4 Making of a Mobster 1 : From Myth to the Crystallization of the Mafia Archetype in 1950s and 1960s Italian and Italian American 2 Film Ryan Calabretta‐Sajder Through the historical and political spheres of the 1950s and 1960s, the role, and as such the archetype(s) of the Italian and Italian American mobster evolved. The 1950s and 1960s served as a pivotal point in the creation, and later evolution, of what will become the crystallized concept of the mobster. The culmination of this archetype manifests itself in the American film canon in the early 1970s, most evidently with Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, a film that has, whether positively or negatively, solidified the foundation for the contemporary mobster genre. The origin of the Italian gangster archetype, however, runs deeper than the genre of drama; instead, it evolves from political cinema, or cinema d’impegno, particularly established in Italy by Francesco Rosi’s work. In this chapter, I intend to compare and contrast the gangster films of the late 1950s and early 1960s, creating a dialogue between Italian and Italian American films to show how these select films aided in creating a general archetype of the contemporary gangster. Writing on gangster cinema is more challenging than it might seem. A plethora of books, articles, and edited collections exist both in cinema presses but also in individual, smaller cultural studies presses. The Godfather, along with the series of mobster films which have followed, has attracted much attention from various academic fields. The film’s commercial success and continued status in the popular imagination underscores its importance to American culture. In fact, American culture often alludes to the rich images provided by The Godfather, including a noteworthy commercial spot during the 2008 Superbowl and Audi commercial featured a pun on the horse head Jack Woltz finds accompanying him in bed. 3 This allusion is one of many references to the rich symbolism Coppola has bestowed on American pop culture. In addition to the plethora of images circulating in American culture referencing The Godfather, the gangster film genre evolved from the “big screen” of Hollywood and Cinecittà to the weekly television series via HD screens streamed through Netflix to our very own living rooms, both in the United States most evident with The Sopranos and even today in Italy with the television series Gomorrah. It seems fair to claim that gangster imaginary flourishes in both the United States and in Italy. 4 Due to this multi‐ faceted imaginary, the field of gangster films lends itself to an interdisciplinary study, offering numerous interpretations and expanding the considerations regarding the genre, beginning as early as 1906. Before initiating film analyses, it is pertinent to discuss some defining tools applied to the conceptualization of the gangster. One of the most noteworthy is the concept of myth, which A Companion to the Gangster Film, edited by George S. Larke-Walsh, John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/uark-ebooks/detail.action?docID=5507032. Created from uark-ebooks on 2021-08-02 15:23:01. Copyright © 2018. John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated. All rights reserved.