Italian Americans and Film

The mafioso movie has emerged as a Hollywood genre comparable to the western. For every Mean Streets and Goodfellas (two great Scorsese films) there are a dozen Mikey Blue Eyes, Spike of Bensonhurst, etc. I'm not opposed to films depicting Italian Americans as ruthless gangsters, simply bored. I'm not looking for "positive images" of Italian Americans in film — I wouldn't wish Moonstruck on my worst enemy — just some diversity. Why does America feel comfortable with violent middle age white characters but are threatened by depictions of violent black teenagers on the big screen?

There have been films that offer images different from the run of the mill mobster from Brooklyn or New Jersey:

• Nancy Savoca's True Love & Household Saints
• John Turturro's Mac
• Robert De Niro's A Bronx Tale
• Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing & Jungle Fever
• Campbell Scott and Stanley Tucci's Big Night
• Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull
• Scorsese's documentary ItalianAmerican
• Jonathan Lynn's My Cousin Vinny
• Anne Bancroft's Fasto

I would like to propose some compelling stories that offer a diverse vision of Italian American history and culture:

• Vito Marcantonio: Rumors circulated years ago that Al Pacino was going to make the film but nothing happened. At the very least, we need a first rate documentary.
• Carlo Tresca: Tresca's unsolved murder alone would make for a great mystery movie, complete with political intrigue and even the Mafia.
• Tina Modotti: A life filled with love, revolution, and art. Damn that would make a hell of a movie!
• Peter Panto: Arthur Miller's screenplay was never produced. What are we waiting for?
• Dion DiMucci: Representing the Bronx, Dion's singing carrer with The Belmonts illustrates Italian Americans connection to do wop and the tragic impact of heroin in the 1960s and 1970s. I've read that Chazz Palminteri is filming the Dion story.
• Connie Francis: This great pop singer and icon from 1960s had a rough life, from a controlling patriarch to a hotel rape in 1974. While the Rat Pack has been rediscovered, women's stories from the period remain untold.
• The Trails of Maria Barbella: Idanna Pucci's wonderful account of a 22-year-old immigrant seamstress who was the first women sentenced to die in the newly invented electric chair for killing the man who abandoned her after raping her and promissed to marry her in 1895 New York. I've read that 20th Century Fox optioned the novel and Winona Ryder has been choosen as the lead.

Bibliography

• George De Stefano's An Offer We Can't Refuse: The Mafia in the Mind of America
  
• Peter Bondanella's Hollywood Italians: Dagos, Palookas, Romeos, Wise Guys, and Sopranos
  
• Giuliana Muscio's Piccole Italie, grandi schermi: Scambi cinematografici tra Italia e Stati Uniti, 1895-1945.
  
• Anna Camaiti Hostert and Anthony Julian Tamburri, eds., Screening Ethnicity: Cinematographic Representations of Italian Americans in the United States
  
• Regina Barreca, ed. A Sitdown With the Sopranos: Watching Italian American Culture on TV's Most Talked-About Series
  
• George De Stefano's article "Ungood Fellas," a smart look at cinematic mobsters.
  
• In "Are Italians the New Anti-Racist Front?", Libero Della Piana examines the Italian American anti-defamation arguements against films like Shark Tale.
  
• Pasquale Verdicchio reviews films with Italian American subjects and Italian films (watch out for popups).

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