A Bronx Tale
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Clem Caserta, Francis Capra, Lillo Brancato, Patrick Borriello, Robert D'AndreaBrand: Cholos
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 5.1; French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; Spanish (Dubbed), Dolby Digital 1.0
Format: Anamorphic, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Live, NTSC, Widescreen
Picture Format: 1.85:1
Running Time: 121 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1998-05-27
Audience Rating: R (Restricted)
Studio: HBO Home Video
Movie Reviews of A Bronx Tale
Movie Review: "Is it better to be loved or feared?"
Summary: 5 Stars
This movie is a wonderful triangle between three characters -- a boy and the two men he looks up to: his father, Lorenzo (Robert De Niro), and Sonny (Chazz Palminteri), the local mafia boss. Both men love C and advise him, with completely different points of view. It is the two men who fight to be the dominating force in C's life.
It's 1960. Nine year old Calogero LOVES the Yankees. He likes to hang out with his friends -- all boys from the Italian neighborhood of the Bronx. His father Lorenzo is a busdriver, his mother a homemaker. Just yards away is the club that is owned by Sonny, the area's high-ranked mafia underboss. Sonny and "his boys" are the local heroes ... to everybody but Lorenzo.
One day, Calogero is sitting on the front stoop to his apartment building and he witnesses a shooting. He not only sees the entire event unfold, but sees -- and locks eyes with -- the man holding the gun, none other than Sonny. When Calogero is summoned by the police to face a line-up of suspects, Lorenzo is fearful ... he knows what could happen if his son names the shooter. Forced by the police, Lorenzo brings his son downstairs to stand in front of the suspects, who happen to be mobsters. Calogero stands in front of each man and shakes his head. Finally, he is brought in front of Sonny, and the stare at each other again. Calogero once again shakes his head, allowing all the men to be released. "I did a good thing, right Dad? I didn't rat!" he tells his father. "You did a good thing ... for a bad man," his father replies, but admits to his son that he did the right thing. Calogero's show of loyalty to Sonny immediately earns him great respect -- not only amongst the neighbors, but also by the mobsters. Right away, one of Sonny's men contacts Lorenzo and presents him with a job offer on the side. Lorenzo politely -- but succinctly -- declines. He wants no part of the mob.
Sonny summons Calogero to him and the two talk. When Calogero expresses his anger over the latest Yankees game (where they lost), Sonny's reply to that is, "Forget them, forget Mickey Mantle! He doesn't care about you -- why should you care about him?" Calogero asks Sonny why he shot the man and Sonny replies, "You'll understand when you get older." Calogero begins to sneak away from home and visit Sonny in the club, where he learns how to serve drinks (making large tips in the process) and how to throw dice. As he and Sonny grow closer, Sonny presents him with a new name -- "C." C learns quickly that being in Sonny's circle has a lot of perks and earns him special treatment from many of the local vendors.
When Lorenzo discovers his son's cash ($600), he angrily goes to Sonny's club, with C in tow, to return the money. Sonny and Lorenzo nearly come to blows and Lorenzo angrily yells, "He's not your son, he's mine!" C is angry with his father and yells at him, "People love Sonny, just like people love you on the bus!" Lorenzo tells his son, "They don't love him, they fear him!"
Sonny becomes C's mentor as the boy grows into a teenager. Sonny shows a firm hand when something could negatively affect C, scaring off a local punk trying to sell C's gang of friends illegal guns. C looks up to Sonny even more as the movie goes on, envying the fancy cars and the high respect the mafia boss receives wherever he goes. When Sonny invites C to a boxing match, C has to decline -- he already promised his father he would go with him. C watches from high up as Sonny is sitting ringside, wishing he was sitting with Sonny instead.
"Is it better to be loved or feared?" C asks Sonny. Sonny's reply is direct: feared. "Fear lasts longer than love." C develops feelings for a black girl and expresses this to Sonny, who is laid back about it. Sonny tells C that it doesn't matter and explains how to immediately see if the girl is a "good one." Then Sonny offers C his sports car for the date. Lorenzo's feelings on an Italian-Black relationship is the opposite of Sonny's: he doesn't want his son dating a non-Italian. Both men have completely different views on life and what is important. In the end, C comes of age having seen the views of both men and appreciating them both in different ways.
Chazz Palminteri does a splendid job as Sonny, who is by no means innocent but nonetheless loves C as his own son. He makes it a point to show that Sonny has not gone soft, despite his closeness to C ... and in a moment of great conflict, shows that he can turn on anybody in a second. And Robert DeNiro (also the director) performs well as Lorenzo, who struggles against a mobster for the love and respect of his own son. Both actors who play C, Francis Capra and Lillo Brancato, do well ... though it is the younger C that makes C most believable. Also in this is Joe Pesci, who makes a brief appearance in the very beginning and finally speaks at the end.
Summary of A Bronx Tale
Chazz Palminteri wrote the script for this excellent story of an Italian American boy (Lillo Brancato) who grows up in the 1960s caught between the strong influences of his blue-collar, straight- arrow father (Robert De Niro) and a Mafia chieftain (Palminteri) who is his all-purpose mentor. De Niro makes his directorial debut with this production and, except for a little stiffness, does very well by the characters and their world. The story does not go precisely where one might expect it to go: Palminteri knows better than to force the central figure to choose between the two most important men in his life, and he doesn't fill time with stock drama about crime or family conflict. Joe Pesci makes an extremely effective and uncredited appearance at the end as a man who doesn't have to do more than speak softly to communicate how dangerous he is. --Tom KeoghSimilar DVD Movies
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