Top 250 according to the popular site “KinoPoisk” includes about a dozen paintings about gangsters. There is The Godfather, Scarface, Cards, Money, Two Trunks. And the directorial debut of Robert de Niro (the 1993 Bronze History film) takes 240th place on this list.
Russian distributors made a
grammatical mistake by translating the title (according to the rules you need to write "Bronx"). But it was decided to leave so. That's how interesting the story with the name of the movie “Bronx History” is. If you look at the tape on the video, you can find the version of the Bronx Story closest to the original. Or “Showdown in the Bronx” (“Showdown in Little Tokyo” with young Dolph Lundgren and
Jason Lee, who had passed away so early, immediately comes to mind
, but no analogy should be drawn, the style of these films is very different). Or “The Bronx Tale” is the most untrue, since the film “The Bronx History” does not carry anything fabulous, the story is very close to reality.
There is always a choice
The plot of the painting "Bronx History" is quite simple. America, 1960s. One of the bosses of the Bronx mafia Sonny was so wild that he shot a man in broad daylight. Just because of the parking lot. Accidentally, the murder was seen by a little boy living here in the Italian quarter. Calogero secretly admired such as Sonny.
Therefore, when the police questioned a nine-year-old witness, he did not extradite his idol. Sonny was imbued with respect and gratitude to the boy and began to patronize him. This could not be approved by the guy’s father,
the bus driver Lorenzo Anello. However, Sonny did not back down; he continued to patronize Calogero. And when, years later, he started a war for his love for a mulatto girl, the mafiosi took the side of his named son. The film Bronx Story is more of a drama than just another Mafia movie. In the finale, Calogero faces a difficult choice: to continue to approach the once invented image of a sort of knight without fear and reproach, or to choose the ordinary life of an honest person. In some ways, it reminds one of the plot lines of the “Departed”. There, too, two guys, faced with a choice, went in different ways. The hero of Matt Damon remained in the mafia clan, completely obeying the boss (another great role of
Jack Nicholson). And the character of Leonardo DiCaprio remained true to his ideals.
Colorful and authentic
The Bronze Story is based on a play by Chazza Palminteri. He also played the main role. His Sonny turned out to be colorful and very reliable. The antagonist of the king of the mafia (Lorenzo) was played by Robert de Niro.
A talented actor said that he devotes this work to his father. The grown up Calogero was portrayed by a little-known artist Lillo Brancato, who, nevertheless, coped with the task brilliantly. The guy’s debut was a success. The same character (in childhood) is played by Frank Capra. In a small role, he was good (he was not the first to get into the "skin" of a gangster, as, however, de Niro and Palminteri) Joe Pesci. It is a pity that Palminteri was not marked for the film “Bronx History” by the main award of film academics (in his life there was only one nomination - for the supporting role in “Bullets over Broadway”).