Right well this in a way is a special post as its my 200th post on this blog (hurrayy!) so its good to see that I have been fairly prolific with my time on it, even though there could have been even more on it than just 200 at the mo. But its still a good impressive figure to have reached so far and this post will be on Robert De Niro's directorial debut film, A Bronx Tale and was written by one its main stars, Chazz Paliminteri. So let's gie this one a look....
So the film is set in the Bronx in New York and starts back in 1960 and it focuses on the life of a young boy Calogero Anello (Francis Capra) who witnesses a murder committed by a local mobster, Sonny (Paliminteri) in defence of a friend of his who had been assaulted. When Calogero refuses to identify Sonny to the NYPD during a lineup, Sonny takes a liking to Calogero and the boy starts hanging out with Sonny and his crew, and he makes money on tips working in the Mafia bar as well throwing dice in crap games. However when Calogero's father, Alonzo (Robert De Niro) finds out he confronts Sonny at the bar and tells him to stay away from his son. Alonzo angirly tells Calogero to stay away from Sonny and that people fear him but don't respect him.
The story then cuts to eight years later, 1968, where Calogero is now a young man (played by Lilo Brancato, Jr) and he secretly visits Sonny without his father knowing. Calogero is also part of group of Italian boys, whom he grew up with on the streets, who are troublemakers, and Sonny insists that Calogero should stay away from. Later on Calogero meets a very attractive young African American girl, Jane Williams (Taral Hicks) whom he becomes smitten with, but at this time there is a strong dislike between the African and Italian American neighbourhoods, but despite that Calogero makes a date with Jane. Calogero tells Sonny about Jane, who let's him loan him his car for the date so he can make a good impression, but tells her if she fails the "door test" of lifting up the lock on the door then he should dump her immediately as Sonny says that would maker her selfish. Around the same time however, Calogero's friends beat up some black youths cycling their neighbourhood, with Calogero powerless to do anything about it, but he does his best to try and defend one of the boys, but as the cops are alerted nearby, the boys all split and run off.
Afterwards Calogero meets Jane for the date, however she arrives with her brother and she asks him if he was present when the cyclists were beaten up in the neigbourhood, and Jane's brother, Willie, turns out to be the boy Calogero tried to help, however Willie doesn't see it that way and insists that Calogero attacked him. During the ensuing argument Calogero out of anger shouts to Willie "fuck you, you fuckin nigger!" leaving Jane disgusted, they both leave together, but Calogero is instantly regretful. Back home Alonzo confronts Calogero as he noticed him driving Sonny's car, and the two of them argue after which Calogero angrily walks out. Calogero is then confronted by a livid Sonny, who tells them that an explosive was planted underneath his car, and he demands to know it got there. Calogero tearfully tells Sonny that he knows nothing about it and he would never hurt him as he has been like a father to him, Sonny realising that Calogero is telling the truth let's him go.
As Calogero leaves his friends lead by Slick (Joe D'Onfrio) turn up in a car and tell him that their usual hangout has been pelted with eggs by the black boys as a revenge for their beating, and they intend to go over and strike back by using molotov cocktails. Calogero out of fear as being seen as a coward by his friends, decides to get into the car, however enroute they are stopped by Sonny, who has been tailing them, and Sonny pulls Calogero out of the car and tells Slick to stay away from him. Calogero afterwards makes amends with Jane, who tells him that her brother admitted that Calogero tried to help him after all, and the tw of them share a kiss. Calogero however quickly remembers that his friends are already enroute to assault Jane's neighbourhood, and they rush to stop them. During the assault however, Slick and his friends are killed as a result of one of the black gang members throwing one of the molotov cocktails back into Slick's car, which causes the other cocktails to ignite and thereby destroys the car. Calogero and Jane arrive too late on the scene and see the police are already there but he realises that Sonny has saved his life by taking him out of the car, and he rushes off to thank him, as Sonny as at his bar, which unfortunately has tragic consequences.....
As far as directorial debuts, A Bronx Tale is pretty good one from Robert De Niro who seems to borrow alot from Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas in the lifestyle of the New York mobsters and similarly to the storyline of Scorsese's film how a young boy is seduced by that life. But the main difference is of course in this film is that Calogero doesn't become a criminal and he is essentially protected by two fathers, his real one Alonzo, and the surrogate one in Sonny, who takes a liking to him and insists that he stay in school and away from his troublesome friends. The story itself was actually an autobiographical one by Paliminteri and he performed as a one handed play starring himself in the role and Calogero is actually Chazz's original birth name.
