A Bronx Tale

Robert De Niro’s first film as director came out of Chazz Palminteri’s one man show. Palminteri had turned down offers as high as a million dollars for the rights, insisting on writing the screenplay and playing Sonny himself; De Niro agreed to both. The piece began in 1989 as a five minute monologue in Los Angeles. Nothing was shot in the Bronx. Production took over 30th Avenue in Astoria, Queens, chosen for its resemblance to the block Palminteri grew up on. De Niro had to get a bus driver’s licence for his part, which pushed the schedule back. Lillo Brancato was spotted at Jones Beach doing De Niro impressions and cast for the resemblance, in his first acting job. The story hangs on two dates: a nine year old watches a killing in 1960 and says nothing, and the bill comes due eight years later. The argument between father and gangster is never settled in words. Sonny pulls the boy from the car on the last night and is then shot in the back of the neck; the racial violence around them is what makes that rescue count. A good fit if you want the killing over inside ten minutes and the rest given to consequences instead of investigation. Not for anyone who needs Sonny’s world condemned at the end.