‘Bronx Tale’ depicts struggle between working man, Mafia

By Jerry Fink

Thursday, Oct. 4, 2007 | 7:27 a.m.

"A Bronx Tale" is semi-autobiographical.

"It's not a documentary," Chazz Palminteri said. "One true thing in the story was I saw a killing as a kid. Also, my father drove a bus. And I threw dice with the wise guys and I had relationship with a black girl. All these events happened in my life and I put the story together. I was always interested to write about the working man."

He talked about two worlds - that of the working man and that of the Mafia.

"The working man was the real hero, was what my father used to say," Palminteri said. "So I put the working man on one side and the mafia on the other and the boy in the middle. It's a story about the boy seeing the best in these two men.

"The unique thing about 'A Bronx Tale' is it's not black and white, it's not about good versus evil. It's gray versus gray."

Palminteri and Robert De Niro turned it into one of the of the best Mafia films of the '90s.

"It's a universal story, a great story for kids to see, and fathers. The message in the movie is that the saddest thing in life is wasted talent, a message that really rings true to a lot of people."

One of the film's stars, Lillo Brancato Jr., didn't hear the movie's message.

Brancato was 17 when he played De Niro's son. It could have been a career-making part , but Brancato, who also played a wannabe mobster on "The Sopranos," allowed his life to spin out of control. He faces second-degree murder charges in a 2005 burglary in the Bronx in which an off-duty police officer was fatally shot.

"It just makes you realize how true the message is," Palminteri said. "Here he's in the quintessential story about not wasting your life and that's exactly what he does. He didn't listen to the words. It's an incredible irony. It's a message to other people to see that. I speak to kids about that."

He said he saw Brancato through the years after the movie was released and watched him losing control.

"It was the drugs," Palminteri said. "I would talk to him, tell him he had to stop fooling around with drugs and things and he said he would quit but he wouldn't listen. He hit the Lotto. He had incredible talent. He could have been a huge star. But the drugs got him."