Moving Pictures : A Bronx Tale (1993) — Robert De Niro
Welcome to the first installment of Moving Pictures. This segment is dedicated to films or TV series that I watch, most of them personal favourites.
When I was in elementary school, I watched a scene from The Departed where Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon shouted at each other on a rooftop. A couple minutes later, Leo was shot in the head when the elevator door opened. Just like that.
Another introduction to cinema came from when local television channels such as RCTI or Trans7 showed The Shawshank Redemption and Inglourious Basterds late at night. I’m still trying to figure out why my exposure to violent movies happened so early in my life. Many years later, I grew fond of American drama such as of The Godfather Part II, Annie Hall and all of John Cassavetes’s films.
A Bronx Tale (1993) poster
In 1972, The Godfather became the bible, the blueprint, and the manifestation of how a mob flick should be for the next century. It’s gorgeous, poetic and bloody. But, what would happened if a mob flick was mixed with a coming-of-age genre? Well, Robert De Niro gave us his piece of directing in 1993 with A Bronx Tale.
Chazz Palminteri & Francis Capra
A Bronx Tale is a movie about having choices, a young man standing between a rock and a hard place. The character Calogero “C” (Francis Capra & Lilo Brancato) is torn between his bus driver father Lorenzo (Robert De Niro) and the respected man in the neighborhood Sonny (Chazz Palminteri) in the Bronx during the 1960s.
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Aside from Robert De Niro’s directing, it astonished me that he could portray an honest everyman who takes pride in his job, unlike his other roles which were mostly antagonists or just plain serious. On the other hand, Chazz Palminteri could portrays as a cool-headed, full of wisdom and a mentor to Calogero on life and love.
Robert De Niro & Lilo Brancato
Like most of us young men, Calogero represents someone searching for a place, who can I look up to? Where do I put myself when the environment gets heated? What’s my talent? How do I know that if a girl really likes me? Well, A Bronx Tale is not merely a mob film. It’s an American drama, a New York classic about adulthood, family and love.
“ I might not have any money, I might not have a Cadillac, but I don’t have to look over my shoulder “.
