A BRONX TALE ***1/2 (R) (out of four)
Lorenzo: Robert De Niro Sonny: Chazz Palminteri Calogero (age 17): Lillo Brancato Calogero (age 9): Francis Capra Jane: Taral Hicks
Directed by Robert De Niro. Written by Chazz Palminteri (based on his play). Running time: 122 minutes. Rated R (for language and scenes containing violence).
BY AARON MICHAELS
A Bronx Tale reminds me a lot of Goodfellas. It stars Robert De Niro who also directed. It also has a cameo by Joe Pesci. I thought I even saw Martin Scorsece as a priest at a confessional. I began to think that this movie took it's style and grace from Goodfellas. Then it hit me that it reminded me of Goodfellas because A Bronx Tale is almost as great.
Lorenzo (Robert De Niro) is a working man. He has a city job as a bus driver and makes enough to let his wife and son live well in an apartment in the Bronx. He never got in the popular gangster business that ruled the area. The apartment he lives in in near a busy bar that is home to many of these gangsters. He tells his 9 year old son Calogero (Francis Capra) to never go in there and to stay on his stoop in front of the complex.
In a discussion earlier Lorenzo talked to his son about talent. Calogero asks him who was the best baseball player of all time. Lorenzo tells him it was Joey D(iMaggio) because he has class and talent. Calogero asks if he has any talent. Lorenzo says that he has all the talent in the world and just needs to use it wisely.
Calogero witnesses a shooting while sitting on the stoop commited by the local main gangster Sonny (Chazz Palminteri who also wrote the script). When confronted by a police officer who is shown a line of suspects and asked who shot. The lineup consists of some of the workers and some gansters who were the bar. Sonny is in the lineup. Calogero walks past the line saying that none of the men commited the murder.
Lorenzo takes him upstairs to get him ready for bed. Calogero asks his father if he did the right thing. Lorenzo says "You did a very good thing for a very bad man."
Cut to the late 60s. Calogero (now nicknamed C by Sonny and played by Lillo Brancato) now is 17 years old and one of Sonny's "men". Lorenzo is shocked that his son has not listened to anything he has said through the years. C now has become everything Lorenzo hates. A gangster who wants his money the second he asks.
A Bronx Tale is actor Robert De Niro first directed film. He does a great job directing himself and others. Some of the scenes such as a fight in the bar are very nicely edited and staged to music that sets the mood. Palmenteri also does a great job as Sonny and is both frightening and fatherlike in the same instant. Lillo Brancato is a great find and plays his part very well. He is a charming young actor who I hope has a good career.
The film is also suprising funny. It is probably the most upbeat ganster picture if you don't count Jonny Dangerously (which I don't). There is a great scene in the first 20 minutes where C narrates the people young Calogero meets in the bar. Some has nicknames like Coffeecake (the look of that man's face) and Whispers (everything's a secret to him).
The film ends suddenly and makes me ask for more. It is noticably very short considering Goodfellas was about 20 minutes longer. Still A Bronx Tale fills it's tight 2 hours with as much as it can. I wanted to spend more time finding out what happens to C. I doubt a sequel will be made but I'd still like to know.
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