Hollywood Italians: Dagos, Palookas, Romeos, Wise Guys, and Sopranos - Hardcover

Bondanella, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 082641544X ISBN 13: 9780826415448

Publisher: Continuum Intl Pub Group, 2004

Synopsis

From the silent era and The Black Hand (1906) to The Sopranos, Hollywood has had a love-hate affair with Italian Americans. This book is a celebration of nearly one hundred years of images of Italians in American motion pictures. It covers all the stars as well as directors: Danny Aiello, Frank Capra, Francis Ford Coppola, Robert De Niro, Brian De Palma, Leonardo Di Caprio, James Gandolfini, Ray Liotta, Dean Martin, Vincente Minnelli, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Martin Scorsese, Frank Sinatra, Marisa Tomei, John Travolta, Rudolph Valentino, and scores of others. Dozens of films are discussed, including, very often, their literary and European-cinematic roots. Hollywood Italians is capped by a definitive examination of Coppola's Godfather films as well as the international-television phenomenon The Sopranos.

About this title

About the Author

George, Utah.

Reviews

Stereotypes have their uses. Just ask Bondanella, a professor of comparative literature and Italian at Indiana University, who has organized his study of Italian-Americans in film by examining conventional roles. Italians may be prominent as immigrants, boxers, lovers and gangsters, but Bondanella employs the categories to showcase the values associated with Italian culture, such as hard work and loyalty to family. He claims negative portrayals haven't prevented Italian-Americans from receiving full acceptance in American society, and he emphasizes their rejection of victim status to gain upward mobility. His critique covers a wide range, beginning with the classic 1915 tale The Italian, which addresses immigration, to Rocky and Saturday Night Fever, and ends with The Sopranos, which he treats as film. In a few generations, Bondanella notes, Italians have gone from outsider to ordinary citizen. In fact, The Sopranos is his strongest argument for a multidimensional Italian-American portrayal, since its characters enjoy range: mob king to doctor, teacher to FBI agent. Not surprisingly, half the book examines the association of the Italian-American with the gangster milieu. Bondanella is intrigued by films that pair a criminal with an ethnic law-enforcement officer, the "bad-wop-and-good-wop theme," from 1909's The Detectives of the Italian Bureau through 1997's Donnie Brasco. Predictably, much of Bondanella's attention focuses on the Godfather trilogy and the variations in Martin Scorsese's films that deromanticized the Mafia. Throughout, Bondanella offers engaging plot lines, astute observations and compelling behind-the-scenes tidbits, which make for entertaining reading as both cultural and film history. Photos.
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Edition details

• Publisher: Continuum Intl Pub Group
• Publication date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 082641544X
• ISBN 13: 9780826415448
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 352