The following Letter to
the Editor by Rosario Iaconis was published in the
New York Times on Sunday
Jan. 7, 2001. It responds to the article by Maria
Laurino, published in both
the New York Times and the Ottawa Citizen: "From
the Fonz to The Sopranos,
what's changed? For generations,
Italians depicted as clichés
by TV."
Rosario is the Director of
the Italic Studies Institute of New York.
http://www.italic.org
Laurino's article appeared
on December 24,2000 in the New York Times and in
the Ottawa Citizen on Thursday
December 28, 2000.
Francesca L'Orfano
January 7, 2001
Letters
ITALIAN AMERICANS
Ethnic Self-Loathing
To the Editor:
Sadly, the origin of television's
Italian-American Neanderthals owes as much
to ethnic self-loathing
as it does to the bottom-line machinations of media
moguls or the selective
stereotyping practiced by bigoted network
executives. Although she
painstakingly traces the gradual devolution of a
people in her article "From
the Fonz to `The Sopranos,' Not Much Evolution,"
[Dec. 24], Maria Laurino
fails to identify the true dramatis personae in
this Italophobic tragedy:
the scions of Italy.
Whether the culprit is Paul
Sorvino's sausage-and-pepper patriarch in
"That's Life," Jerry Vale
and his "Mob Hits" CD or James Gandolfini's savage
Tony Soprano, far too many
Italian-Americans are quick to betray their
heritage for 15 minutes
of shame.
While other ethnicities wage
sophisticated media campaigns to purge the
airwaves of pejorative images,
Italian-Americans play the willing pagliacci
in Tinseltown's three-ring
circus of prejudice. It's Stepin Fetchit meets
the Big Lie at the Badda
Bing club.
Unfortunately, in their headlong
rush to assimilation, Italian-Americans
have allowed anti-Italian
programming to flourish on television. Ms. Laurino
is wrong to assert that
"The Sopranos" represents "a masterly look at
Italian-American culture."
It is offal that all clear-headed
Italian-Americans must refuse.
ROSARIO A. IACONIS
Mineola, N.Y.
ITALIC STUDIES INSTITUTE:
"IMAGE RESEARCH PROJECT:
ITALIAN CULTURE ON FILM" (1928--2000)
Conducted from 1996-2000
TOTAL ITALIAN RELATED FILMS SINCE SOUND
ERA (1928) 1078
Films which portray Italians
in a positive light 297 (27%)
Films which portray Italians
in a negative light 781 (73%)
INDIVIDUAL CATEGORIES 1078
Mob characters 430 (40%)
(Real mob characters) 59
(14%)
(Fake mob characters) 371
(86%)
Boors, buffoons, bigots
or bimbos 351 (33%)
Positive or complex portrayals
297 (27%)
INFLUENCE OF "THE GODFATHER"
(1972)
Mob movies prior to "The
Godfather" 109 (25%)
Mob movies after "The Godfather"
321(75%)
TOTAL NUMBER OF ITALIAN
AMERICANS (1990 U.S. Census) 14.7 million
TOTAL NUMBER OF ITALIAN
CRIMINALS (1999 F.B.I. Statistics) 1,150 (.01%)
(Historically, Italians gang
members never numbered more than 5,000, which
amounts to less than .03%
of the overall Italian American community.)
GENERAL FINDINGS:
1) Over 300 movies featuring
Italians as criminals have been produced since
the success of "The Godfather"
(1972), an average of 8 mob movies a year over
the past 28 years.
2) Of the overall total 430
mob movies, only 14% are based on real-life
criminals. The remaining
86% are fictionalized stereotypes.
3) Positive or complex portrayals
of Italians are often treated
fleetingly--i.e., as supporting
characters. It is indeed rare to have a film
featuring a complex, non-stereotypical
Italian character as a main
protagonist from start to
finish (e.g., Al Pacino in 1973's "Serpico" or
Meryl Streep in 1996's "The
Bridges of Madison County").
4) The criteria for selecting
films is based on image, not aesthetics. Thus,
although "The Godfather"
is indeed a great film, it falls under the category
of "negative" for portraying
crime as an "integral" part of Italian culture.
In the 1995 film, "To Die
For", based on a true story, Nicole Kidman's
character (above) tricks
three teens into killing her low-brow Italian
husband whose family gets
even by hiring a mobster to kill her.
In real-life, however, the
only Italians involved were the two State
Attorneys, Paul Maggiotto
and Diane Nicolosi, who convicted the murderess to
a life sentence. (Shades
of Daniel Petrocelli beating O.J. Simpson at his
civil trial!).
"To Die For" is a typical
example of how the facts of real-life incidents are
often distorted or misinterpreted
to put a "negative" spin on
Italian-Americans.
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