Thursday, February 17, 2011
White ethnics is New Hollywood
Let me preface this by saying that the Godfather Part 1 and 2 are hands down my favorite movies of all time. That said, I found some of the points Professor Decker made in his lecture today to be really interesting although I don't necessarily agree with all of them. I thought it was particularly notable that there was such a dichotomy between what those films represented to Italian Americans and the general American public. On the one hand, many thought that the sympathetic portrayal of the Italian American mafia in the films romanticized that segment of society and actually made ethnic Italian culture more palatable to the masses. However the Italian American community saw just the opposite and felt that the films portrayed their culture as thuggish and criminal. How do you guys think the Godfather movies actually portrayed Italian American culture? Can you think of any other prominent examples of white ethnic representations in film back then or up until today? And are do you think the issue of white ethnic groups being portrayed in a controversial manner by the media today (Jersey Shore anyone?) has as much of an effect on the perception of those groups by the general public as it did during the New Hollywood era?
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Although the Godfather is a great notable film in film History, I think it fails to present Italian Americans accurately. The whole image of Italian Americans being involved mafia/gangster activities is mere stereotype. As we are aware of it today, stereotypes are generalizations of common characteristics of a group of people and identifying very member of that group with such attributes. Obviously not every Italian American is a criminal nor a "Guido" because there are many Italians who do not fit the stereotypes they are associated with. For example, Italians actors who do not fit such stereotypes are Leonardo DiCaprio and John Travolta. However there are still these negative representations of ethnic groups in film. For example, one thing I have observed is that white people are typically portrayed as"working class whites" or as "white trash". Individuals identified with white trash are usually portrayed as ignorant, racist, uneducated and are unattractive due to biological differences.A good example is the film Deliverance. However, I think that even though there are stereotypes in in film today, people usually do not take them too seriously. They are usually used for humor or to prove that individuals can overcome the stereotypes they are classified with. Even in the Godfather, Vito shows that despite his participation in such uncivil activities, he opposes because of moral reasonings.
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