First it was Apu. Now it is "The Godfather"

[El Presidente]

 

https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-revile-the-godfather-20220319-rggiokvzzrdhpnenop56otrdfe-story.html

 

50 years later, we should revile ‘The Godfather’

“Beware the ides of March,” said the soothsayer to Julius Caesar. Like their ancient forebear, Italian-Americans should have heeded such an augury. For on March 14, 1972, “The Godfather” premiered at the Loew’s State Theatre in New York. On March 24, it would open nationwide.

Though widely regarded as a cinematic masterwork, this motion picture resurrected a hoary stereotype, triggering the character assassination of a people that continues to this day.

“The Godfather” is not the stuff of Shakespeare, Sophocles or Pirandello. As cinematic epics go, Francis Ford Coppola’s abominable opus is no “Citizen Kane” or “Casablanca.” Rather, it should be placed alongside “The Birth of a Nation” and “Song of the South” as cinematic offal we must refuse.

 

Salvatore Corsitto, left, and Marlon Brando in 'The Godfather,' 1972. (Courtesy Everett Collection/Courtesy Everett Collection)

Indeed, this Mario Puzo potboiler-turned-Hollywood flick institutionalized anti-Italian bigotry in the media. The “Godfather” effect — and the reflexive schadenfreude it engendered — reinforced the notion that organized crime is predominantly the province of the scions of Italy. In the ensuing decades, this prejudice became a socially acceptable billion-dollar entertainment industry.

 

The Russian Solntsevskaya Brotherhood, Colombia’s Cali Cartel, Japan’s Yakuza and the Mexican Mob are among the largest criminal organizations operating in the United States and across the planet. In 2011, James “Whitey” Bulger — the highest-ranking organized crime figure on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List — was captured. As author T.J. English noted, Bulger was “an old-style Irish-American mob boss from around the way.”

Nevertheless, since the premiere of “The Godfather,” there has been a marked increase in films and TV shows featuring Italians as mobsters.

 

Think “Goodfellas,” “Casino,” “Donnie Brasco,” “Married to the Mob,” “Prizzi’s Honor,” “Mafia Princess,” “Honor Thy Father,” “The Last Mafia Marriage,” “Wise Guys,” “Analyze This,” “The Untouchables,” “A Bronx Tale,” “The Sopranos,” “Mafia!,” “The Family.” “Shark Tale” “Zootopia, “Mob Wives,” “The Many Saints of Newark,” PBS’s “Godfathers of the Renaissance” and “Lilyhammer.”

A prominent Mafioso in this year’s “The Batman” is the fictional Carmine Falcone, portrayed by John Turturro.

Lest we forget, Don Vito Corleone was a fictional capo who was somewhat based on Mario Puzo’s mother.

El Chapo, a.k.a. Joaquin Guzman Loera — the murderous drug kingpin of the Sinaloa cartel — is a real-life criminal overlord. Arnold Rothstein, who nearly toppled baseball in the Black Sox scandal, reigned as America’s first major drug kingpin. Gabriel Kenigsberger is a real-world drug boss with links to Colombia’s Oficina de Envigado — an organization connected to the Medellin underworld. He masterminded the flow of cocaine to European crime syndicates, the Japanese Yakuza and Israel’s “Jerusalem Mafia.”

Journalist Alexander Cockburn noted that following the upheavals of the 1960s, Americans yearned for “a strong image of the family and thus turned with relief to the Family invented by Mario Puzo in ‘The Godfather.’ ”

What makes all this especially rich is that Coppola admitted he had no knowledge of the Mafia: “We staged it,” he told Cigar Aficionado. “We just said, ‘OK, you sit here and you sit here.’ We used common sense and, as I said, I used things I remembered from my family. But I didn’t know. I’d never been around a Mafia family. I have no idea. I just assume they’re like an Italian family.”

Indeed, Paramount’s Robert Evans underscored why he chose Francis Ford Coppola to helm “The Godfather”: “He got the nod. … And one thing we did, we smelled the spaghetti.”

Coppola has had no qualms about demonizing a people whose ancestors hailed from the land John Milton called “the seat of civilization.”

Like African-Americans and Jews, Italian-Americans have long endured the slings and arrows of outrageous prejudice: From the 1891 mass lynching in New Orleans to the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti to internment in World War II as “enemy aliens.”

Even Middle America considers Italians a breed apart.

In 2006, the Sam Rotolo Middle School in Batavia, Ill., staged “Fuggedaboudit” — a children’s play that billed itself as “a little mobster comedy.” Students calling themselves the “Bada Bing Players” portrayed thuggish characters straight out of “The Godfather” and “The Sopranos.”

