Hollywood Italians: Dagos, Palookas, Romeos, Wise Guys, and Sopranos

by Peter Bondanella

From the silent era and The Black Hand (1906) to HBO's hit series The Sopranos, Hollywood has had a love-hate affair with Italian Americans. Now in paperback, Hollywood Italians is a celebration of nearly a century of images of Italians in American motion pictures and their often under-appreciated, underpraised, and truly remarkable contribution to popular culture. Hollywood Italians covers the careers of dozens of stars among them Rudolph Valentino, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Al Pacino, Robert De Niro, John Travolta, Sylvester Stallone, Marisa Tomei, and James Galdolfini. In addition, the book reviews the work of such Italian American directors as Francis Ford Coppola and Martin Scorsese in a fresh light. In all, Hollywood Italians discusses scores of films with a concentration on their literary and European-cinematic roots. The book is capped by a no-holds-barred examination of The Godfather and its two sequels as well as the international television phenomenon The Sopranos.

Genres: Nonfiction

352 pages, Paperback

First published July 1, 2004

About the author

Peter Bondanella (1943–2017) was Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Italian, Comparative Literature, and Film Studies at Indiana University, United States.

Reviews

[Angela Messaglia · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know why I read this.... but found it at the library in high school, and really liked it. hahahaha

[Bowdoin]

Alex Brasili–"Hollywood Italians" is a fantastic book about the portrayal of Italian Americans in film all the way from silent black and white movies up until the present day HBO hit "The Sopranos". The book is separated into chapters dealing with common Italian American stereotypical roles such as boxers, mafiosi, and Romeos. The book also deals with ethnic prejudice towards Italian Americans in films from the early to mid- 1900s. As a fan of "The Sopranos" and the "Godfather" movies, it was enjoyable to read this book and learn about the development of the Italian American character film. I also discovered some movies in this book that I would like to rent!