A course in phony nostalgia and phony morality

I was greatly surprised to see how many stars this film recieved by viewers, it certainly does not deserve such applause. "A bronx tale" is basically a tale about a typical Italian american boy growing up in the 60's ,who is mentored by a mobster. This underworld figure demonstrates a set of morals and he cares deeply for "calogero", who later in his teenage years falls in love with a black girl. His mentor, played by Palimentieri, teaches him that true love is all that counts. The plot means well, but the acting is awful and the message is not believeable.
Never, ever, in the 1960's would a large number of whites, regardless of how they earned a living, demonstrate such understanding. The film has an agenda and the role of the mobsters are incidental to the central point, which is calogeros' eventual love for the girl. Lilo Brancato and the characters of his friends display an incredible lack for acting. The writing is bad and the characters stiff. It is known that Robert deniro only dates women of color, and although there is certainly nothing wrong with that, his desire and predilection seem to dictate the direction of this movie. It is not moving, but rather offensive. Italian americans are overwhelmingly portrayed as dopey , all of them having a cross dangling from their necks. No, I did not like this movie. I grew up in Queens during the 70's. I am an Italian american who grew up in an Italian neighborhood.I found this film reeking from steriotypical ideas of what New Yorkers were like. The writing was awful and I cant stress how bad the acting is. I also do not believe the movie was completely based on the play, it was rewritten to fit personal profiles. The movie was insulting and false. A figment of Deniros idea of entertainment. He should have stuck to playing roles where he does what he does best, curse and swear.

I Love This Movie

My daughter and I watch A Bronx Tale at least twice a week. I have loved this movie every since I first saw it on AMC. Chazz Palaminteri and Robert De Niro both did great jobs, as well as all of the other actors. Robert De Niro plays a bus driver named Lorenzo Anello. He and his wife Rosini and their nine year-old son, Calogero are living in the bronx. Calogero is fascinated by mobster, Sonny, who is a fixture in their neighborhood. Lorenzo is trying to keep his son away from people like Sonny, but the young boy ignores his dad and befriends Sonny. Calogero witnesses Sonny doing something that he refuses to admit to the police. A bond is thereby created between the young boy and the mobster.
I like how Sonny teaches his young friend, Calogero, who he gives the nick-name of "C" to not try and live the same life that he is living. He tells him to stay in school, stay away from bad company, and know who your real friends are. Calogero loves his father, who is also teaching him to be respectful and hardworking, but he also looks up to Sonny, and picks up a lot of "street smarts" along the way.

"We asked you to leave, now yooz can't leave,"

"You open the car door for her and then you walk around the back of the car to see whether or not she unlocks the car door for you, that's how you tell whether or not she's a good girl." That may not be the exact quote, but you get the gist. If you didn't know that was the world's perfect litmus test before seeing the movie, you have the most amazing ah ha moment when you first here it explained in the movie. And when you start to think about it, that's when you remember, he's right. This a great movie!