Performance wise is where A Bronx Tale really excels the performances are all pretty strong, starting with Lillo Bracanto Jr who gives a nice performance as Calogero as a young man, a good natured kid who is torn between the loyalties of two fathers in Alonzo and Sonny. Bracanto has some good highlights in the film, particularly his scenes with Paliminteri where the chat with one another about different things. An example of which is their scene where Calogero tells Sonny about his date with Jane and Sonny tells him to try out the door test. Another is the scene is where Calogero awkwardly makes his first attempt at talking to Jane and she tells him her name and Calogero is almost disappointed as he narrates beforehand "I kept think she must have a really exotic name Danielle or Monique or something" and when Jane says "I'm Jane" Calogero says "Jane?? That's your name??? Is that it???" and she says "What's wrong that?" and Calogero nervously backtracks and says "No no no, its great I love that name!". Bracanto's narration as Calogero also provides some good lines such as in the scene where the bikers go into Sonny's bar and spray the bartender and the leader of bikers tells Sonny to fuck off when he asks them to leave, and goes over and locks the door of the bar and says "Now you's can't leave". And Calogero narrates "I will never forget the looks on their faces. All of eight them. Their faces dropped. All their courage and strength was drained from their bodies. They had a reputation for breaking up bars, but they that instant, they'd made a fatal mistake. This time they walked into the wrong bar". And another good scene for Bracanto is when Calogero's father, Alonzo confronts him about driving Sonny's car and Calogero insults the memory of Alonzo's grandparents and when Calogero says "They died with nothing" and Alonzo tells him angrily not disprect his grandparents. And Calogero turns and says to Alonzo "What life?! We haven't got anything! We haven't even got a car. Don't take it out on me just because you're a bus driver! The working man is a sucker!" and he slams the doors and leaves. And finally possibly Bracanto's best moment comes when Sonny confronts Calogero about the fact there was a bomb placed under his car. And as Sonny roughly slaps and grabs Calogero, Calogero tearfully says "I didn't do anything! I swear! Why would I hurt you, Sonny, you've been like a father to me!".
Chazz Paliminteri for me however provides the film's best peformance as the mob boss, Sonny, who befriends Calogero and tries his best to keep him out of trouble and away from his lifestyle. Paliminteri has quite a few highlights himself in the film, such as the scene where he first meets with Calegro as a young boy in his bar and he asks him what his name is and he says "Calogero?? What kind of name is that?? Look we gotta do something about your name, how about a nickname? How about we call you "C"?. Another of Paliminteri's best scenes is when Sonny gives Calogero some advice about his date with Jane and Calogero says he has doubts about the date because of the tensions between the African and Italian American neighbourhoods and how Calogero "doesn't wan't to hear the guys" get on his case about dating a black girl. And Sonny says "Fuck these kids. Half of them are gonna wind up dead or in jail. I'll tell what you do you give her the door test. You pull up right where she is, right? Before you get out, you lock both doors. You bring her over to you car, you open the door for her and let her in. And then you walk around the back of the car and look through the window. If she doesn't reach over and lift up that button to let you in, dump her." And when Calogero protests saying how as Sonny said that "she might be one of the great ones" Sonny says "Listen to me, kid. If she doesn't reach over and lift up that button, what that means is she's a selfish broad and all you're seeing is the tip of the iceberg. You dump her and you dump her fast!". Another good scene is when Sonny deals with the bikers who disrupt his bar and he asks them politely to leave and the biker leader says "I'll tell you when we leave, get the fuck away from me!" and then Sonny goes over and locks the door and says "Now you's can't leave" and he proceeds to bring out his crew and they beat the crap out of the bikers. And on the streets Sonny grabs the beaten biker leader and says "Look me at me! Look at my face! I'm the one that did this to you! Remember me!".
(OK start a new paragraph for Chazz!) And one of Paliminteri's more amusing moments comes back when Calogero is a young boy and not long after he befriends Calogero he has him roll the dice in a crap game and he becomes increasingly superstitious when he sees some of his men get in the way he orders them to be put out of the room! Another one of Paliminteri's best scenes comes when Sonny confronts Calogero about the bomb that was placed under the hood of his car and he slaps Calogero in the face and pushes him up against a wall. And Sonny angrily says to Calogero "Was there really a Jane?! When we got in that car we looked under hood and found something and it didn't got off! Now you tell me how the fuck that got there?!" but when Sonny sees how tearful and hurt Calogero is by his accusations he let's him go. This is then followed by Sonny being confronted by Alonzo and he tells him to "Drive your bus and get the fuck out of here!" and his men grab Alonzo and punch him in the stomach and Sonny says "You put your hands on me, and I'll put you in the fucking ground! Next time find out what's going on before you open your mouth!".
