
Tulsa King Is Sylvester Stallone’s Most Important Role Now
He Should Leave The Franchises And Low-Grade Action Movies In The Past
After a raft of frankly appalling action movies, including two – Armor and Alarum – with 0% scores on Rotten Tomatoes, Sly Stallone has found his onscreen sweet spot once again. In addition, the Rocky and Rambo franchises are now behind him, as is his acting role in the Creed movies, and the Expendables saga is surely at an end after the disastrous box-office showing of its fourth movie Expend4bles two years ago. Stallone is free to concentrate on what could be a final flourish as a mafia kingpin of the Bible Belt.
Tulsa King’s sure footing is refreshing in so many ways, not least because the small screen has been in need of a character like Manfredi for more than a decade. Primarily, though, it’s Stallone’s central performance that gives the show its substance. It’s one he needs to keep on giving for as long as he can, both for Tulsa King’s ever-expanding viewership and his own career revival.