The immigrant experience is one of America’s defining themes; migration has also been one of the world’s themes, especially when the advent of trains and steamships made possible the faster, more efficient movement of large populations.
One of the most beautiful immigrant movies was not made in the U.S. but in Italy. Golden Door (2007) by director Emanuele Crialese has an American connection through producer Martin Scorsese. On the DVD release, Scorsese offers a short intro in which he relates the film’s story of Sicilian immigrants arriving in New York, circa 1900, to the experience of his own family.
Golden Door captures many situations with great empathy, starting with the preliterate, magical and slow moving culture of old Sicily; the confused bustle of embarkation to the New World; the squalid claustrophobia of steerage; and leading to the bewilderment of being confronted with modernity in New York. Rich and epic, filmed with respect for period details and the landscape, Golden Door also incorporates flashes of magical realism as the dreams of the immigrants are visualized. Having survived the journey, the immigrants ran a gauntlet of strict inspection and regulation at Ellis Island. The U.S. wanted healthy, hardworking, politically and socially reliable contributors to American society. Many of the promises about America were false, but the journey to the New World allowed Sicilians and others to escape from subsistence poverty into unimaginable new opportunities.
It’s hard to imagine a more insightful story of the transition from ancient to modern world than Golden Door.
