In 1993 Chazz Palminteri wrote an autobiographical movie about himself as a 9 year old child who witnessed a murder. The movie was, "A Bronx Tale." It starred Robert De Niro as his bus driving, straight arrow dad. De Niro directed it as well.
Interestingly, Palminteri played Sonny, the popular, charismatic Mafia don who committed the murder and then became the little boy's friend and patron so the kid wouldn't turn him in.
It's one of the best morality movies ever made.
My good friend and recently retired university professor used to require his students to watch "A Bronx Tale" in his ethics classes.
My son, the one who's a real film buff, thinks it's one of the best movies ever made.
I'm now here with my boyfriend in Minneapolis, one of the most cultural cities in the country, for the summer. Yesterday's paper had a write up of "A Bronx Tale." Not the '93 movie, but a play that's running currently here in the city.
It stars Chazz Palminteri. This time he's doing all the parts. A one man show. So he plays himself as a child and Sonny and other mobsters like Frankie Coffee Cake and Jimmy Ten-Two (he had feet that turned outward, as if telling the time.)
I hope "A Bronx Tale," the play, is still a powerful tale of moral strength.
***
