Spike Magazine

Spike | 15 YEARS OF BOOKS, MUSIC, ART, IDEAS | www.spikemagazine.com
his strength in a culturally accepted ‘male’ activity.
It is often more effectively done through homoerotic
traditions of representation, since these are the most
obvious ones available for such purposes. Unlike
women, gay men have had the economic strength to
market the male physique, from the Athletic Model’s
Guild studio shots of the 1950s to the huge gay porn
industry of today. In the screen representation of the
Italian-American man there is a tension between the
use of such homoeroticism (the spectator is invited to
love these men) and the denial of homosexuality (the
Italian is a virile, heterosexual family man).
“I make you an offer you can’t refuse”
The Godfather provides the models for Italian-
American screen masculinity throughout the 70s.
Within its family epic structure, The Godfather’s main
concern is with how to be a man, and Coppola’s men
rely heavily on nostalgia. The Don (Marlon Brando)
is guardian and his business is family. The Donis/
Brando’s image is constructed in opposition to Salazzo
the Turk’s, his ‘business’ rival, a man who looks like
the devil incarnate with his oily, flappy face and his
swanky fur-collared coat. The Don, however, is clean
cut; he benignly rejects Salazzo’s offer of a place in the
drugs racket as a “dirty business”, choosing instead to
talk about his “sentimental weakness” for his children.
Salazzo has no family, no “honour” to cleanse him.
The Don is Italian through and through, but he is also
Americanised enough to remain a hero.
Coppola has it both ways, then: whilst the Don is
successful and all powerful, he is also aging and falling
from his position, lending him a tragic poignancy and
creating a nostalgia for the perfect Italian-American man
he once was. He is even associated with an ‘American’
innocence and abundance: he dies amongst the tomato
plants, stumbling into the verdure whilst pretending to
be a monster to amuse his grandson. It is as if the Don
was only performing monstrousness all along so that he
could keep order in his pastoral family garden, so that
he could reap the harvest of America.
The Godfather establishes a range of masculinities
which line up to take their shot at filling the Don’s
shoes. Sonny Corleone, as played by James Caan, is
the sweating, sexy beefcake Latin of the film, swaggering
about and exploding in sporadic bursts of violence.
Coppola gives us many glimpses of Sonny’s/Caan’s
body, usually clad in a tight white vest, showing off
his muscled shoulders and his chest hair, which seems
to be as uncontrollable as his libido. The white vest
is an essential item of the screen Italian-American
man’s wardrobe. Borrowed from Brando’s sexy ethnic
proletarian in A Streetcar Named Desire, whose ‘true’
feeling gushed forth from every orifice, it allows just
enough of the upper body to be exhibited whilst still
insisting upon a thoroughly masculine way of dressing
for utility purposes only, suggestive as it is of the work-
BUY Francis Ford Coppola films online from and
246
More
Spike
email
RSS
Facebook
Twitter
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z