Early Representations
During the 1930’s all the way to the 1960’s there were various gangster films that captured the imagination of American audiences. These films like Mervyn Leroy’s Little Caesar (1930) and Howard Hawks’ Scarface (1932) tried to profit from the gangster craze brought on by the media coverage of gang violence. Most of the time all the gangsters would be played by a White, non-Italian, male who took on personas of what they thought a gangster would be like, usually greedy, woman chasing, and violent. These films were brought to screen because the well known gangsters like Al Capone and the violence of the Castellammarese War was still fresh in the minds of many Americans and the movie industry wanted to capitalize on it. The movies were often cheap and shallow, with the main themes being about freedom and fighting against the system. It allowed WASP male audiences to live a fantasy role, much like that of a pirate, or a cowboy, in which they could live in a free world and do what they wanted to. It often portrayed the hyper masculine characters whom were based on real life Italian mobsters, as cultureless opting to only focus on the actions while ignoring any trace of ethnicity attached to the representation except occasionally a bad Brooklyn accent. WASP audiences could enjoy the thrill of the gangster life without ever having to acknowledge any cultural impacts the character would have or any customs they might keep. Basically, keep the Italian parts out of the movie about Italians. This would change with award winning movie series known as the Mario Puzo’s The Godfather (1974).
