The Godfather Film Analysis

It is often portrayed in films that Italians use their hands to “talk”. It is normally seen as the person looking directly at someone and the persons hand is palm up with their fingers all touching each other. Also during the trial, the judge targets Vinny for not having proper clothing on which Vinny takes it as a threat to him personally. Vinny does not want his image to be tainted from one person’s opinion even if the person is correct. When this happens, Vinny takes the comment and defends himself and mouths off to the judge. Also when Vinny first shows up, he is blasting music that could be considered unnecessary. This is portrayed as Italians being rude. The last example of a stereotype would be when Vinny says yutes and not youths. It would be considered that Italians take short cuts when saying things like the classic example of “forget about

The gangster genre within films in America has accomplished numerous positive criticisms and constant willing audiences due to containing outstanding spectacles and mind-blowing action. The Godfather, being second on the IMDb Top 250 Movies, has set a new popular concept to life within the Mafia from their point of view. Doing so, creating a positive association. Yet within Italy, the same topic contains a complete different view. Movies such as I Cento Passi demonstrate unenthusiastic view by those whom are outside yet negatively affected by those members. Unlike American films, the gangsters are not as often viewed at the protagonist and are the main causes for the problematic events. But how different is Italian Mafia and American

One of the biggest stereotypes depicting Southern Italians as immoral is the idea that they are all affiliated with the Mafia. This WASP belief was formed based on a .0025% of truth. An extremely small population of the Southern Italians engaged in organized crime. However, WASPs believed that all organized crime was run by Italians, and that all Southern Italians were involved or connected with the crimes in some way. The Italian way of closeness of family and exclusiveness of anyone who was not family, helped confirm the WASPs’ theory of intertwined

One of the greatest films and novels of all time, The Godfather by Mario Puzo is the book that I chose to write my report about. This book falls under the drama and crime fiction genres, due to its dramatic story of people being shot and murdered. The Godfather takes place in New York during the years 1945-1955, right after World War II. Most of the story is written from a narrator 's perspective, save for two points in the book in which the story becomes a first person point of view. One of the themes portrayed in the novel is that family always comes first, even if it isn’t a blood-related family, but a crime family. The novel’s theme is primarily that of loyalty, which is a crucial plot device because some of the Corleone family

Due to the language barriers, cultures and people did not mix. The Italians remained with, socialized with, and committed crimes on other Italians within the Italian community. The Chicago Mafia remained incontact with the Mafia connections in Italy.

“It was during the troubled years of the 1860s that the Italian kingdom’s ruling class ruling class first heard talk of the mafia in Siciliy” (Dickie, s38, 2004). In this quote we find a potential reason to why the idea that the mafia was born during the making of the modern Italian state has become leading with scholars. Most likely this event shaped the mafia into what it has become because of the political influence that the Italian state bestowed upon Sicily. However, it is not unlikely that the mafia wasn’t already existing in Sicily during this time, and most definitely that criminal gangs of Sicily before this time had traits that were transferred into the mafia as it evolved under the new Italian kingdom. While the mafia is largely

Italy was one of the earliest countries to form a mafia due to unjust oppression from foreign governments. When Italian immigrants fled Sicily to enter the United States, they brought along their underground government with them, as well. The US deprived some of those immigrants from entering America which furthermore sparked the Mafia’s foundation. In An Examination of U.S. Immigration Policy and Serious Crime, Horowitz states that immigrant crime has promoted fear. Newcomers brought their criminal features who converted their societies into zones of lawlessness. Tensions between different ethnic groups have caused uneasiness. Jewish gangsters in New York victimized strikers into returning to work and stole from people. Italians ran extortion rings in San Francisco and prostitution houses in Chicago (Horowitz). America realized that allowing immigrants into their country has drastically increased their crime rates. Immigrants have brought corruption into America and illegal services. Italian immigrants brought their clandestine union which gave rise to the Blackhand. In his book, American Dreamers, Groth presents what Michael Woodiwiss said, “bootlegging presented second generation southern and eastern European immigrants that were Jews, Italians, Sicilians, Poles, Slavs and others with opportunities to climb the criminal hierarchy, many of whom accepted this as a form of occupation” (Woodiwiss 8). Immigrants have

When talking about a true American crime story, one can start and end the discussion with one of the most powerful and influential true stories ever told: GoodFellas. Based on the incredible true story, the film follows the rise and fall of Lucchese crime family associates Henry Hill and his friends throughout the 50s, 60s, 70s, and 1980s. Originally written as the non-fiction novel “Wise Guys” by Nicholas Pileggi, the story takes you deep into the world of arguably the most notorious crime posse America has ever known: the Italian Mafia. It is viewed by scores of critics and moviegoers alike as one of the greatest crime/drama movies ever filmed – so needless to say, with such a

