In the gorgeous Italian film, The Golden Door, Salvatore (Amato) is a devout farmer raising his family in the unforgiving topography
of Sicily. Against the wishes of his overbearing mother, he decides to move his family to America. He sells the family livestock to buy
shoes, smocks and hats, and he, his two sons, and two village girls head for the coastal city where their ship awaits.

The first leg of their journey is from small village to city – no easy task, considering the rural, sustenance-based way of life the family is used to. The urban locale in Sicily is as foreign to them as anything America could offer. The second leg of the journey takes them across the Atlantic, where the villagers meet Lucy, an English-speaking woman of apparent wealth whose past remains a mystery. Squeezed into
third-class steerage with little light and no privacy, Salvatore kindly protects Lucy from the verbal abuse of ill-intentioned men.

As they approach Ellis Island, the fog is so thick that the weary travelers cannot see the New World and all its promise. The final
leg of their journey is upon them: immigration.

What makes this film so beautiful is that the America that lies beyond is depicted only in fantasies that Salvatore has construed. Gigantic olives grow and rivers flow with milk. The lush cinematography of Agnes Godard is eqaully effective in the Sicilian countryside and in the corrals of Ellis Island. There have been many immigrant tales in film – from the sublime (Avalon) to the ridiculous (Coming to America). The Golden Door stands out because it so affectionately portrays the innocent dreams of those who trekked so far and worked so hard to
call our nation home. - Wm. Brian Owens