Top 100 Movies Of The 1990's: #47 A Bronx Tale
Box Office: $17.3 Million
Oscar Nominations: None
Oscar Wins: None
MovieRankings.Net: 89/100
Available To Stream: Amazon Prime ($4)
This is a movie filled with great individual moments but it might not be the most cohesive or greatest overall script. A Bronx Tale really is telling two stories: one with Calogero when he's 9 and another when he's 17. The theme of having two "fathers" is consistent throughout but Robert De Niro's bus driver actual father has so much less to do in the second half. Unsurprisingly, the movie is nowhere near as good when he isn't on screen.
The interesting note about this movie is that this is Robert De Niro's first movie he ever directed. He would only go on to direct one more movie (The Good Shepherd in 2006). For a rookie director, he does a pretty good job. De Niro is great at creating this city block that is Calogero's whole universe. You see everything in that first half from the POV of a 9 year old. With so many iconic moments, I bet De Niro would have been a pretty good director if he focused solely on that.
The greatest strength about this movie though is Chazz Palminteri. He obviously stars as the gangster Sonny but he wrote the script as well. It all stemmed from his successful one man show that De Niro saw one night and got greenlit into a movie. He would later go on to get an Oscar nomination for Best Actor in the Woody Allen comedy Bullets Over Broadway but Palminteri will be most remembered for A Bronx Tale. He spent the majority of his career acting but did write another feature film in 1996 called Faithful. He starred in it with Cher and it bombed at the box office. That pretty much ended his screenwriting days.
When the movie focuses on 17 year old Calogero and his friends, it can feel like an afterschool special. Everything about the third act feels as subtle as a sledgehammer. This is the difficulty of taking a play to the big screen. In theater, it feels like things need to be wrapped up with a bow. In movies, there can be more ambiguity. I don't need to see Calogero's friends set themselves on fire. The whole ending feels rushed.
But I do appreciate this movie for the specific parts (many of which were pulled from Palminteri's own life). Eddie The Mush. The stuff about forgetting someone who won't pay you back $20. The girl reaching to open the car door for you after you let her in "test". The saddest thing in life is wasted talent. And of course:
This is a very good movie. With so much of it coming from Chazz Palminteri's actual childhood, this may have been the only great screenplay in him. But I wish we could have seen more collaborations with Palminteri writing and Robert De Niro directing. I don't blame De Niro for doing lousy comedies in the 2000's for easy paychecks but I would love to see a universe where he spent that time directing instead.
47. A Bronx Tale
48. The People Vs. Larry Flynt
49. Eyes Wide Shut
50. The Sandlot
51. Happy Gilmore
52. Contact
53. The Green Mile
54. Man On The Moon
55. Boyz N The Hood
56. Grosse Pointe Blank
57. Independence Day
58. The Rainmaker
59. Go
60. The Firm
61. Magnolia
62. The Talented Mr. Ripley
63. Tommy Boy
64. The Usual Suspects
65. In The Line Of Fire
66. My Cousin Vinny
67. Awakenings
68. JFK
69. Toy Story
70. Home Alone
71. Jerry Maguire
72. Titanic
73. Billy Madison
74. Apollo 13
75. Braveheart
76. Edward Scissorhands
77. Cape Fear
78. The River Wild
79. What's Eating Gilbert Grape?
80. 12 Monkeys
81. Stir Of Echoes
82. Mission: Impossible
83. Total Recall
84. Quiz Show
85. For Love Of The Game
86. Being John Malkovich
87. Men In Black
88. Scream
89. Alive
90. Three Kings
91. Glengarry Glen Ross
92. Die Hard With A Vengeance
93. The Blair Witch Project
94. Twister
95. Dirty Work
96. Election
97. Tremors
98. Any Given Sunday
99. The Wedding Singer
100. Clerks