Editor’s Pick: “A Bronx Tale” (1993)
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 30, 2002 9:00 p.m.
The underappreciated “A Bronx Tale,” released in
1993, was Robert De Niro’s directorial debut. The story
focused on an Italian youth, Calogero “C” Anello,
played by Lillo Brancato, growing up in Little Italy in the late
’60s. De Niro, playing the boy’s father, acts as a
convincing bus driver who attempts to guide the boy away from the
local ruffians and mob life. The movie was written by Chazz
Palminteri, who also costars as the benevolent mafioso who becomes
the second father figure to C.
Encompassing larger themes such as racism, “A Bronx
Tale” proves to be a winning story about a young man finding
himself amongst the pressures of conflicting role models, his
friends, and the neighborhood.
Adeptly directed by De Niro, this mobster flick presents the
other side of mob-life and therefore earns today’s
editor’s pick.
