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

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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 ...

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More About This Book

Overview

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.

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Editorial Reviews

Publishers Weekly
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. (May) Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Library Journal
Raging Bull, Moonstruck, The Black Hand, and My Cousin Vinny are just a few of the many films that feature Italian Americans. Bondanella (comparative literature & Italian, Indiana Univ.; Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present) thoroughly analyzes these and dozens of other films, tracing the development of this culture's representation on film, paying particular attention to ethnicity, tradition, symbolism, and stereotyping. The material is organized by category histories of emigration, prizefighters, lovers, gangsters, and comic wise guys and includes a separate chapter on the popular cable television series The Sopranos. Bondanella studies plot lines and main characters, discusses the careers and images of Italian American actors and performers (e.g., Sylvester Stallone, Al Pacino, Rudolph Valentino, and the Rat Pack), and follows the influence of directors (e.g., Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola) associated with this genre. He expertly blends history, analysis, and commentary in an informative reference that is also an entertaining read. Film stills and photographs complement the text. Recommended for circulating libraries as well as academic and cinema collections. Carol J. Binkowski, Bloomfield, NJ Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9780826415448
  • Publisher: Continuum International Publishing Group
  • Publication date: 5/28/2004
  • Pages: 352
  • Product dimensions: 6.30 (w) x 9.22 (h) x 1.25 (d)

Meet the Author

Peter Bondanella is the author of the groundbreaking Italian Cinema: From Neorealism to the Present, Hollywood Italians, The Cinema of Federico Fellini, and The Films of Roberto Rossellini. In 2009, he was elected to the European Academy of Sciences and the Arts for his contributions to the history of the Italian cinema and his translations or editions of Italian literary classics (Dante, Boccaccio, Machiavelli, Vasari, Cellini). He is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature, Film Studies, and Italian at Indiana University and lives in St. George, Utah.

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Table of Contents

1 Dagos : Hollywood Italian histories of immigration, La famiglia, and Little Italies from the silent era to the present 17
2 Palookas : Hollywood Italian prize fighters 92
3 Romeos : Hollywood Italian lovers 132
4 Wise guys : Hollywood Italian gangsters 172
5 Comic wise guys : Hollywood Italian gangsters yuk it Up 282
6 Sopranos : the postmodern Hollywood Italian Famiglia 296
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