And talk about strange bedfellows. Both Barack Obama and Donald Trump cite “The Godfather” as a favorite.

Commenting on Geraldine Ferraro during her 1984 vice-presidential campaign, Sam Donaldson declared: “Italian-Americans should expect the press to pursue allegations linking them to the Mafia.”

Where are the films, plays and television programs exploring the lives of, say, Filippo Mazzei, who first declared “All men are created equal”; Ferdinand Pecora, whose legal brilliance held Wall Street accountable for the Great Crash of 1929; A. P. Giannini, founder of the Bank of America; physicist Enrico Fermi; International Space Station commander Samantha Cristoforetti; economist Mariana Mazzucato; astronaut Michael Massimino; astronomer Carolyn Porco or Dr. Anthony Fauci?

Isn’t it about time for the media to leave the venom and embrace the patrimony?

Iaconis is chairman of the Italic Institute of America.

[inter4alia]

[Yardley]

Is this satire and I just don’t get it?

[chris12381]

I grew up in Providence, RI...A city that was at one time, controlled by organized crime.  Our mayor, Vincent "Buddy" Cianci Jr was asked to participate in a screening, of The Sopranos.  

From an article in the Washington Post at the time:

Mayor Vincent A. "Buddy" Cianci Jr., a tireless promoter of his city, was happy to make a cameo appearance on the sentimental NBC drama "Providence."

But HBO made him an offer he could refuse.

The mayor of the city once known as New England's mob headquarters rejected an invitation to participate in a local screening of the season premiere of HBO's mobster series "The Sopranos."

He suggested that the show makes Italian Americans look bad.

The cable network wanted to buy jars of the Mayor's Own Marinara Sauce, which Cianci sells for charity, and give them away at the event.

"To offer my marinara for sale to 'The Sopranos' would be too high a price to pay, even while adding to my scholarship fund for our Providence students," Cianci, who appeared in a first-season episode of "Providence," wrote to HBO.

"To accept would be to compromise the pride I have for my heritage, my ethnic background and my strong beliefs that bias against any individual or group is morally wrong."

Henry Gomez, HBO corporate affairs vice president, wrote back to say he was disappointed by Cianci's response. The series's stars--including James Gandolfini and Lorraine Bracco--would never "lend their talents to a program that disparaged their Italian heritage," Gomez wrote.

Still, Gomez said, out of courtesy to Cianci, HBO canceled the Providence premiere, set for mid-January. Screenings in about two dozen other cities are proceeding as planned.

The New England mob had a strong presence in Rhode Island during its 1970s heyday. Some brick walls still bear bullet holes from gangland slayings. But the mob has been greatly weakened over the years, reduced to small-time operations such as theft rings, authorities say."

Less than a year after taking a stand against The Sopranos, Cianci was indicted in April 2001 on federal criminal charges of racketeering, conspiracy, extortion, witness tampering, and mail fraud.  He was found guilty of only one count under RICO, and sentenced to 5 years in Federal prison.  If any of this sounds familiar to you, you probably heard it in the first season of the Crimetown podcast.   

Then of course you have Joe Colombo, involved in the forming and funding of the Italian-American Civil Rights League.   He discovered that by screaming ethnic bias (as early as the 1970s) people would begin to wilt.   This is really rich considering that Joe Colombo was a mafia bass of one of the 5 families of New York.  Joe Colombo met his end at a rally for his Civil Rights League when a gunman put three point blank in his head in a crowd of 3,000 supporters.  

For every scumbag with a gun who's running a protection racket, there's tens of thousands working their butts off, quietly not making a peep.  Embrace the good with the bad.  At this point, the Mafia in America is part of our lore, just like cowboys "settling" the West.  It doesn't even matter if the story being told is true.  It's just got to be a good & convincing one. 

[Meesterjojo]

Starts off ok, but then delves into whataboutism with non Italians, then doubles down and includes these same groups as folks that have been cast in the same light. Wtf

I get it, but cmon

[Ken Gargett]

a film about an economist or the godfather - a fictional film? have editors just given up and now allow imbeciles to print whatever they want? 

[cigcars]

        *Well this describes my exact sentiments about, "The Color Purple."  As my mom pointed out: if any other self-respecting group had've been the subject matter, i.e. Chinese, Scottish, Hispanics, etc. that movie would have been called "sordid."  Sitting through it for me was like sitting through a car accident in slow-motion...true torture. EVERY man in that was raping his own daughter. Describing an ENTIRE PEOPLE as doing that was senseless and pathetic, even if such may happen here and there. But that's with ALL groups across the board...and again only here and there. So while an entertaining vehicle (The Godfather) I can respect where the author of this article is coming from.

