A few blogs ago to quote the Carpenters’ famous song, (“seems like yesterday!”), I wrote about the boom-boom-boom, three-in-a-row celebrity deaths of Ray Liotta, James Caan, and Tony Sirico, all of whom profited considerably from mob movies.
Sadly, I now have to do a follow-up, only this time the three “mob-stars” are still very much living, albeit practically walking corpses: actor Robert De Niro, director Barry Levinson, and writer Nick Pileggi – all of whom, according to an August 16th article in the Hollywood Reporter by Borys Kit, are doing a “new” mob movie called Wise Guys.
(BTW: “Borys Kit” is a great gangster name. I wonder if the writer would feel honored if I mentioned this to him?)
I deliberately put the word “new” in quotes because there’s absolutely nothing new under the Tuscan sun about this project. Even the title is a steal of a (very unfunny) 1986 mob comedy by Brian De Palma called Wise Guys, with Danny De Vito and Joe Piscopo. “Familiarity breeds contempt” is a phrase which, bizarrely, doesn’t apply to mob flicks.
The “new” element in this one is that De Niro will play not one, but TWO real-life Italian American thugs: Frank Costello and Vito Genovese. Yet this trick isn’t new, either – it’s a variation of a special-effects technique used in 2019’s The Irishman which allowed the elderly De Niro to also play a younger version of himself. Both sides were equally dull.
The only possibly novel element in this misguided mess is that it might actually force De Niro to finally try and act for a change, as Costello and Genovese were polar opposites – Costello a glad-handing gambler who hobnobbed with New York high society, Genovese a rat-faced killer who tried to assassinate Costello and died in prison from selling heroin.
Yet even if it does, who cares? Basically, Hollywood is now cannibalizing itself, though the fodder remains Italian Americana. The industry’s anti-Italian animus seems to be doing its own variation on a famous bubblegum TV ad: “Double your pleasure, double the defamation.” Two De Niros for the price of one? It’s a double rip-off.
Imagine if De Niro had nixed the Costello-Genovese idea and, instead, demanded to juxtapose New York Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia and his protege, Congressman Vito Marcantonio, also from the 1930s era.
Unlike the nefarious duo whom Hollywood is lionizing, La Guardia and Marcantonio made America a better place—LaGuardia by appointing the nation’s first Black female judge (Jane Bolin, 1939), and Marcantonio by fighting anti-Italian bigots on the House floor while also campaigning for civil rights. Note how both men were way ahead of their time.
To his credit, director Levinson helmed the 1991 mob movie Bugsy with Warren Beatty as the infamous Jewish thug Bugsy Seigel, the “godfather of Las Vegas.” Meyer Lansky (played by the British/Indian actor Ben Kingsley) played an important supporting role in the film, as did Mickey Cohen (played by Harvey Keitel). Even Elliot Gould, the superstar actor of the mid-1970s, played a lesser known but still major gangster named Harry Greenberg.
Though thugs with vowels at the end of their names were also in the film – hard to avoid, as Lansky and Lucky Luciano were both boyhood friends and then adult associates – Bugsy was one of the last Hollywood movies to suggest the truly multi-cultural nature of American organized crime, an idea not-very-forcefully conveyed over the past decades.
Perhaps, like the late James Gandolfini, who was considering a Sopranos feature film just before he died, De Niro will meet his maker, too, before making this movie. That may sound harsh but such words fall on deaf ears anyway, be they insensitive Hollywood big-wigs or de-sensitized American filmgoers who continue to accept such blatant defamation.
(Sidenote: De Niro has fallen out of favor with Italian Americans over the last few years – not for making endless mob movies, mind you, but for insulting President Trump using the f-word. So much for Italian pride. Up until then, he was A-OK? Sheesh.)
I came across a quote from one of my personal heroes the other day, Benjamin Franklin, who wrote to his wife: “I have only one wish: I’d like to come back to earth a hundred years from now to see what progress has been made.”
I get the depressing feeling that, in 2122 – if Planet Earth is still around – actors and writers with Italian surnames will continue to degrade their magnificent culture ad infinitum and ad nauseum. -BDC
So sad, it is amazing what money can do. Some will even sell their soul. It horrible when I see them honored in our Italian American community. Even if they are outstanding as actors, or the movie is artistic great they don’t get my support. When they betray our treasured Italian heritage, they should be told loud and clear.
Joe Pesci and Al Pacino for certain can be added to the list.
As for Vito Marcantonio, he was viewed as Puerto Rico’s unofficial representative in Congress given the large Puerto Rican constituency in his East Harlem district. He respected and supported that community, along with his large Italian-American constituency. Thousands of people turned out for his funeral in East Harlem. He was a rare bird in Congress: someone who not only identified with his voting base but who enjoyed residing side by side with them and meeting with him regularly. He was a strong supporter of The New Deal.
Three things can be viewed as certain: death, taxes and PBS NOT doing a special on the life of Vito Marcantonio.
I was recently surprised to find out that they made a documentary about Vito Russo, an Italian-American activist. It is available on major platforms, I believe.
He wrote The Celluloid Closet: Homosexuality in the Movies to denounce anti-gay bigotry in Hollywood. He was ahead of his time like LaGuardia and Marcantonio.
I have not watched the documentary. Is it worth watching it? if I have to guess, his being Italian is probably referenced along lines such as “..despite coming from a traditional backward anti-gay Italian family and growing up in tough neighborhood….”
It would be great if the Institute did a review of the documentary.
1) Money: That’s a huge part of it, but not for people like De Niro, Pesce, Pacino, etc. These guys are NOT “struggling actors.” But they certainly are lost souls. Che triste.
2) Vito Marcantonio: He was popular with African Americans, too, given his campaign against lynchings. And he was incredibly eloquent–no dumb dago at all.
3) Never saw it but it might be interesting. Two other Italian Americans were prominent in the gay rights movement: Michelangelo Signorile and Michael Musto. Even more interesting: Greenwich Village in New York was still heavily Italian American when gays made it their unofficial home in the 1950s and 60s–and they also felt “safe” via the open and welcoming attitudes of its residents.
I enjoyed reading the article and the comments. And, yes, being full Italian-American, I never watched THE SOPRANOS, because it furthered the idea that all Italian men or brutes and murderers and all Italian women are whores.
Non Italian people don’t know that the “Mob” is only a small portion of Italian immigrants. They also don’t know how strict Italian Papas are when raising their daughters. A slight smudge on an Italian girl’s reputation would void her chances of making a good marriage. In my humble home, we never used the slurs, “dago, wop, guinea”. But, we heard non Italians call us such. BTW, I wish Hollywood would make a movie of any of my books. Go to Amazon and type my name and you will see eleven books about Italian families and life…no X-rated scenes…