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In Hollywood, not all gangs are created equal

Published Monday, February 26, 2007 by seanlmccarthy | E-mail this post

With The Departed winning the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Director (along with editing and adapted screenplay) and with The Black Donnellys making their TV debut tonight, it's yet another reminder that Hollywood romanticizes Irish gangs -- see both examples above -- and Italian mobs (The Godfather, The Sopranos). Have you seen all of the TV ads for tonight's series premiere for The Black Donnellys? "Family above all." NBC keeps telling viewers, look at what these brothers will do for each other. Aw, shucks.

Do you ever think a TV network would say that about a group of black or Hispanic gangsters? NBC trotted out Kingpin in 2003, but that show about a Mexican drug trafficker and his family didn't make it past six episodes. Perhaps West Side Story, as a movie musical, cast the Puerto Rican gangsters in a sympathetic light. And a new HBO documentary, Bastards of the Party, examines the history of street gangs in Los Angeles.

But really, though, back to the original question.

Why does Hollywood treat Irish and Italian mobsters differently from street toughs of other racial and ethnic heritages? Why do critics treat them differently? It's worth asking, isn't it?

Labels: movies, TV