A BRONX TALE
US, 1992, 122 minutes, Colour.
Robert De Niro, Chazz Palminteri, Lillo Brancato.
Directed by Robert De Niro.
A Bronx Tale marks the directorial debut of Robert De Niro. He also takes the part of the father (a rather underwritten and unassuming role). The film is based on a successful one-man play by Chazz Palminteri, who plays the role of the Mafia boss, Sonny.
The film is an affectionate look at the Bronx in the '60s - allowing for the presence of the Mafia, their violence. It focuses on an ordinary bus-driver, played by De Niro, and his young son who witnesses a murder. He keeps Sonny's identity secret. As he grows to a youth, he is more and more influenced by the Mafia types and Sonny, who is an alternate father, rather than his own family. The background of the film raises such questions as the law, the church, racial prejudice (especially a young man attracted to a black woman) and the racial prejudice of Little Italy around Fordham Road. The end is more melodramatic with an attack on the blacks as well as a revenge killing of Sonny.
The film is very well acted, especially by De Niro and Palminteri but also by Lillo Brancato, a non-professional who resembles the young De Niro. Joe Pesci appears in a cameo at the end of the film.
The film shows us a changing decade, a more benign presence of the Mafia, but changing times and a reaffirmation of more traditional values rather than easy success, Mafia style.
1.The work of Robert De Niro, the dedication of the film to his late father? An affectionate look at New York, the Bronx in the '60s? Tough then but from the tougher perspective of the '90s?
2.The film based on a play, opened out for the screen? The re-creation of the '60s?
3.The streets of the Bronx, the song on the streets of the Bronx, the detail, Fordham Road, Little Italy, the streets for the Italians, the streets for the blacks, the bars, school, apartments? The musical score and the range of songs from the times?
4.Calogero's voice-over, his looking at himself when he was little, his perspective on himself, his father, on Sonny? His experience with the Mafia types and his learning?
5.The introduction to the place and its detail, the range of characters (echoes of Damon Runyon)? The Italian New York ethos? 1960, the music of the '60s? The family within this context, Lorenzo and his wife, driving the bus - in pleasanter times? Baseball and the success of Mickey Mantle? The role of the church?
6.Sonny and his place on the street, Mafia background, time in jail? Admired by the adults? Imitated by them kids? Lorenzo's attitude towards him, forbidding Calogero to go to the bar? Calogero and his going, called to account at home? Sitting on the front step, watching the clash and the shooting? Sonny seeing him? With his father in the apartment, going to the police, going down the line-up, denying that he had seen anybody? His father telling him he had done a good thing for a bad man? Sonny and the offer of numbers jobs to Lorenzo? Lorenzo's reasons for refusing? The discussion with his wife?
7.The moral stances of Little Italy, of the young boy in this context, people telling him that he would understand later? His going to confession - and the humour of his confession about witnessing the murder? The priest - and the penance given? The ease for Catholics to be forgiven and start again?
8.Calogero as a teenager, the gang mentality, tough stances, watching Sonny and the men at the street corner, in the bars, their suits and their hats, their language? Calogero moving away from his father? The absent mother? Hanging out with the friends? (And memories of what they were like when they were little?) Going to the races?
9.Driving with his father in the bus, seeing Jane and the attraction? His father's advice about honesty? The boxing match and not taking Sonny's seats despite the pressing invitation? Lorenzo's prejudice about his son dating a black girl?
10.Sonny and his support, the range of advice, Calogero learning from him, Sonny advising him not to go with the gang? At the races, the philosophy of being feared rather than loved? The test for Jane and the car - testing her egoism?
11.Calogero at school, the friends, seeing Jane, getting up the courage to talk, breaking through prejudices? The bashings by his friends - and his trying to save Jane's brother? The confrontation with Jane and her brother? His use of Sonny's car - the bomb and Sonny's not trusting him? With the gang, their prejudice, the Molotov cocktails, finding himself in the car and wanting to get out? Sonny getting him out - and saving his life? The brutality of the attack by the Italians, throwing the cocktails, the return fire and the explosion of the car - their dead bodies? Calogero looking and realising what might have happened?
12.His hurrying to tell Sonny, in the bar, seeing the assailant, Sonny being shot - and the retribution for the murder eight years earlier? His grief, going to the wake, meditating and praying, telling Sonny how he had saved his life and he would follow his advice? The arrival of Carmine and the offer of protection?
13.Lorenzo coming to the funeral parlour, paying his respects to Sonny, appreciating what he had done for Calogero?
14.Calogero having to learn his own way, trusting learning, learn to trust people, apologising for hurting his father?
15.The Mafia at the time, suburban Mafia on the street corner, protecting people - yet violent, murdering? The mixed values?
16.The affirmation of the film in people standing on their own feet and choosing life? And the film based on Palminteri's own experience of witnessing a killing, his relationship with his father, the dating of the black girl - and his own breaking out of the mould and his successful career?
