Why This Blog?

What is it about the Mafia that is so intriguing..even enticing?

The purpose of this blog is to explore this question as well as the gangster genre in American society through everyone’s favorite television show, The Sopranos. Does the show promote negative stereotypes about Italian Americans? If so, how does this affect the people who watch it and how they perceive other Italian Americans? These are not questions that will be answered by this blog, but hopefully I will inform you, the reader and I assume Sopranos fan, of both sides of the debate, so that you might be able to make an informed decision. This is for my benefit as much as I hope it is for you. Why? Because it is important for us to think critically about how we might be being shaped by the media.

Note: I am creating this blog as a part of a requirement for English 313: Writing Workshop for Teachers at Michigan State University.

Introduction

America has long been entranced by the idea of the “gangster,” a sort of immoral Other who pushes against acceptable social behavior to obtain money, power and the things that tend to come with having both. This is most obvious with the century-long preoccupation evident in the popularity of the gangster movie genre, particularly since The Godfather, considered the “Rosetta Stone” of its genre. Before The Godfather, there were 100 gangster films, including other foundational films such as Little Caesar and Scarface. After The Godfather, over 300 gangster movies were made, which certainly cast “Irish-, African-, and Asian-Americans…as gangsters,” but tended to turn more often to the “immediate association with Italian Americans and the so-called mythic antecedents of American organized crime in Sicily’s mafia and Naples’ camorra.” ¹ And that’s excluding productions where only supporting characters are portrayed as gangsters.

Now, the tradition of the gangster genre is being carried on by post-modern cinematic-like television show, The Sopranos. For the past eight years, acclaimed writer and director David Chase has held the American audience captive with his cutting-edge brainchild, The Sopranos, an HBO production centered on a fictional Italian American mafia family in New Jersey led by mob boss Tony Soprano. Like its predecessor, The Godfather, which is repeatedly listed on Time magazine’s and the American Film Industry’s list of the best movies of all time, The Sopranos have drawn an unprecedented audience for HBO,² making it “the television landmark that leaves all other landmarks in the dust” ³ and possibly “one of the most original artistic creations of our time.” ⁴ Many audience members connect with the show’s original portrayal of Mafia life as well as its explorations of the human condition, moral ambiguity, and the tensions common to the modern world.

Despite its widespread popularity, The Sopranos has also been received with animosity by certain audiences across America, particularly by Italian Americans. “Some Italian Americans, supported to some degree by the National Italian American Foundation (NIAF), have objected strenuously to David Chase’s creation on the grounds that his program demeans members of a single ethnic group, focusing upon Italian American criminals rather than more edifying professions that are followed by the Sons of Italy.” ⁵ This seems to be connected with the concern that the show perpetuates negative stereotypes about Italians by drawing the all-too-common connection between Italian Americans and violent mob life. But is their concern valid? Or are they failing to recognize that “The Sopranos offers a much more complicated viewing experience than most previous visions of the Italian gangster did,” making it difficult for the American viewer to simplify all Italian Americans to gangsters? ⁶

It’s up to you to decide.

Personal Inventory

Your Perceptions of Italian Americans

As part of my endeavor, I created a brief personal inventory to allow you to consider you current perceptions of Italian Americans. The survey isn’t going to be used for any other purpose other than for you to think about the idea. If you’re willing, however, I would love for you to post your survey results as a comment in response to this post (feel free to leave out your name, age, and/or Web address).

I decided to be the first guinea pig. Here are my results:

001. What is Your Name?Christina
002. How old are you?21
003. What is the link to your website, blog, or myspace?
004. Italian American. What are the first five words that pops into your head when you see that phrase?Spaghetti, Mafia, Family, Calabria, Sicily
005. List five physical characteristics you would use to describe an Italian American.Brown eyes, dark hair, short stature, stocky figure, muscular
006. List five personality traits you associate with Italian Americans?Loyal, ambitious, passionate, resourceful, family-oriented
007. What are five movies that pop in your head when you think of Italian Americans?The Godfather, Goodfellas, The Wedding Planner, Casino, The Untouchables
008. Who are five famous people you think of when you hear Italian American?Rachel Ray, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Al Capone, Robert De Niro

Take This Survey | Create a Survey Tjshome.com

The Gangster Genre: A Stereotype or Something More?

In considering the history of the gangster genre, it seems that it truly began in the early 1900’s, rooted in the early development of cinema and the 13-year period of Prohibition. As previously mentioned, the predecessors of modern gangster productions such as The Sopranos, Analyze This and Mickey Blue Eyes were such films as Little Caesar and Scarface (think 1930’s production instead the 1983 film about Cuban immigrant turned drug lord Tony Montana and being introduced to “his little friend”). In these early films, “The original American gangsters represented a traditional patriarchal sense of manhood that came from an old European model. The key to portraying this sense of manhood was that violence could be used to bring and sustain honor.” ¹ Certainly, many gangster films featured main characters of a variety of ethnicities, who upheld such manhood and honor—depicting “Irish Americans, Jews, Blacks, and Chinese as gangsters.” ² Interestingly, however, filmmakers latched onto the swarthy European-looking Italians who seemed to fit the bill best.

