directed by robert de niro . written by chazz palminteri ( based on his play ) . running time : 122 minutes . rated r ( for language and scenes containing violence ) . a bronx tale reminds me a lot of goodfellas . it stars robert de niro who also directed . it also has a cameo by joe pesci . i thought i even saw martin scorsece as a priest at a confessional . i began to think that this movie took it's style and grace from goodfellas . then it hit me that it reminded me of goodfellas because a bronx tale is almost as great . lorenzo ( robert de niro ) is a working man . he has a city job as a bus driver and makes enough to let his wife and son live well in an apartment in the bronx . he never got in the popular gangster business that ruled the area . the apartment he lives in in near a busy bar that is home to many of these gangsters . he tells his 9 year old son calogero ( francis capra ) to never go in there and to stay on his stoop in front of the complex . in a discussion earlier lorenzo talked to his son about talent . calogero asks him who was the best baseball player of all time . lorenzo tells him it was joey d ( imaggio ) because he has class and talent . calogero asks if he has any talent . lorenzo says that he has all the talent in the world and just needs to use it wisely . calogero witnesses a shooting while sitting on the stoop commited by the local main gangster sonny ( chazz palminteri who also wrote the script ) . when confronted by a police officer who is shown a line of suspects and asked who shot . the lineup consists of some of the workers and some gansters who were the bar . sonny is in the lineup . calogero walks past the line saying that none of the men commited the murder . lorenzo takes him upstairs to get him ready for bed . calogero asks his father if he did the right thing . lorenzo says " you did a very good thing for a very bad man . " cut to the late 60s . calogero ( now nicknamed c by sonny and played by lillo brancato ) now is 17 years old and one of sonny's " men " . lorenzo is shocked that his son has not listened to anything he has said through the years . c now has become everything lorenzo hates . a gangster who wants his money the second he asks . a bronx tale is actor robert de niro first directed film . he does a great job directing himself and others . some of the scenes such as a fight in the bar are very nicely edited and staged to music that sets the mood . palmenteri also does a great job as sonny and is both frightening and fatherlike in the same instant . lillo brancato is a great find and plays his part very well . he is a charming young actor who i hope has a good career . the film is also suprising funny . it is probably the most upbeat ganster picture if you don't count jonny dangerously ( which i don't ) . there is a great scene in the first 20 minutes where c narrates the people young calogero meets in the bar . some has nicknames like coffeecake ( the look of that man's face ) and whispers ( everything's a secret to him ) . the film ends suddenly and makes me ask for more . it is noticably very short considering goodfellas was about 20 minutes longer . still a bronx tale fills it's tight 2 hours with as much as it can . i wanted to spend more time finding out what happens to c . i doubt a sequel will be made but i'd still like to know . 
