A Bronx Tale

A Bronx Tale is a one-man show written and performed by Chazz Palminteri. Palminteri based the character of Calogero on himself, partially upon his childhood; his real first name is Calogero. The play is set in The Bronx section of New York City in the 1960s.

A Bronx Tale is a 1993 film set in New York City during the turbulent era of the 1960s. It was the directorial debut of Robert De Niro, and follows a young man as his path in life is guided by two father figures, played by De Niro and Chazz Palminteri. It also includes a brief appearance by Joe Pesci.

A Bronx Tale tells the story of Calogero Anello, a young boy from a working class family who gets involved in the world of organized crime. Calogero\\\'s father is a bus driver who tries to instill working class family values in his son. As Calogero gets older, the aura and mystique of the Mafia, and the charms of Sonny, the local mob boss who befriends Calogero, become difficult to resist. As Calogero comes of age, he must struggle with the choice of following his beloved father\\\'s values or submitting to the temptations of the life of organized crime.

The story of the film starts with the introduction of a young man, who has two different dimensions in his personality and life, due to the inclusion of two other men with fatherly concerns. De Niro had played the role of the father named Lorenzo Anello\\\'s, and the role of the role of a leading young man was played by Francis Capra with the name of Calogero, while the character of equally important other man named Sonny was played by Chazz Palminteri. The movie revolves around the plot of a witness of a murder scene by a local Mafia boss [Sonny]. It is by chance being watched by Lorenzo Anello\\\'s and son Calogero. The twist of the story starts, when Calogero decides to not speak anything of the incident to the police investigations. The act has really won the heart of mafia Chief Sonny, and he starts to like the young boy very much, like a son. Despite the offence of his father, Calogero keeps on visiting Sonny and his posse almost every day in the bar downstairs. His father [De Niro] is a hard-working bus driver, who has to struggle hard to have a decent living.

The relationship between Calogero and Sonny has been carried on for eight long years later. Calogero has grown into a young man; Lillo Brancato Jr. had played the older version of the character in the film. The real dilemma of the story starts as the Calogero has to decide on which path to follow, as both his mentors are leading an entirely different kind of life. The film also depicts his relation with a black girl named Jane Williams (Taral Hicks). It is even hard for him to deal with the situation as being a friend of a mafia man, who is a thorough racist, and quite coincidentally has attacked the girl\\\'s brother and his friends.

The film had got the adult viewing ratings as it contains several violent scenes, which include and insane beating of a biker gang by the Mafia, and Calogero\\\'s friends\\\' tragically botched incursion into the Black neighborhood. The film was shot in three of the different New York City neighborhoods. The story of the film was about borough, but only one scene was shot in the actual place of Bronx. Palminteri had adapted the screenplay from his one-man show of the same name. The show was quite popular in Los Angeles and Off-Broadway. Palminteri was focused on not selling the rights of his story, unless the producers would select him as the screenplay writer and a guarantee, to have the role of Sonny. There was a time, when he was offered one million dollars, but refused because his conditions were not met. It was after sometime that, De Niro saw the show and approached Palminteri himself. He had made it clear to the writer about the role of Sonny in the movie, and he told Palminteri he would act in the movie and meet Palminteri\\\'s conditions if he could direct. De Niro said he was good to his word with only a handshake from Palminteri.

In fact Palminteri was so much touchy with the script and the whole matter, as the character of Calogero was based on himself. It is interesting to know, that ‘A Bronx Tale’ was premiered in Los Angeles in 1990, and it had received rave reviews and commercial success too. It was during one of such performances that, the Academy Award winning actor Robert De Niro, saw the play and was fascinated so much as to buy the rights of it for the film. It is worth mentioning that Palminteri had decided to re-launch his one man show in the year of 2007 and had made a contract with Broadway.

For More Information on A Bronx Tale
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About the Author:
Peter Cohen calls Boston home and graduated from Brandeis University. He considers travel to be the love of his life and has already traveled to 5 different continents. He also has a passion for languages and has studied Arabic, German and Russian. While devoting his working life to writing for lifestyle magazines, he also takes out time for occasional event reviews.