Coke pulls ‘Mafia’ film from theaters

Coca-Cola Co. said Thursday it would pull from movie theaters a short film showing Mafia toughs intimidating patrons, after a barrage of complaints from Italian American groups.

“Mafia Movie Madness,” by graduate student Jordan Ross, won the 2003 Coca-Cola Refreshing Filmmaker Award and was released as a pre-movie reel in November to chains that included Loews Cineplex and Regal Entertainment Group.

“We regret that anyone was offended,” a Coca-Cola spokeswoman said Thursday. She said the film would removed by the next day.

The film shows one movie patron getting jumped after ignoring a gray-suited usher’s order not to bring outside food or drink into the theater. A concession-stand vendor bullies a second patron into ordering a large Coke, while a baseball-bat-wielding usher tells the audience: “Any of yous makes any noise during this movie, you’re dealing with me, capeesh?”

The short movie prompted protests from the anti-defamation arm of the Sons of Italy, the National Italian American Foundation and other groups fighting a decades-long tide of movies, TV shows and commercials portraying Italian Americans as members of organized crime.