A BRONX TALE
A film review by Scott Renshaw
Copyright 1993 Scott Renshaw
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Chazz Palminteri, Lillo Brancato, Francis Capra, Taral Hicks. Screenplay: Chazz Palminteri, based on his play. Director: Robert DeNiro. Reviewed by Scott Renshaw.
Give this to Robert DeNiro--he's been paying attention. After working with some of the finest directors of his time, DeNiro proves he's learned what goes into directing a good film with his first helming effort, A BRONX TALE. While his style frequently bears more than a passing resemblance to frequent collaborator Martin Scorsese, he's adept enough to get away with it, and adds enough of his own vision to make him credible. Hang all of this on a strong story about a young man learning about life from two mentors and you have a solid, entertaining two hours at the movies.
A BRONX TALE is set during two years in the Bronx. In 1960, impressionable 9-year-old Calogero (Francis Capra) is fascinated by Sonny (Chazz Palminteri), the neighborhood crime boss. His father Lorenzo (Robert DeNiro), a bus driver, tries to steer Calogero away from Sonny's hangouts, but with little success. Eight years later, a now 17-year-old Calogero (Lillo Brancato) is still associating with Sonny, as well as a group of young toughs nurturing a hatred for the blacks beginning to appear in their neighborhood. He continues to weigh the advice coming from Lorenzo and Sonny, including advice concerning his attraction to Jane (Taral Hicks), a young black girl, and concerning the best path towards success.
A BRONX TALE has been adapted from a one-man play by Palminteri, and it has made an exceptional transition to the screen. It doesn't feel stagy like last year's adaptation of A FEW GOOD MEN, and has an easy flow, even between the 1960 and 1968 segments. Palminteri's script is full of colorful characters and evocative period atmosphere, and the first half in particular is also quite funny. However, I was far less engaged when the tone took a turn towards the overly serious and focused on racial tensions. The romance between Calogero and Jane felt forced, and ultimately I didn't think the climactic racial confrontation worked. The film had established such a unique and interesting central triangle of Calogero, Sonny and Lorenzo that I was disappointed when that conflict took a back seat.
The appeal of that conflict is part character, part performance. The two father figures are complicated characters portrayed by two fine actors. DeNiro has the less showy role of Lorenzo, a hard-working man trying to teach his son respect for that hard work. Yet he is not a faultless blue-collar angel. At times, DeNiro plays Lorenzo as just as concerned with his son's opinion of him as he is about Calogero's well-being. He also discourages his son's interracial romance, saying people should "stick to their own." Palminteri handles Sonny just as deftly. While a brutal figure capable of laying out a group of Hell's Angels, he also lectures Calogero on the importance of staying in school and staying away from his trouble-making buddies. Calogero's moral uncertainty is real because the good guy and bad guy in A BRONX TALE frequently exchange hats. Francis Capra is very good as the mischievous young Calogero, but I was less impressed by Lillo Brancato. He's a bit too blank, and adopts too many DeNiro mannerisms (Brancato won the part by doing an impression of DeNiro). Jane is written basically as a "type," and Taral Hicks looks painfully uncomfortable a great deal of the time. The combination of these two weaker performances only added to my antipathy toward the romantic subplot.
Robert DeNiro's direction, as I've noted, owes much to Martin Scorsese; indeed, an early scene introducing the nicknamed regulars at Sonny's bar is lifted straight out of GOODFELLAS. DeNiro also displays Scorsese's gift for pacing and crisp images. But this is more than a knock-off job. DeNiro's tone is lighter, more affirming and optimistic. In that respect, A BRONX TALE perhaps bears more resemblance to the current KING OF THE HILL than it does to GOODFELLAS. It's a flawed film, but does considerably more right than it does wrong. A BRONX TALE is a coming-of-age fable in which Robert DeNiro shows he has come of age as a filmmaker.
On the Renshaw scale of 0 to 10 father figures: 7.
-- Scott Renshaw Stanford University Office of the General Counsel
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