A Bronx Tale ««««
R, 121m. 1993
Cast & Credits: Robert De Niro (Lorenzo), Chazz Palminteri (Sonny), Lillo Brancato (Calogero, age 17), Francis Capra (Calogero, age 9), Taral Hicks (Jane), Kathrine Narducci (Rosina), Clem Caserta (Jimmy Whispers), Joe Pesci (Carmine). Screenplay by Chazz Palminteri based on his play. Directed by Robert De Niro.
People have seen and read about gang warfare in the local news, in film dramatizations, and on crime watch programs like America’s Most Wanted.
Concerned parents have not only worried for their children’s safety in gangland neighborhoods, but also concern over whether their son or daughter may one day join a gang and end up paying the tragic price for the life they lead.
Such are the same concerns Robert De Niro’s honest hard working character, Lorenzo, has for his young son, Calogero, in A Bronx Tale; the Oscar winning actor’s stunning and often times touching directorial debut from his own production company, Tribeca.
The film is a brilliant combination of a few memorable gangster epics sprinkled with a touch of Martin Scorsese’s directing style. This is not the kind of gangster movie where bosses feud over territories and gang wars follow.
The plot, which involves a young kid running errands for the Mafia after witnessing a mob hit outside his apartment, however, is just a tip of the iceberg. What makes A Bronx Tale captivating to watch is it is a story about a kid who, while growing up, struggles with his true identity and moralistic values.
Newcomers Frances Capra and Lillo Brancato star as Calogero with Capra playing the young boy until age nine and Brancato playing him until at age 17. When the movie opens, Calogero is a lot like Ray Liotta’s young Henry Hill in Goodfellas (1990). He is a street-smart kid whose family just happens to live next door to the bar run by the neighborhood’s local Mafia hoods. I could almost hear him utter Hill’s statement, “As far back as I could remember, I’ve always wanted to be a gangster.” Calogero’s Mafia idol is Sonny (Chazz Palminteri); whose actions he often mimics watching the mobster from the steps of his apartment.
It is during the film’s first 30 minutes that some of the most humorous lines come from Capra. When confessing to the priest after seeing Sonny murder a rival in broad daylight, Calogero is asked if he knows what the fifth commandment is.
“It’s where you plead silent and never rat on your friends,” he says.
And when Lorenzo tells his son during dinner to never go to the bar next door, Calogero responds, “You mean mom won’t let you go there either?”
Palminteri, who wrote the play on which this film is based, gives us a character similar to those seen in Francis Ford Coppola’s classic gangster epic, The Godfather (1972). “Sonny” is a combination of the wisdom and fatherly advice of Marlon Brando’s Don Corleone and Al Pacino’s Michael with the concealed rage of James Caan’s Sonny Corleone rolled into one.
One minute, Sonny is telling Calogero to get an education and read Machiavelli. The next minute, the hot tempered gangster is slapping the kid around suspecting him of betrayal.
Once Sonny takes him into the family, he acts like a stepfather to the kid. What is surprising is although De Niro’s and Palminteri’s characters come from opposite sides of the tracks, both want what is best for him. “There is nothing worse in life than wasting talent” is the phrase often spoken by the two father figures throughout the film.
As Calogero gets older, he is faced with numerous struggles like figuring out who is morally correct. Is it his earnest bus driving father who still does not make enough money to afford a car but can provide an honest living? Or is it Sonny, who makes three times as much money in one day conducting unlawful business transactions?
De Niro, whose collaboration with Scorsese on numerous films such as Raging Bull (1980) and Cape Fear (1991), incorporates some of the director’s memorable talents. One of Scorsese’s trademarks in movies like The Color of Money (1986) and Mean Streets (1973) is combining the drama with a lot of old tunes from the 1950s and 60s.
De Niro adds such sequences to his film like the scene where a group of Calogero’s buddies, in a bloody act of racial prejudice, brutally beat up some African-Americans passing through the neighborhood. The music from The Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin” reverberates throughout the sequence.
Yet, with all the bloodletting and hatred that occurs throughout the movie, all three characters maintain a poignant sweetness to their roles. By film’s end, I even felt a little sorry for Sonny.
A Bronx Tale is a unique gangster film that breaks away from all the contemporary ideas expressed in most mob pictures. The film, in a sense marks De Niro’s return to the “mean streets” Scorsese-style. The difference here is he does it a little more gently.