[ayedfy]

Rosario Iaconis proudly contributing to the stereotype of Italian-Americans becoming unreasonably angry and insulted by something completely innocuous. 

[Chibearsv]

I watched The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly last night....I thought all Italians were cowboys, not gangsters.  😜

[anacostiakat]

12 hours ago, Ken Gargett said:

a film about an economist or the godfather - a fictional film? have editors just given up and now allow imbeciles to print whatever they want? 

Yep.  That is pretty much indicative of the press these days.  I continue to subscribe to my local paper even though it is a POS.  LOL  I need to see all sides.  Or maybe I am just a masochist.  LOL

[El Hoze]

I actually used to think all Australians were like Crocodile Dundee until I joined FOH.  Now I realize Australians are extremely knowledgeable about Cuban cigars which the movie seems to overlook completely. 

[Chas.Alpha]

God help us if this reviewer ever watches “Blazing Saddles”

[SRH1]

“Small Time” was written about the Italian Mafia in my small hometown. 
Once a thriving steel town, the mob got it’s start in Johnstown, PA like it did in many small towns across the northeast, Midwest and beyond. 
The story is based on the author’s grandfather and father and many interviews with octogenarian Italians who were involved. The Italians got involved because they couldn’t get decent jobs in the mills or the mines so they started their own business selling booze during prohibition then turned to gambling once prohibition ended in 1933. No prostitution and NO DRUGS! That was dirty business. Some Irish folks and other nationalities were involved with them too but always reached a ‘glass ceiling’ within the organization. It’s all quite true and a genuine and important part of the fabric of the town when I was young. The mob had local politicians in their pockets and operated in the shadow of City Hall. Literally…. I occasionally quaffed a few cold ones at the author’s father’s bar. Others were my my neighbors, father of friends and so on.          
And the restaurant mentioned prominently in the book was very popular and had great food! Some of my friends were ‘runners’ when they were teenagers…..The mob was no secret but folks still whispered….Interesting times! GREAT READ!

 

 

[RichG]

🎻 (worlds smallest violin - playing the theme from The Godfather)

[dominattorney]

Dudes. Best no one ever turn this guy on to Gran Torino. He might have a full on heart attack. 

[...]

I don't get cancel culture... probably a question of priority. Corruption, right to vote, wars and injustices can wait I guess 😬

[Ford2112]

1 hour ago, Jeanff said:

I don't get cancel culture...

Nor do the people who do it.

[Bill Hayes]

Yeah, and don't get me started on Jaws. Poor Great White Sharks labelled as man eaters. That's not only sexist but labels the species on their colour on their underbelly when in fact they are 50% blueish/greyish. I know for a fact that many just want to be non binary and self identify as they see fit. I demand this film be pulled from all media ASAP! I am appalled and outraged.

[BrightonCorgi]

Hollywood needs to make Sharia compliant movies only.

[joeypots]

There are movies and TV productions about all kinds of criminal gangs, Irish, English, Arab, Russian, Mexican, South American, and so on. No disrespect to any I left out. The fact that an American of Italian descent directed a movie based on a novel written by an American of Italian descent just happened to be one of the greatest movies ever made isn't an Italian slur. It's a tribute to the Americans of Italian descent. And the idea that the movie belongs with or is even mentioned with The Birth of a Nation” and “Song of the South is so ridiculous I won't bother to argue the point except to say that the Jersey Shore tv show is an abomination and the author of the above article doesn't mention that.

My .02$ 

[Chas.Alpha]

16 hours ago, Bill Hayes said:

Yeah, and don't get me started on Jaws. Poor Great White Sharks labelled as man eaters. That's not only sexist but labels the species on their colour on their underbelly when in fact they are 50% blueish/greyish. I know for a fact that many just want to be non binary and self identify as they see fit. I demand this film be pulled from all media ASAP! I am appalled and outraged.

If you watch Jaws backwards, it's actually a touching story about a fish that gives arms and legs to the disabled.

[Huckleberry]

I couldn't help but notice that some of the movies the author mentioned in the article were true stories about Italians who were part of a mob of some kind or another.  The Italian mob is part of the history of the world.  So are gangs, cartels, and all types of other mobsters of some ethnicity or another.  To me Godfather is a great story about a family, Italian or not Italian.