The Sopranos: A Perpetuating Source of Degradation

Knowing that gangsters have been so often connected with Italian Americans, it makes sense that many Italian American are concerned with the negative connotations of the stereotype. Since its beginning, the gangster genre, as well as other genres depicting Italian Americans, portray them “as people who cling to their foreign tongue, their dark foreign ways, and their inability to organize effective campaign to counter the media portrayals.”¹ It wasn’t until the publication of The Godfather in the 1960’s that Italian Americans, as a group, reacted negatively to a text, as “Italian Americans were just beginning to emerge as an identifiable cultural and political entity. Even though this book was a work of fiction, more obviously so than any of the earlier, more autobiographical novels written by Italian Americans, the novel created an identity crisis for Italian Americans throughout the nation.” ² However, their protest seemed to come to late, as the stereotype of Italian American as gangster had been established over a century earlier. Consequently, “Italian Americans are still trying to find a way to keep the media from using their culture to fulfill America’s addiction to the gangster figure, as evidenced by the swarm of protest surrounding the HBO television series The Sopranos.” ³ According to protesters, The Sopranos is a perpetuating source of degradation, preventing Italian Americans from moving past the correlation of organized crime with Italian American culture.

The Sopranos: More Than a Stereotype

On the other side of spectrum, many Sopranos supporters suggest that Italian American groups’ preoccupation with the negative stereotypes in The Sopranos has caused them to miss many of the applaudable representations in media today. “Italian American groups fail to recognize that “The Sopranos offers a much more complicated viewing experience than most previous visions of the Italian gangster did. In fact, Gardaphé has argued that Tony Soprano and his cohorts symbolize the assimilation of Italians into American society, as Tony and his family confront many of the same issues that non-ethnic Americans face today.”¹ This is most evident in the fact that Italian Americans seem to form the majority in New Jer

The Verdict

As both an Italian American (my maiden name is Ponzio) and an avid Sopranos fan, I have found it difficult to reconcile these two seemingly conflicting aspects of my identity, my perspective. And even now, after examining the history of the Italian American gangster as well as both sides of the argument concerning The Sopranos, I find it difficult to see a plain, black and white answer to my question: does The Sopranos perpetuate negative stereotypes about Italian Americans. I certainly find the evidence from the protesters’ side compelling; it’s difficult to argue with cold, hard statistical facts. Yet, I know the show is about more than stereotypes. And I tend to think that most other members of the audience are aware of this, too. What I see in the show instead is a vivid representation of the American family experience in a post-modern society—through the life of mobster, Tony Soprano. In this way, it seems that the Mafia is simply a vehicle for David Chase to present the struggles of Tony Soprano; would it be much different if he was a cut-throat business executive who was torn between his desire to succeed professionally and his desire to be a husband, father and friend? In some ways, no—his struggles are every-man’s struggles. But the Mafia certainly makes the struggle much more extreme, more apparent, more raw. And definitely more intriguing.

While I was reading Gardaphè, I came across an interesting quote by film scholar Jonathan Monby:

“The gangster film is a genre like pornography and the horror film, held in contempt socially and intellectually not because it may corrupt and not because it is artistically inferior to other kinds of film but because it realizes our dreams, exposes our deepest psychic urges…The genre speaks not merely our fascination/repulsion with aspects of our socioeconomic milieu that we prefer to shut our eyes to but also too our fascination/repulsion with the most haunting depths of ourselves” (60).

When I first read the quote, I felt infuriated, reduced, knowing that I have long been a fan of the gangster genre. (I recall watching The Untouchables with my father—the full-blooded Italian of my parents—and loving it even as a 13 year-old.) How could Monby reduce such masterpieces as The Godfather, Goodfellas, and yes, The Sopranos by putting it on the same level as pornography and horror movies? Yet, I knew as I read it, that he was speaking truth. After all, it echoed a similar revelation I had about a year ago after a discussion with my husband, which I wrote about in my personal blog:

Steve and I discussed this and more on Friday night–and then we talked about it again in class yesterday–that perhaps the fascination also lies in watching other people unequivocally take control, to resist boundaries…to do what they want. It’s human nature after all. And yet at the same time, I have no desire to do what they do, to murder those who offend me, break someone’s knees to get them to do what I want, or to be involved in gambling or drug trafficking in order to make inconceivable amounts of untaxable money. Granted, I don’t watch Sopranos for that reason–I appreciate it for the psychological aspect, the rich character development, the interaction between those on the show–but it wouldn’t be the same without the lawlessness.

And so, what conclusion have I reached? There is no simple conclusion. Yes, the show represents Italian Americans according to stereotypes—and just as with any text I encounter, I need to be aware of how my ideas and perceptions may be twisted through the text. But the show is more than that—and so, I will watch the final half of Season 6 at the beginning of April without feeling any shame or remorse, knowing that I am participating in an excellent piece of art.

Sources and (Re)sources

The following is a list of sources I cite in my entries:

1. AFI’s 100 Years 100 Movies
2. All Time 100 Best Films
3. David Chase: Creator
4. “A Class Act: Understanding the Italian/American Gangster” from Screening Ethnicity: Cinematographic Representations of Italian Americans in the United States. (Fred L Gardaphè)
5. Hollywood Italians: Dagos, Palookas, Romeos, Wise Guys, and Sopranos (Peter Bondanella)
6. “Introduction” from A Sitdown with The Sopranos (Regina Barreca)
7. “Rub Out Those Ads That Spoof the Mob” from the Hartford Courant (Matthew Kauffman)
8. “The Mafia and the Movies: Why is Italian American Synonymous with Organized Crime?” from Screening Ethnicity: Cinematographic Representations of Italian Americans in the United States (Ben Lawton)
9. “Back With a Vengeance: The Sopranos Returns Tonight After a Long Hiatus—and Richly Rewards Fans for Their Patience” from The Washington Post (Tom Shale)

During my research, I came across other interesting resources:

1. Bada Bing
2. Sicilian Culture
3. Sopranos Fans
4. Sopranoland
5. Stereotype This
6. The Sopranos Forum

Know of any other interesting sources relating to this topic? If so, post your contributions in a comment to this entry.