3 Gangster Films That Explore The American Immigrant Experience
1. The Godfather: Part II
The Jewish gangster has constantly been overshadowed by the Italian, however, and there have been countless films depicting its cultural background since the establishment of the Little Italies. The Italian American is more commonly associated with organized crime than any other ethnicity, and Coppolas The Godfather II offers the immigrant experience through Vito Corleones storyline. Alike the Jews, a great number of Italians migrated to the Americas during 1880 to 1920, and most were peasants who left Southern Italy only to exchange rural for urban poverty (Rollins, 2003, p. 256). According to Ferraro, the main aspiration to a life in America was the transition to a city of opportunity, since most Italians came from villages where a train did not go, electricity was scarcely a rumor, and [] women still lugged water by donkey and on their heads (2005, p. 31). This diverges away from the Jews and the Irish, who migrated to the New World partially to escape social reclusion; Italy actually underwent peacetime throughout the majority of this period of immigration. 1870 to 1914 went through the technologies of the Second Industrial Revolution (that) allowed nations to reinvent their economies, [] 1896 marked the end of the international depression, and (it was) the liquidation of Italys Ethiopian War (Choate, 2008, p. 76). Even so, Italian laborers could earn higher wages abroad, and due to the pressures of industrialization and changing markets, transoceanic emigration became more attractive and more necessary (Choate, 2008, p. 3). Vitos (Robert DeNiro) immigrant experience in Godfather II differs to the one of the average Italian, since the mafias intervention prompted young Vitosescape to the Americas. His father and his brother are assassinated by Don Ciccio, who also wishes to kill the remaining son in order to avoid any revenge plot in the near future. Vitos mother sacrifices herself in order to save him, and Vito runs away. He is then smuggled onto a ship heading to Ellis Island. Once in America, though, Vito endures an entire process in order to enter the country, which differs significantly with Amsterdams liberal experience in Gangs. In this period, immigration restrictions were severe. Between 1875 to 1917, convicts and prostitutes, the Chinese, lunatics, [] people with contagious diseases, [] (and others) were put in the list of undesirables (Mauk & Oakland, 1995, p. 70). Vito is diagnosed with smallpox, and therefore is separated into this crowd of the undesired. Coppola follows up with a tracking shot displaying the magnitude of Americas multiculturalism, and the many languages provide the audible essence of an immigrant experience prior to legally entering America. Years pass, and Vito works at Abbandando Grosseria as an adult. He lives in the Lower East Side, and theenvironment is nearly identical to the one in America. The main difference are the ethnicities that fill the frame, given that the community in America is predominantly Jewish, whereas in Coppolas film, Italian. Several events begin to lure Vito away from his conventional lifestyle, such as losing his job because the grocer is forced to hire the nephew of the Black Hand the local extortionist named Fanucci who makes everyone in the neighborhood pay protection money (Yaquinto, 1998, p. 136). The Black Hand did not represent an actual organization but a criminal phenomenology, a form of crime practiced by groups that operated independently [] (and) focused on skimming from the economic transactions of the poor (Lupo, 2009, p. 145). Vito, although composed, is upset after how Fanucci has affected his life. Conversely, he also learns that every man can and should make his own success, while society at large benefits from this competition and regulates it for maximum efficiency (Browne, 2000, p. 60). He despises Fanucci for various reasons, but as he says himself, if hes Italian, why does he bother other Italians?. Ferraro explains that Italians in America had turned to crime not only because they didnt yet have the forms of knowledge and cultural capital, [] but also [] because [] underground entrepreneurship is effective at keeping families together (2005, p. 110). Vito personifies this quote exquisitely, since the humbleness that he proffers to his immigrant compatriots the very same one visible in The Godfather (Coppola, 1972) turns into his forte. Vito takes over the neighborhoods control after killing Fanucci, and he becomes a beneficial feudal lord [] (that) helped all. Not only that, but he helped them with goodwill, with encouraging words to take the bitter sting out of the charity he gave them (Gardaphé, 2006, p. 39). In a way, Vitos higher concern for others than for himself may be what allowed him to climb to the level seen in the prequel, which someone with Fanuccis character would not accomplish. The immigrant experience is applicable in this context because it contrasts the highly regulated and ruthlessly enforced codes of honor and obedience imported from Sicily with the ineffectual and corrupt forces of authority that immigrants encounter in America (Silver & Ursini, 2007, p. 171). Vitos methods may be on the dirty side of the law, but naming him a self-appointed benevolent dictator may be too rough. If anything, he is a harsh democrat who wanders around, listens, and complies with the wishes of his immigrant brothers and sisters.