A Bronx Tale is a 1993 drama about a father who becomes worried when a local gangster befriends his son in the Bronx in the 1960s.
There surely can’t be very many directorial debuts that have earned a 96% approval rating on the famous Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer – but then there aren’t many other directors with the career record of Robert De Niro.
Fans of the 1993 film will already know that De Niro took a supporting role in the film so he could focus his efforts behind the camera to bring this slice of Italian-Americana in the 1960s Bronx vividly to life. In doing so he was following firmly in the footsteps of his long time mentor and collaborator Martin Scorsese while also bringing his own unique vision to bear on this well-trodden coming of age tale.
A Young Boy’s Story
A modern day shot of the Bronx, New York, the story revolves around the young boy Calogero Anello, played by Francis Capra as a nine-year-old and Lillo Brancato Jr as a 17-year-old, who is growing up in the poor neighbourhood of New York’s troubled Bronx. Although he comes from a respectable family headed by De Niro who is a bus driver for the city, young Calogero is fascinated by the mobsters who live in the neighbourhood. One day he witnesses a murder committed by the local Mr Big, Sonny LoSpecchio, but refuses to give the police any information. As result Sonny, played by Chazz Palminteri on whose memoirs the film is based, takes young Calogero under his wing.
Lorenzo, De Niro’s character, disapproves of the relationship fearful that his son will be sucked in the criminal underworld as he begins running more and more errands for the gang, almost becoming their lucky mascot and it’s in this context that one of the film’s most famous scenes takes place.
Sonny and his friends are enjoying a game of street craps when Calogero goes down to deliver coffees in exchange for tips. So far the game has been going badly for Sonny so he asks Calogero to throw for him, briefly explaining the rules of street craps before he begins. It’s not a popular move with the other players but Sonny’s word is not to be questioned. In true Hollywood style, it’s a real game changer when the boy starts throwing and, as the character says: “Eleven, I made eleven passes in a row and I don’t know how much money Sonny won, but it was a lot.”
This turned out to be a truly pivotal scene in the film and one in which Calogero’s acceptance was complete. It’s a relationship that will eventually save his life when, as a teenager, he gets involved in interracial-violence with some African Americans also from the Bronx and Sonny steps in to prevent him from getting involved. There’s a bitter-sweet end to the film when Sonny is shot dead by the son of the victim whose own murder had been witnessed by Calogero all those years ago. However, at the mobster’s funeral Calogero and his father are finally reconciled and reunited.
The Critics’ Opinions
As you’d expect from the exceptionally high Tomatometer rating, it was a film that was very well received by many leading critics. For example, the legendary Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times wrote of it: “’A Bronx Tale’ is a very funny movie sometimes, and very touching at other times. It is filled with life and colourful characters and great lines of dialogue, and De Niro, in his debut as a director, finds the right notes as he moves from laughter to anger to tears. What’s important about the film is that it’s about values. About how some boys grow up into men who can look at themselves in the mirror in the morning, and others just go along with the crowd, forgetting after a while that they ever had a choice.”
With the craps scene being one of the key moments in the movie, A Bronx Tale also brought dice games very much into the public eye, no doubt encouraging many avid cinemagoers to learn more about craps for themselves. Undoubtedly, the best place to learn is through 888casino’s guide, it is straightforward and leaves the reader with a firm understanding on how to play craps.
After all, it wouldn’t be the first time that a high-profile movie had encouraged people to follow trends. For example, after the release of the original Finding Dory it was announced that sales of clownfish suddenly shot up to unprecedented levels. And after Tom Cruise spent much of his time in Risky Business wearing a pair of Ray-Ban Wayfarer sunglasses sales of these also went through the roof. On a more sporting level, dodgeball was a game that began to be played more and more after the release of the hilarious and eponymous film starring Ben Stiller, Vince Vaughan and Christine Taylor.
But craps, undoubtedly, is a more mainstream kind of game than dodgeball and that accounts for both its rise in popularity after the film and its popularity in general in the casino world.
A Brief History of Craps
Craps is also a game with a very interesting history, which many believe has its origins in a dice game called “Hazard” that was very popular in Britain at the time of the Crusades – as long ago as the 11th century. But it was only when it was adopted by the French who brought it to America in the 19th century that it started to become the game we know today.
In actual fact, the street craps featured in the A Bronx Tale is closer to the original style of play before the casino tables of today were first designed. Players had to squat down in their haunches like toads (“crapauds” in French) while throwing dice to rebound off a wall, allegedly giving birth to the game’s name.
The simplicity of the game is also what makes it so good as a plot device in the film as only a rudimentary knowledge of the rules of street craps is needed for viewers to understand what’s going on. It’s only when you get into the many betting options of casino play that things get to become more complicated.
As for The Bronx Tale, its enduring appeal is plain to see. 25 years on from its original release it still features in many people’s lists of top films and it’s even been turned into a Broadway musical – no doubt also introducing a whole new generation to the thrills and excitement of street craps in the process.