Abstract
This chapter offers an analysis of the complex ethnic representation of the Italian family in Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, exploring the ideological significance of the Corleone family during the 1970s. By focusing on the contrasting models of patriarchy embodied by Vitto and Michael Corleone, the chapter argues that Coppola’s film not only challenges the representation of the American family as appearing in films such as Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life and John Cromwell’s Since You Went Away, but also rewrites Hollywood’s construction of the image of the Italian gangster epitomized by films such as Howard Hawks’ Scarface. The chapter concludes with a study of how Coppola skillfully brings to the forefront the hybrid nature of the Corleone family, marked by overwhelming love and fear, in order to cast doubts on the political order of the Nixon era—an era in which private and public interests clashed.
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Acknowledgements
I would like to express my gratitude to Barbara Bandiera, William Boelhower, and Denise Monk for their invaluable comments and advice.
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Lena, A. (2016). All My Sons: The Godfather and the Cinematic Representation of the Italian-American Family. In: Arapoglou, E., Kalogeras, Y., Nyman, J. (eds) Racial and Ethnic Identities in the Media. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-56834-2_12
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