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[[File:a-bronx-tale-poster_8271.jpg|frame]]
{{quote|''The saddest thing in the world is wasted talent.''|'''Lorenzo Anello'''}}
{{quote|''What a time it was. The Yankees were playing the Pirates in the World Series... and Mickey Mantle was like a god to me. My dad and I would go to Yankee Stadium and see the Yankees win.''|'''Calogero''', speaking part of the opening narration}}
A touching, heartbreaking coming of age story... with gangsters
Naturally, both of Calogero's parents disapprove of this, (especially his painfully honest, straight living father) but nothing they do can stop Calogero's fascination with Sonny, the other neighborhood mobsters, or their hangout bar, which is just a couple of places down the street from his own house. Still, Sonny never notices Calogero or the other neighborhood boys that imitate the gangster... until the day when two men pulling into a parking space at the same time get into a fight, one of them [[Batter Up|pulls out a bat and attacks the other with it]], and Sonny shoots the bat wielding assailant... right in front of young Calogero.
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Soon events are racing to a head. Jane's brother Willie is one of a group of black kids assaulted by C's friends just for riding through the Italian neighborhood on their bikes, and although C doesn't take any part in the beating, Willie identifies him from the scene. C's relationship with his father is unraveling fast, and strange little things are happening around Sonny, making him increasingly paranoid about attempts on his life, including finding something on the engine of his car after C borrowed it, which leaves him suspecting C is part of an assassination attempt. As all these threads come together and the film heads for a climax, Calogero must start making some tough choices about his life, and try to deal with events that will leave most of the characters changed, and more than a few dead...
{{tropelist}}
* [[Acceptable Breaks From Reality]]: Many a New Yorker got a [http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/24/nyregion/police-are-criticized-for-responding-more-slowly-to-911-calls.html?pagewanted=1 long], [https://web.archive.org/web/20090907133747/http://www.nydailynews.com/news/ny_crime/2009/08/03/2009-08-03_calling_these_precincts_is_a_waste_of_your_time_news_finds_long_waits_when_diali.html dark] laugh from the police banging on the Anello's door within seconds of the shooting. However, since waiting hours for them to show up doesn't make for riveting film...
* [[Adaptation Expansion]]: Chazz Palminteri, (who plays Sonny) originally wrote this as a one man play, and still performs it at times.
* [[All Bikers Are Hells Angels]]: Justified in this case, as that's what the motorcycle toughs actually are.
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* [[As Himself]]: The guy playing Eddie Mush, the unlucky jinx who always loses bets, was Eddie Montanaro the real-life version. True to form, on the first day he showed up on the set, it rained.
* [[Ax Crazy]]: C's friend Mario, who is even called Crazy Mario in the neighborhood.
{{quote|
* [[Badass Bookworm]]: Sonny. Badass enough to be a Mafia boss, bookworm enough to read Machiavelli in jail.
* [[Bad Guy Bar]]
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* [[Covers Always Lie]] & [[Never Trust a Trailer]]: Both the VHS/DVD cover and the trailer overplay the Sonny/Lorenzo conflict, and make it seem like the entire film is a face to face confrontation between the two. They share two scenes, and one of those lasts about 30 seconds. Calogero also notes that his father and Sonny never spoke once during the [[Time Skip]].
* [[Curb Stomp Battle]]: Sonny's gang versus the bikers.
* [[Damn, It Feels Good to Be
{{quote|
'''Lorenzo:''' You don't understand: it's not what you say, it's what he sees, the clothes, the cars, the money, it's everything. }}
* [[Deadpan Snarker]]: The young Calogero shows signs of this. The teenage C, not so much.
{{quote|
'''Young Calogero:''' You mean Mom wont let you go either?
'''Lorenzo:''' What am I gonna do with this kid? }}
* [[Do Not Call Me "Paul"]]: Calogero gets the nickname "C" from Sonny and ends up being called that by everyone, except his father, who will not do it.
** And Jane, who likes "Calogero" better.
* [[The Dragon]]: Jimmy Whispers to Sonny.
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* [[First Kiss]]: C apparently does one with Jane. She just smiles, and tells him that was not a real kiss, then [[Forceful Kiss|plants a real one on him]].
* [[Gang of Hats]]: Mario and the other neighborhood delinquents are a literal example.
* [[Hoist
* [[Holding Hands]]: C tries to go for this awfully quickly...
* [[Honor Before Reason]]: Lorenzo refuses any money from Sonny, even low-risk "nobody gets hurt" jobs that Sonny offers him out of gratitude for Calogero keeping quiet, and does not even want Calogero hanging out with Sonny.