Robert De Niro also gives a charming performance as Alonzo, Calogero's father, a good hearted stand-up guy who works hard to provide for his family. De Niro also has some good scenes such as earlier on in the film when Calogero as a young boy has to try and identify Sonny in a police line up and Calogero chooses not to rate on Sonny. And the young Sonny says "I did a good thing, right?" and Alonzo says "Yeah, you did a good thing for a bad man". And later on when he finds out Calogero as a young boy has been working over at Sonny's bar he confronts Sonny and tells him "You stay away from my son!" before he is warned out by Sonny. And outside the bar Alonzo firmly tells Calogero "It doesn't take much strength to pull a trigger, but try and get up every morning and going to work! The working man, he's the real tough guy! You're father's the tough guy! People don't love Sonny, they fear him! There's a big difference!". And he afterwards picks up his son and carries him away apologising for slapping his son. Another nice little moment is when the films cuts to 1968 and Alonzo driving his bus, picks up Calogero and Alonzo is listening to some jazz on the radio and Calogero says "Dad? Have we gotta listen to this music?!" and Alonzo says "You kids today don't even know what good music is. This is good music!". This also reflects De Niro's love for jazz and brings to mind when he starred in Scorsese's film, New York, New York as a jazz musician. Also later when Alonzo confronts Calogero when he sees him driving Sonny's car and he lectures him about his life "I don't have a boss and I don't have look around watch my back and I'm proud of what I do. Look I'm only looking out for you best interests and the saddest thing in life is wasted talent. And my parents came over to this country they worked hard to provide me with a life and the arrived with nothing" and Calogero insults their memory by saying "And they died with nothing" and Alonzo grabs Calogero and turns him around to face him saying "Don't you dare disrespect your grandparents! And you're wrong!".
Francis Capra also gives a nice performance as Calegro when he was a young kid and he get's funny moments in the film and amusing dialogue. An example of which is when Calogero goes to confession and the priest tells him "Don't worry, my son. No one is more powerful than God" and Calogero says "I don't know about that, father. Your guy may be bigger than my guy up there, but my guy is bigger than your guy down here" and the priest says "Ya got a point!". Taral Hicks does a nice job in her role as Calogero's love interest, Jane, a nice good natured African American girl, who falls for him. And Hicks has some good moments such as the scene when Calogero and Jane first meet and he walks her from school to her neighbourhood and they arrange a date and Calogero nervously goes over the time they have arranged to meet and he says "6 o'clock tomorrow then. In front of the school" and she says "You're getting better!". And later on when Jane confronts Calogero about her brother being beaten up at his friends hangout and she says to him "Yesterday some Italians beat up my brother in your neighbourhood. Where you there?" and Calogero at first lies but when he sees the boy, Willie, he's forced to reveal he was there. And later on they make amends and kiss for the first time, Jane says "that's not a kiss. THIS is a kiss" and they have a longer deeper kiss. And in that scene when Calogero tells Jane they need to go and try and stop Slick and his gang from assaulting Jane's neighbourhood, he let's her into his car, and she passes the door test by lifting the button for Calogero to get in, and he leaps into the air exclaiming "YES!". And Calogero get's and smiles to Jane saying "I knew you were one of the great ones!".
As for De Niro in his directorial debut, he does a fine job with A Bronx Tale, and he keeps the film moving along nicely and at never really lags at any time. De Niro also adopts a similar style to Scorsese by using alot of artists and bands music of the time in a similar fashion to Mean Streets and Goodfellas. And the soundtracks features songs from The Beatles, Frank Sinatra, Jimi Hendrix, Cream, The Kinks, James Brown, Dean Martin and John Coltrane, which adds up to a good eclectic mix of music for the film.
Getting onto the film's flaws..... well A Bronx Tale isn't quite perfect, but then few films are, and one thing I would say about it is that it does have a bit of a corny feel to it at times, and the story in itself is nothing too original, even though it is a nice little coming of age one. De Niro also borrows perhaps a bit too heavily from Scorsese in his depiction of mob guys from Goodfellas and technically speaking as a filmmaker he also tries to emulate Scorsese's incredible skills as a filmmaker but he doesn't quite manage to scale those heights and he even goes for a similar soundtrack from different artists of the time rather than an original score, but on the other hand it does work better for the film in all honesty. So it feels like De Niro is trying to ape Scorsese's style but he doesn't quite have the skill to pull it off. Another discrepancy I noticed in the film is how Slick's gang who are so heavily biased and racist towards the blacks in the film, when during the scene when they drive over to assault the black neighbourhood they are listening to Jimi Hendrix's "All along the watchtower" on the radio! It seems pretty ironic and bit of a daft afterthought to have put that track in and that a bunch of Italians who are so prejudiced against African Americans would even consider listening to Jimi Hendrix. So its OK on one hand to listen to Jim Hendrix and at the same have a racial hatred for black people! Not unless De Niro meant it as an intentional moment of irony and to display the ignorance of Slick and his gang that they would never make a distinction between the two, but it just seems to be a rather strange choice of music for Slick and buddies to listen to.
Anyway despite those niggles A Bronx Tale is still a very charming and entertaining drama film, which saw De Niro make an assured directorial debut, which is still worth watching to this day.
And with that I shall leave ye there.
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