Racist movie - The Godfather (1972) Discussion

No it doesn't.

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[–] moviechatterer (13284) 4 years ago

Sure it does , nearly all the people in the film are italian and are criminals

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Yeah, but it isn't trying to represent all italians. You don't need a disclaimer in the beginning of the movie to understand that.

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[–] moviechatterer (13284) 4 years ago

"During the making of The Godfather, the Italian-American Civil Rights League organized protests, because it felt that the film would only reinforce the “Italian equals mobster” stereotype. And, to some extent, of course, it did"

source:
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/what-is-the-godfather-effect-83473971/

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[–] pjl69 (2430) 4 years ago

So, some activists and a journalist thought the same. So what? The story was about mafia, not about italian people, so naturally the main characters were criminals.

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[–] moviechatterer (13284) 4 years ago

You are correct of course, this is a parody thread of sorts.

There are hundreds of threads on this site saying "this film is racist!"
But i bet not one of those threads has a valid reason for saying it ,
and its even less likely that the poster is upset by the percieved racism.

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[–] marktayloruk (2378) a year ago

IACRL front for the Colombo family.

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[–] kwestmo (4114) 4 years ago

I realize from this post and others you are a troll and a moron, but I will play along.

Italians are not a race. Italians are an ethnicity which fall under racial category of Caucasian. Is the film saying all Caucasians are criminals?

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[–] moviechatterer (13284) 4 years ago

I just wanted to have a "This film is racist" post all of my very own, everyone else seems to have one.
it makes about as much sense as any of the others

Very few of the "This is racist!" posts refer to actual races

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[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

So you create a thread like this when in the thread for Rogue you said:

"Wheres all the proper action heroes?
The ones with the big white men with the big muscles that i liked!"

Apparently if you are looking for racists then you need only look in the mirror... and most likely if you want to find a homosexual keep looking in that mirror.

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[–] moviechatterer (13284) 4 years ago

That was a parody of the OP , rather than my own preferences of action heroes.
The subtlety was obviously lost on you.

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[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Yeah, more like you got called out as the fake you are.

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[–] Roguemail (1564) 4 years ago

I remember Richard Pryor famously said in his first live concert movie something like...

"Its not true that all Italian people are in the Mafia. But they all WORK for the Mafia".

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[–] liscarkat (16522) 4 years ago

Unless the movie and the novel it was based on were made by blacks, Asians, Native Americans, or Australian Aborigines, they are not racist. Italians are Caucasians. The book and movie were created by men of Italian ancestry.

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[–] moviechatterer (13284) 4 years ago

ok , correct , so whats the word for when someone that discriminates against a person of a specific country?
Like when west coast Americans dis Mexicans 'cause "they took our jerrbs" ?
Or an unrational hatred of Japanese because grandad fought them in the war?

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[–] MovieBuff224 (5053) 4 years ago

Unrational? 😖

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[–] moviechatterer (13284) 4 years ago

sorry ! I do remember looking at that word when I wrote it and totally failing to think of the correct one , so left it , half believing that it was correct :)

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[–] strntz (10808) 4 years ago

I've found that as I'm getting older, simple words I've used a million times don't come to mind, or words I've spelled correctly for over 50 years are typed out wrong. I know they're wrong but I'll often just switch to another tab until the word I want to use or spell correctly filters through the grey matter. Sometimes I come back and push "reply" without correcting the word or leaving the word out. LOL.

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[–] wearsalan (5554) 4 years ago

ok , correct , so whats the word for when someone that discriminates against a person of a specific country?

Discrimination is the word

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[–] duckofprey (1535) 4 years ago

Italian is not a race.

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[–] moviechatterer (13284) 4 years ago

ok , correct , so whats the word for when someone that discriminates against a person of a specific country?
Like when west coast Americans dis Mexicans 'cause "they took our jerrbs" ?
Or an unrational hatred of Japanese because grandad fought them in the war?

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[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

Xenophobe.

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[–] moviechatterer (13284) 4 years ago

ooh good one , i will edit the OP

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[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

I don't know if this is a parody post, but just so you guys know, Italians and Italian-Americans picketed this movie to hell and back before it was released:

Controversy surrounded the film from the beginning: Soon after Paramount Pictures announced its production, the Italian-American Civil Rights League held a rally in Madison Square Garden, claiming the film would amount to a slur against Italian Americans. The uproar only increased publicity for the movie, which Paramount was counting to become a big-money hit after the success of Puzo’s novel.

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/francis-ford-coppolas-the-godfather-opens

Italian-Americans were very sensitive to any movie or TV show that had them as mobsters. They successfully forced the producers of The Untouchables to stop making all of the bad guys Italians.

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[–] strntz (10808) 4 years ago

I grew up in a Jewish Italian neighborhood, and most Italians of my acquaintance loved the film and still do. Sure, there are the anal compulsive Huns in any group, and they just love to bitch about anything they can.

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[–] [deleted] 4 years ago

That's not really saying much considering that African-Americans also embraced gangsta rap, which glamorized gang banging and cop killing.

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[–] strntz (10808) 4 years ago

There's a huge difference between actually "embracing" the gangsta and cop killing life and simply enjoying a movie about the same.

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[–] phillipsdan83 (99) 2 years ago

BTW, the Italian-American group that picketed the movie and protested THE UNTOUCHABLES was a Mafia front group.

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[–] Adam60z (3749) 4 years ago

Not. However you're right in a way in that that's how many people perceived it at the time and many people did stereotype Italians based on this film even though the character Tom Hagen wasn't even Italian, nor was actor James Caan. John Cazale was 1/2. The film itself did not stereotype them though.

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[–] Teaser (55) a year ago

Nobody in the threads says anything about the comment made by one of the mafia bosses at the meeting about restricting the drug trade to "the dark people, who are animals anyway; let them lose their souls."

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