©10/14/93
R, 121m. 1993
Cast & Credits: Robert De Niro (Lorenzo), Chazz Palminteri (Sonny), Lillo Brancato (Calogero, age 17), Francis Capra (Calogero, age 9), Taral Hicks (Jane), Kathrine Narducci (Rosina), Clem Caserta (Jimmy Whispers), Joe Pesci (Carmine). Screenplay by Chazz Palminteri based on his play. Directed by Robert De Niro.
Concerned parents have not only worried for their children’s safety in gangland neighborhoods, but also concern over whether their son or daughter may one day join a gang and end up paying the tragic price for the life they lead.
Such are the same concerns Robert De Niro’s honest hard working character, Lorenzo, has for his young son, Calogero, in A Bronx Tale; the Oscar winning actor’s stunning and often times touching directorial debut from his own production company, Tribeca.
The film is a brilliant combination of a few memorable gangster epics sprinkled with a touch of Martin Scorsese’s directing style. This is not the kind of gangster movie where bosses feud over territories and gang wars follow.
The plot, which involves a young kid running errands for the Mafia after witnessing a mob hit outside his apartment, however, is just a tip of the iceberg. What makes A Bronx Tale captivating to watch is it is a story about a kid who, while growing up, struggles with his true identity and moralistic values.
Newcomers Frances Capra and Lillo Brancato star as Calogero with Capra playing the young boy until age nine and Brancato playing him until at age 17. When the movie opens, Calogero is a lot like Ray Liotta’s young Henry Hill in Goodfellas (1990). He is a street-smart kid whose family just happens to live next door to the bar run by the neighborhood’s local Mafia hoods. I could almost hear him utter Hill’s statement, “As far back as I could remember, I’ve always wanted to be a gangster.” Calogero’s Mafia idol is Sonny (Chazz Palminteri); whose actions he often mimics watching the mobster from the steps of his apartment.
It is during the film’s first 30 minutes that some of the most humorous lines come from Capra. When confessing to the priest after seeing Sonny murder a rival in broad daylight, Calogero is asked if he knows what the fifth commandment is.
“It’s where you plead silent and never rat on your friends,” he says.
And when Lorenzo tells his son during dinner to never go to the bar next door, Calogero responds, “You mean mom won’t let you go there either?”
Palminteri, who wrote the play on which this film is based, gives us a character similar to those seen in Francis Ford Coppola’s classic gangster epic, The Godfather (1972). “Sonny” is a combination of the wisdom and fatherly advice of Marlon Brando’s Don Corleone and Al Pacino’s Michael with the concealed rage of James Caan’s Sonny Corleone rolled into one.
One minute, Sonny is telling Calogero to get an education and read Machiavelli. The next minute, the hot tempered gangster is slapping the kid around suspecting him of betrayal.
Once Sonny takes him into the family, he acts like a stepfather to the kid. What is surprising is although De Niro’s and Palminteri’s characters come from opposite sides of the tracks, both want what is best for him. “There is nothing worse in life than wasting talent” is the phrase often spoken by the two father figures throughout the film.
As Calogero gets older, he is faced with numerous struggles like figuring out who is morally correct. Is it his earnest bus driving father who still does not make enough money to afford a car but can provide an honest living? Or is it Sonny, who makes three times as much money in one day conducting unlawful business transactions?
De Niro, whose collaboration with Scorsese on numerous films such as Raging Bull (1980) and Cape Fear (1991), incorporates some of the director’s memorable talents. One of Scorsese’s trademarks in movies like The Color of Money (1986) and Mean Streets (1973) is combining the drama with a lot of old tunes from the 1950s and 60s.
De Niro adds such sequences to his film like the scene where a group of Calogero’s buddies, in a bloody act of racial prejudice, brutally beat up some African-Americans passing through the neighborhood. The music from The Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin” reverberates throughout the sequence.
Yet, with all the bloodletting and hatred that occurs throughout the movie, all three characters maintain a poignant sweetness to their roles. By film’s end, I even felt a little sorry for Sonny.
A Bronx Tale is a unique gangster film that breaks away from all the contemporary ideas expressed in most mob pictures. The film, in a sense marks De Niro’s return to the “mean streets” Scorsese-style. The difference here is he does it a little more gently.
©10/14/93
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