A BRONX TALE (1993)
Rating: 4.5/5 stars
REVIEW BY JOHN ULMER (Copyright, 2004)
Robert De Niro's "A Bronx Tale" is the story of a hard-working
Italian-American man whose teenaged son takes an ill-advised interest
in the neighborly Mafia figures. De Niro plays Lorenzo, a bus driver
from the Bronx who works hard for a living and is perfectly content
with his low amount of income, if only because it is clean. When he is
offered a small Mafia job, he turns it down. The local Mafia kingpin
is Sonny (Chazz Palminteri). "As I grew in age, he grew in power,"
says young Calogero, a.k.a. C, a.k.a. Lorenzo's son. In the beginning
of the film, nine-year-old C witnesses a murder at the hands of Sonny,
but doesn't rat on the man. Soon he is taken under the wing of the
gangster, being thrust into the middle of gambling rackets and running
errands of sorts. Lorenzo despises the Mafia and pleads with Sonny to
leave his son alone. "They didn't speak ever again," says C, now
seventeen years old (played by Lillo Brancato) and narrating the
story. In a way, C suddenly has two fathers -- Lorenzo, who gives him
good advice; and Sonny, whose advice is often times witty but not
always the right thing. C is a confused kid, unsure of what to do with
his life, hanging out with the wrong crowds. De Niro's performance as
Lorenzo is the most touching in the film, because it is so true, and
he displays the same caring side of all parents who want to give their
kids good advice.
One of the movie's only flaws is the stereotypical love interest
subplot, this time between C and a sixteen-year-old black girl who
goes to his school. C is the only kid on his block who doesn't want to
take part in racist beatings and he is apparently the only one, at the
time, who isn't bothered with the blacks' presence on the street. What
is so disappointing about this rather unnecessary addition to the plot
is that it feels tacky, one of the only unrealistic moments in an
otherwise grandiose motion picture. C steps over the boundaries of
being a respectable character, brought up by a very wise father, to a
downright stereotypical Good Guy, who appreciates the minority figures
and is the lone voice in a large crowd of haters. I'm not saying that
C shouldn't fall in love with a black girl, but the entire subplot is
entirely out of place, unnecessary, unbelievable (there is absolutely
no chemistry between the two actors) and, to be blunt, silly. Silly,
and a major error on De Niro's part, because it tries to manipulate
its audience and turn C into an unrealistic, open-minded guy -- the
sort of character who would have never existed back then, especially
under the influence he grew up in.
Oh well. The movie is still brilliant, almost perfect, aside from that
superfluous subplot.
The film was written by Palminteri, based on his own one-man play from
1989. As Sonny, Palminteri proves that he can exhibit the same sort of
oozing confidence that De Niro displayed as Jimmy in Martin Scorsese's
"Goodfellas," the best mob movie ever made, which bears a few
resemblances to "A Bronx Tale." De Niro claims that in order to
separate his film from others that have already dealt with the same
sort of backdrop, he studied his own movies -- particularly those
directed by Scorsese -- and tried to stray away from many techniques
and ideas used in those movies. What De Niro delivers is an
occasionally funny, occasionally painful, coming-of-age drama with
guts. De Niro is right: these sorts of films have been made before,
but in his directorial debut, De Niro proves that he isn't just one of
the greatest actors of all time, but a gifted director with a stunning
vision. De Niro's love and respect for New York City shines through in
"A Bronx Tale," just about as much as his very obvious attention to
detail and characters. This is one of the best Mafia movies ever made,
even if it's towards the bottom of the list.
- John Ulmer
http://www.wiredonmovies.com
e-mail: webmaster@wiredonmovies.com
========== X-RAMR-ID: 37694 X-Language: en X-RT-ReviewID: 1277537 X-RT-TitleID: 1046101 X-RT-SourceID: 1382 X-RT-AuthorID: 6769 X-RT-RatingText: 4.5/5
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