Golden Door (mostly in Italian)
Rating = B
This is a highly stylized image
of immigration from Italy (the old world) to the United States (the new world) at the turn of
the 20th century. The movie emphasizes the almost medieval culture of the peasants of
the old world, their naivete about the possibilities of the new world, the exploitation of
the immigrants, their confusion about what is happening to them during the trip and in the Ellis
Island immigration halls, the entry qualification examinations they are given that come from
a culture they know nothing of, the arbitrariness of the decisions about who gains entry and
who does not and flawed "scientific" basis of the decisions, the (surprising to me) concept that
unmarried women could not gain entry, and the resulting wedding process. Altogether, the
movie was an eye-opener and made me think about the process by which my own relatives
gained entrance to the United States during the same period. The story of the mysterious
English woman among the Italian peasants is never fully explained but does help move the
story (and themes) along. Maybe a stylized (highly theatrical) rather than a realistic
presentation of the story was used to subtly show that no much about the immigration process
is different today.
[2007-07-29]