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Tony Vallelonga’s story of two characters: the fictional recreation of real events

Inspired VS Based

• “Inspired by a true story”
  • “inspired by” = more fictional
  • “based on” = more factual
  • the screenplay was ideated and written by Nick Vallelonga, Tony’s son, on the basis of the stories that he heard countless time from his father, about the events in the film
• Two different characters on the road, sharing some experiences and transforming each other?
  • apparently so, but not really: mostly one angle, one story, emanating from one source
• The title is just an attempt to capitalize on the racial debate going on in American society at that time, for the sake of marketing the film more widely
  • a more suitable title might have been “Driving Dr. Shirley” (like the 1989 film, “Driving Miss Daisy”)

Tony Lip and Southern Italian culture

• Tony Lip (TL) is the quintessential Italian of Southern descent
  • exists only within a group (his family), a clan, a community
    • he is always surrounded by people
    • is following the implicit social rules as a husband and a father, a worker, a Bronx resident
    • is enforcing the implicit rules of a place like the Copacabana
      • in that role he is recognized, acknowledged by Jules Podell when TL’s name and nickname name are pronounced in public for the first time
    • is tolerating or closing an eye on the pervasive presence of social violence, and he himself is actively practicing racial discrimination
      • the Mafia
      • the glasses used by the Black workers, moved by TL from the kitchen sink into the garbage can
• He is a natural raconteur: constant affabulation is a key component of TL’s personality
  • the scheme concerning Gio Loscudo’s hat is akin to the creation of a fictional narrative where he is the silent hero and a true savior, an efficient problem-solver
  • re-creating reality within a personal narration is his way of bringing situations, events and people inside his own world, or down to his own social and cultural level
    • car conversations between TL and DS
      • German? / No, Russian / I was in Germany
      • Narrow… / And that’s a good thing, right?
  • “bullshitting” is a key part of that strategy
• Scheming, hustling, cheating to an end: TL is a good guy, bending the rules for a justifiable reason
  • to insure the survival and welfare of his family and clan
    • the concept of “familial amorality” (see Edward Banfield, The Moral Basis of a Backward Society, 1958)
• Insiders VS outsiders; the various circles of social relationships
  • couple > children > extended family > village or a specific neighborhood with a town
    • degrees of closeness: family / friends / business partners / social partners / strangers
  • the criteria for social discrimination or acceptance are often biological (being part of the same family, related by blood), anthropological (different by territorial roots, by language/dialect, or by race)
    • love and acceptance are the opposite ends of a social spectrum
      • you cannot accept someone without displaying some love for them
    • material properties and relationships are strongly connected in rural cultures, influence the rules of social interaction: the most solid and fraternal bond can be broken because of a squabble around an inheritance (to be assigned based on rules internal to the family)
  • competition is another generalized practice: competing for (putting a conscious effort into) love/affection, money, power, moving into a closer circle
  • proximity or distance tests of strangers or acquaintances
    • constant observation and assessment of individuals existing on the outside or living inside but on the outer edges of the circle
• The process of admission into the clan or a into a closer circle does not imply perfection of the one being admitted, or acceptance of matching diverse profiles in general, beyond the exception granted to the single individual
  • colloquial (racist) tropes within clans: ‘I’m not racist: my doctor is Black… I am not antisemitic: my son’s wife is Jewish… Etc.’
  • clan membership is based on the strength of a personal bond between two specific individuals
    • clan membership can be granted out of respect, empathy, fear or pursuit of an advantage (e.g., to neutralize a potential enemy or ingratiate someone powerful and have him close for protection and support)
      • see the social practice behind the title of “The Godfather” trilogy
  • it is possible to go from 0 to 100 very quickly, from playing the role of a casual acquaintance to sitting at the head of the family table, or being invited to a wedding: one-sided admission and cooptation into the clan are possible and even frequent, in some circumstances
    • accepting a gift or an invitation can become the unintentional acceptance of admission into a clan, which in return demands some reciprocation of feelings, suspension of those rules applied to outsiders and within general society, public displays of respect
  • rules
    • there are different social, moral rules for outsiders and insiders
    • admission into a clan implies moving beyond the conventional rules used by and with outsiders, including organizational policies and even laws
• TL at the end of the film has not changed by much: he is simply treating DS as a (new) member of his clan
  • his treatment of DS does not imply a radical transformation, with a newly acquired, generalized acceptance of racial or sexual diversity

Don Shirley (DS)

• He is represented as not integrated, or isolated, or estranged from
  • society
    • the apartment where he lives above the theater
    • the elephant tusks and other material symbols of his upper class eccentricity
      • DS is surrounded by things, the same way that TL is surrounded by people
    • his genius is an ambivalent condition, a formula that fosters acceptance and at the same time justifies his solitary state, the distance that exists between him and other people
  • family (brother)
  • the Black community
  • the heteronormative world
• DS is established in the movie only in reference to TL, not independently from him
  • he is a secondary protagonist, and in fact Mahershala Ali won the Oscar as best supporting actor
• Racism dilution does occur in this film
  • not so much through the white savior trope
  • but definitely through the representation of a spectrum of diversity between the the two main characters; diversity in
    • education
      • DS also has an inner world of thoughts and articulated feelings, TL doesn’t, acts in a very animalistic manner
    • social class
      • Carnegie Hall VS the Bronx
    • profile and mindset
      • DS is a genius, a “virtuoso”
      • he is introverted, has traits of Asperger’s syndrome (the fake smile at the end of his performances)
      • TL is a simple brute, an extroverted narcissist
    • sexual orientation
      • TL knows that “things are complicated,” because he worked at the Copa!
  • think of the logic of the clan
    • Is TL less of a racist at the end of the story, simply because he has accepted a Black homosexual into his personal life?
    • No, because exceptions of that kind actually reinforce the norms.

Narrative patterns on the road