These forms of entertainment consist of everything from the arts to sporting events. The Italians dominated the arts in both Europe and America. The Italian language itself has been known as the language of music for centuries since all musical terms are written in the Italian language. When Italians immigrated to the United States, they brought along with them their love and talent for the arts. This naturally included the opera, which has been widely associated with a popular outing for people of the upper class. Yet, the opera doesn’t have to be viewed in this way, for the opera is for everybody and tells stories through music. In fact, famous plays and songs are turned opera including that of William Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Art is another thing that comes with the Italian heritage, and Florence is regarded as the birthplace of the Renaissance and the resurgence of art. It was these works of the time that inspired many other Americans of Italian descent to create their own artwork such as Ralph Fasanella. Many musicians are regarding as being Italian. One musician, Frank Sinatra, has been known for his music career and is widely regarded as a popular musician. However, according to sources Sinatra has been viewed as a mafia member by many people who were prejudice towards the Italian race. This ethnic prejudice can largely be associated with the novel and film The Godfather. The 1969

First, Hollywood and the media had a negative portrayal of Italian-Americans compared to other ethnic groups. In the article Family, Gang, and Ethnicity in Italian-themed Hollywood Gangster Films, the author Silvia Dibeltulo states that in movies where both Italian-American and Irish-American gangsters were portrayed, Italian-American gangsters were portrayed as more “alien” whereas their Italian-American counterparts were portrayed as more “assimilated” . This led to Italians being negatively associated with the stereotypes from these movies, which led to anxiety across the country. The article goes on to state more differences between the depictions of Italian-American and Irish-American gangs in films. The

La Cosa Nostra Perhaps one of the most poignant moments in American cinema is the closing scene in the film “The Godfather” when Don Vito Corleone’s son Michael takes over his father’s position... and one of the most unforgettable moments, a severed horses’s head lies bloody in a man’s bed. It is this tradition and brutality that characterizes the Mafia, a secret Sicilian society that lives and functions just as much today on American soil as it did and does still in Italy. To understand this organized crime, one must begin to understand how it came to be organized in the first place. During the medieval times in Sicily, Arabs invaded the land and native Sicilians fled and took refuge in the hills. Some of these refugees formed a

The Italian Mafia in the U.S. can trace its origins all the way back to the Sicilian Mafia which was founded in Sicily during the 1800’s (Italian Organized Crime). After thousands of years of different armies with different nationalities conquering Italy and exploiting its people, the Sicilians became to be more clannish and family focused. Originally they were just resistance fighters that were protecting their friends and family. They were relied on for protection, justice, and survival. Nobody cared if they got money from it because it came from the oppressive authorities. Members of these groups were known as “Men of Honor” and they were well respected and even admired because they looked out for their family and kept silent sometimes even unto death. They didn’t become an organized crime group until the 1920’s however (Italian Organized Crime). It was around this same time that the US began to see what later became La Cosa Nostra or “our thing,” better known as the American Mafia which was aided by the “thousands of Italian organized crime figures, mostly Sicilian Mafiosi” who came to the United States illegally (Italian Organized Crime). The modern American Mafia is credited to Charles “Lucky” Luciano who came over in the 1920’s (Italian Organized Crime). Luciano structured La Cosa Nostra just like their Sicilian

The word Mafia itself has many meanings. In Arabic it means "refuge", which refers to the origins of the Mafia as a society that fled to the hills of Italy to avoid attack. Some Italians hold it as a word of high respect implying strength, courage, agility, quickness, endurance, and

The American Mafia, an Italian-American sorted out wrongdoing system with operations in urban communities over the United States, especially New York and Chicago, rose to control through its accomplishment in the illegal alcohol exchange amid the 1920s Prohibition period. After Prohibition, the Mafia moved into other criminal endeavors, from medication trafficking to illicit betting, while additionally invading worker 's parties and honest to goodness organizations, for example, development and New York 's article of clothing industry. The

Even women involved in Mafia related activities were not taken seriously when they were arrested and taken to trial. They had a certain concept that the Mafia was conservative and machoistic. Women were just seen as lacking the power to actually be in the Mafia. If a woman was featured in the news of committing a Mafia crime then she was seen as some kind of mythical creature, even if a male had committed the same crime. The youth and beauty of the women was prominent. The cruelty and brutality of the crimes were emphasized.