Was home sick from work today – amid other restful non-activities, watched A Bronx Tale on DVD. Although it’s a bit slow-paced, it was a good, if not great, movie.

ABT is not a typical gangster movie – although the narrative perspective used here (that of young Calogero ‘C’ Anello) is arguably very similar to Henry Hill/Ray Liotta in Goodfellas – this story only really goes until “C” hits high school, vs. Henry’s time in the mob from childhood all the way through to selling them out on the witness stand. Also, in ABT “C” associates with gangsters, but never really ‘joins’ the way Henry did. And, the main gangster, Sonny, goes out of his way in a couple situations to try to *keep* “C” out of trouble.

Robert De Niro (also directed) plays C’s dad, an honest, if definitely not rich, local bus driver. Italian, but keeps out of the way of the mob and also, like Sonny, tries to keep his son out of harm’s way, with varying degrees of success.

I appreciated that here, unlike say Goodfellas or the even more over-the-top (ridiculous, IMHO) Casino, the emphasis was on characters and motivations, even though naturally, being a gangster-related movie, there was plenty of violence. The ‘biker‘ scene alone probably had enough for the entire movie, but whatevs. But there seemed to be a genuine effort made to understand C, his dad and to a lesser degree, even Sonny.

Sonny is a ‘local’ neighborhood mob boss, not a big shot like the Corleone family or other typical movie gangsters – it’s interesting because they basically show him hanging out at the neighborhood corner bar nearly the entire time, with only a few exceptions. They have gambling in the basement, obviously various ‘operations’ going on in the area – but they almost never mention them, really.

It always boggles my mind on these guys because (at least according to the movies, maybe not in real life) they always seem to get whatever they want – and spend the entire time just boozing, womanizing and gambling? At least the Corleones (well, Michael anyway) seemed to see a life outside the mob (although he failed to get there in the end)? Why is ‘success’ limited to/measured by just booze, broads and bashing heads? I don’t get it. Maybe it’s just a ‘simpler’ lifestyle :).

Anyway, if you want to watch a gangster movie that still provides an adequate violence quota but actually tries at the same time to have a different style of plot and develop its characters – this is a decent choice.

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