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* <s>Heroic</s> [[Heroic Wannabe|Mafia Wannabes]]: It is painfully obvious, particularly to Sonny, that the teenage C and his friends are third rate wannabes. C is simply not cut out for a street life, and his friends are dumb punks trying way too hard. Sonny describes them as "Jerk-offs. And Slick is the biggest jerk-off."
* [[Maligned Mixed Marriage|Maligned Mixed Dating]]: And during the racial unrest of the late 1960s, no less.
* [["Mister Sandman" Sequence]]: The Bronx, 1960. Working-class joes play stickball in the street to a seemingly never-ending doo-wop soundtrack.
* [[Molotov Cocktail]]
** {{spoiler|[[Catch and Return]]}}
* [[Neighbourhood Friendly Gangsters]]: If you watch closely (or enough times) you can see that while Sonny is a legit case, there is something of a deconstruction going on with the rest of Sonny's crew. Most of them are either losers or violent guys being held on a leash by Sonny.
* [[Never Lend to
* [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot]]: The movie manages to plausibly package together gangsters, [[Soul Brotha|soul brothas]], and (in one scene) Hell's Angels.
* [[No
* [[Not So Different]]: The black teens are nearly as bad and racist as the punks C hangs out with.
** Lorenzo and Sonny, despite being on opposite ends of the social hierarchy, both want what is best for Calogero: a good education, and not to be corrupted by gangs. Leads to some inevitable [[Hypocritical Heartwarming]] on Sonny's part: "Don't do what I do."
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** He never believed he had them. He was just angry at the moment.
* [[Oh Crap]]. Some bikers start messing up Sonny's bar. He asks them to leave. They refuse. This is what happens next.
{{quote|
'''Calogero:''' [narrating] ''I will never forget the look on their faces. All eight of them. Their faces dropped. All their courage and strength was drained right from their bodies. They had reputation for breaking up bars, but they knew that instant, they'd made a fatal mistake. This time they walked into the wrong bar.'' [Sonny's crew comes out of the back of the bar and beats the crap out of the bikers] }}
* [[Only Known
* [[Only Sane Man|Only Sane Boy]]: Calogero is by far the most level-headed person in his peer group, most obviously shown in the scene where one of his friends lights a cigarette in a car full of Molotov cocktails. And Calogero still isn't sane enough to get out of that car until [[Big Damn Heroes|Sonny accosts them and forces the issue.]]
* [[Opposed Mentors]]: A kid called Calogero growing up under the conflicting influences of his hard-working, honest, but poor father, and the charismatic, rich and powerful, [[Affably Evil]] local mafia don Sonny.
* [[Politically
* [[Pragmatic Villainy]]: Sonny exhibits this a number of times, and is frustrated that no one else seems to catch on to the importance of it.
** One example is that Sonny was the only one who was willing to do business with the Black Gangs, while the more racist mobsters want nothing to do with them.
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* [[Salt and Pepper]]
* [[Secret Test of Character]]: Both Mario and Sonny propose ways to test a girl's character and see if she is ''the'' right girl. Sonny's is ''slightly'' more reasonable and rather less... psychotic.
{{quote|
** {{spoiler|Jane passes the test.}}
* [[The Sixties]]: Exemplified by hippie bikers and soul music (in 1968). And the racial unrest...
* [[Soundtrack Dissonance]]: Several scenes of brutal violence are overlaid with tracks like "Knights in White Satin".
** Others, not so much. The heavy bass and percussion of "Come Together" complement the [[No
* [[Take a Third Option|Take A Fourth Option]]:
{{quote|
'''Calogero:''' What did you do?
'''Sonny:''' Me? I read. }}
* [[Talking to
* [[Time Skip]]
* [[Timeshifted Actor]]: Actually, some critics mentioned preferring Francis Capra as "Young Calogero" to [[Dull Surprise|Lillo Brancato as the teenage Calogero/C]].
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* [[Too Dumb to Live]]: {{spoiler|C's friends were so stupid with the Molotovs that they [[Asshole Victim|deserved to die]] for that alone, aside from all their other racist Jerk Assery}}.
* [[The Un-Reveal]]: What was that fight about? Even Sonny and Carmine confirm that it was not over the parking space, but neither says what the real cause was.
* [[What Happened to
** She also mentions something about "taking care of the baby," [[Fridge Horror|who also is never seen after the Time Skip]].
* [[White Gang
* [[Write What You Know]] & [[Write Who You Know]]: A large portion of the story comes from Chazz Palminteri's own childhood in the Bronx and experiences growing up. Also, Palminteri's full name is ''Calogero Lorenzo Palminteri''.
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[[Category:Films of the 1990s]]
[[Category:A Bronx Tale]]
[[Category:
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bronx Tale, A}}
[[Category:Film]]
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