What got lost in the Will Smith/Chris Rock smack-down at the Oscar ceremony is the “surprise” win for CODA, an indie movie about a deaf American fishing family on the East Coast (Gloucester, MA). Actually, indie in this sense only means they had to finance it independently: Mainstream Hollywood – the people who proudly wear their tolerance on their sleeve – wasn’t eager to back a film featuring genuine hearing-impaired actors, even though one of them, Marlee Matlin, was the first deaf actress to win an Oscar back in 1986 for Children of a Lesser God.
(The lead actress in CODA, the British teen Emilia Jones, can speak as well as sign. She is superb.)
Having just watched CODA in an actual movie theater, where the small audience did indeed laugh and cry, I can attest that there’s nothing original or independent about it. Basically, it’s Rocky, yet with deaf characters. Instead of a punch-drunk boxer, the entire fishing family is a substitute for Rocky Balboa; they overcome odds both via each other and via their fishing community, all of which neatly get resolved by the end of the movie. The only surprise in the script is finding out that the girl’s prissy, demanding choir teacher. isn’t gay. Why the screenwriter, who is so obviously committed to dispelling stereotypes, wrote the choir teacher’s role in such a way is strange. But the character is still a fish-out-of-water: an Hispanic amongst white ethnics. Woke points scored!
The word ‘ethnic’ gets me back to CODA. The fishing family in the film has the surname “Rossi.” When I first read the synopsis of the film a few months ago, this gave me hope. Rossi is, after all, still one of the most popular surnames in Italy. But when the film ended, it became very clear to me why there wasn’t a single allusion to the family’s ethnicity – not even something as simple as a character signing, “My grandfather was a fisherman in Italy.”
The Rossi family in CODA is a “positive” one. No mob ties. No dysfunctional behaviors. Not even a reference to baccalà. In short: “regular Americans.” This is very revealing because in nearly all movies where the Italian characters act in negative ways, even in comedies like My Cousin Vinny, they carry an ethnic taint.
Even those with only a cursory knowledge of Italian American history know that Italians brought fishing skills with them. The Italian affinity for water, of course, begins with the litany of great explorers who opened up North America, from John Cabot in Canada (1497) to Enrico Tonti accompanying LaSalle down the Mississippi in 1682. Not to mention someone like Alessandro Malaspina, who sailed for Spain and mapped out the Pacific Coast (1790s).
But Italian fishermen specifically turned California into an economic powerhouse, mining the coast from up north in San Francisco all the way down to San Diego. Author John Steinbeck mentions this in many of his set-in-Monterey novels like Cannery Row. (Incidentally, Steinbeck loved Italy, and Positano in particular). There is even a statue dedicated to the Italian fishing community in San Jose. Italic contributions via the East Coast fishery are equally as historic.
Italians also worked the docks of New Orleans after the Civil War, importing foodstuffs and even building materials. They were so successful, in fact, that the Anglos bosses who employed them pitted work crews against each other, hoping to exploit them. This led to the infamous 1891 lynching.
So here was a chance to remind movie audiences of that rich, very positive legacy by showing a loving Italian family who prefer pike to pasta. No woke points scored! Italian Americans, and our history, just do not count. But if the girl’s older brother had been involved in a gambling ring….well, you know.
We must comfort ourselves that non-Italians will see the name Rossi and somehow make a positive association. True, the family in the film does “talk with their hands” (groan); but even that feeble attribute will not register.
BTW: CODA means “Child of Deaf Adults.” When will tone-deaf Hollywood turn on their hearing aids and listen to the real Italian American experience? -BDC
Thank you Bill for the wonderful commentary. On a personal note the depiction of the piano teacher as gay would have been a huge step up from Hollywood’s depiction of them. They are normally depicted as ruthless, competitive monsters. I often tell everyone that I hit the trifecta of movie defamation. I am male, Italian-American and a piano teacher.
The classic American film Citizen Kane has an Italian opera coach who tries — desperately — to coach Charles Foster Kane’s ditzy young trophy wife. She has a terrible voice. Interestingly, he is the only character in the film who comes right and tells Mr. Kane that she is hopeless. Blunt honesty. Very Italian! But many non-Italians might find his bluntness to be rude. In context, it is not. It speaks integrity.
The Hispanic piano teacher in CODA does, too. I would guess that non-Hispanics would consider him the same. My only caveat with his portrayal is that, within the context of the film’s very “woke” ideology (i.e., pro-labor; showing a deaf family as regular folk; and having a young female in the leading role), it would seem only natural to make him gay as well. His hipster hair, fey mannerisms, etc. would lead one to believe this. But maybe the filmmaker didn’t want to push her luck. Why?
Mille grazie! Our work is cut out for us. We must educate and use the tools we have to stop the defamation of Italian Americans. We can’t give up! Hollywood’s depiction has and is doing great harm.
I can think of only three Hollywood films that depict Italian-Americans in a positive light: Marty, Moonstruck, and Lorenzo’s Oil. Perhaps Serpico could be included as well, but I am not certain that the title character was Italian-American.
Serpico (still alive) definitely is Italian American
I’m amazed that you know Marty and Lorenzo’s Oil. Most people can’t get past Rocky or Moonstruck. You’re far ahead of everyone. Kudos!
If you go to my educational website (www.stereotypethis.com), go to the menu/link for “Joe Truth vs. Hollywood.” I give many examples of how Hollywood deliberately distorts our history and culture. I also then show examples of positive movies.
The Film Research Project on the Italic Institute of America’s website (www.italic.org) also has a section listing many more positive films/portrayals of Italians on film.
Go to Research Library, then scroll down to Film Research Project. You will get statistics but not the list. For that, you have to send a $20 donation to the Institute for a copy of the full (64 page) report. Money well invested! Knowledge is power.
This article made me research more about the topic. I found out that, during WW2, many Italian fishermen had their boats confiscated. See this interesting article on what happened in San Francisco.
https://www.foundsf.org/index.php?title=Italian_Fishing_Ban_WWII
Have those fishermen ever offered a reparation or an apology?
A good source of information on the 1942 persecution is Stephen Fox’s book The Unknown Internment. The fishing boats were confiscated and compensation made after the war, hardly fair considering the lost income. See our Italic Way issue XXII, 1994 in our Research Library for a good summary of the persecution. You can also go online to “La Storia Secreta” for more details.