Hollywood's Italian American Filmmakers: Capra, Scorsese, Savoca, Coppola, and Tarantino by Jonathan J. Cavallero (review)

The films of Frank Capra, Martin Scorsese and Francis Ford Coppola are staples within American popular culture. These filmmakers and others like them have had great success in depicting family life and the American Dream on film. Yet even when such filmmakers are focusing on Italian-American themes, moviegoers often forget that the directors are themselves Italian Americans. In his book, Jonathan Cavallero not only reminds readers of the ethnicity of these directors, but he examines in great detail their contributions to how this ethnic group has been portrayed on film. In studying the movies of five Italian-American filmmakers, Capra, Scorsese, Coppola, Nancy Savoca and Quentin Tarantino, Cavallero traces the evolution of the depiction of Italian-Americans on film from what he terms Capra's "denial" of ethnicity to Tarantino's "performance" of ethnicity. In the process, he provides historians and students of film with a valuable tool for understanding the place of media in the study of history.

An Italian American himself, Cavallero admits that he was "not very ethnic" growing up (xiii). Yet he argues that ethnicity runs deep, that it is apparent in the way a family interacts and communicates. In studying the work of the above five filmmakers, Cavallero analyzes the concept of ethnicity as it relates to Italian Americans in various circumstances, whether they be immigrants newly arrived in the U.S. or second and third generation Italian Americans trying to find their place in the world while maintaining ties to their families and neighborhoods. He begins by examining the films of Frank Capra, a director working at a time of what the author calls "ethnic denial" (10), and ends his study with the postmodern oeuvre of Tarantino. Throughout, he carefully investigates the evolution of the perception of Italians and Italian Americans on film; he also discusses such issues as gender through Savoca's female working-class protagonists, the depiction of violence in Coppola's Godfather films, and the changing dynamic of the Italian family. His discussion of the Godfather films is especially interesting in this respect as he traces the various ways characters attempt to protect their loved ones even though the family is "always in jeopardy" in the trilogy (119). In addition, he uses the concept of La Bella Figura (the idea that there are social norms and modes of behavior that are acceptable within Italian American culture) to examine the dilemmas of many characters in these films who wish to break with tradition but do not know how or are afraid to do so--J.R. (Harvey Keitel) in Scorsese's Who's that Knocking at My Door (1967), for example. In his discussion of each filmmaker it becomes clear that some of these artists relate more to their Italian roots than others. Nancy Savoca, for example, is ambivalent about her ethnicity since her father was born in Italy but raised in Argentina. When asked if she considers herself Italian American, her response is "Yes and no. And yes and no...." (77). In the case of Tarantino, the author actually poses the question: "Is Tarantino, despite his lack of any interaction with his father, Italian American?" According to Cavallero, in Tarantino's films ethnicity is defined primarily through performance (see, for example, the discussion of Kill Bill, Volume 1 and Reservoir Dogs as well as the chapter sub-titles "Identity as performance" and "How to feel Ethnic without being Ethnic" 129; 128; 145).

One thing that makes this book so intriguing is that it traces the historical experience of this important group of people in the United States. What it means to be Italian American has clearly changed since Capra's time and in making Capra and Tarantino bookends of his study, Cavallero gives the reader a glimpse into the history of Italian Americans from their immigrant experience to their place in American society today. Some of these directors are critical of...