Common Sense Media Review
By Brian Costello
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Classic coming-of-age movie has violence, racism, language.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
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A Bronx Tale
What's the Story?
In A BRONX TALE, Calogero (Lillo Brancato) is a boy growing up with his mother and hardworking bus driver father (Robert De Niro). While Calogero's father, Lorenzo, tries to teach him right from wrong, Calogero can't help but be fascinated by Sonny (Chazz Palminteri), the neighborhood mob boss. After Calogero witnesses Sonny shoot and kill a man on the street but refuses to rat Sonny out, Sonny takes a liking to Calogero, calling him "C," and paying him good money for odd jobs, much to the chagrin of Lorenzo. While Lorenzo preaches to Calogero that real men work hard for a living and take care of their families, "C" finds himself more drawn to Sonny, who has life lessons of his own to impart to the now teenager. As Calogero goes through high school, the friends he grew up with are increasingly getting up to no good, and when he becomes smitten with Jane (Taral Hicks), an African American classmate that he first sees on his dad's bus, it happens at a time when racial tensions in the area are high. As Calogero's friends become increasingly dangerous and violent, Calogero must learn to apply the good advice he has gotten from both Lorenzo and Sonny and stand on his own two feet.
Is It Any Good?
There are literally tens of thousands of coming-of-age movies, and it's safe to say that A Bronx Tale is one of the best. Against this intense backdrop of everything evoked by a 1960s Bronx neighborhood -- large personalities, unique individuals, working-class pride, mafia guys hanging out on the corner, and the increasingly simmering racial tensions of the time and place -- Chazz Palminteri's richly evocative story comes down to what every great coming-of-age story is about: a young person learning to be who they are, standing on their own two feet, and getting the first glimpses of a world outside the narrow confines of their childhood conceptions.
As the opposite father figures competing for young Calogero's admiration and respect, Palminteri and Robert De Niro present vivid and unique characters that manage to avoid the cliches so often seen in depictions of blue-collar guys on one side, and mob bosses on the other, to say nothing of the cliches inherent in nostalgic evocations of Life In the 1960s (cue "My Girl" by The Temptations). The decades have been kind to A Bronx Tale; years later, this is a movie that has only gotten better with age.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about A Bronx Tale as a coming-of-age movie. How is it similar to and different from other films about growing up?
How are Lorenzo and Sonny shown to be two very different men, and how do they appear as role models for Cologero as he becomes a teenager?
How did the movie try to convey what life was like in the Bronx in the 1960s?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : October 1, 1993
- Cast : Chazz Palminteri , Robert De Niro , Lillo Brancato
- Director : Robert De Niro
- Studio : Universal
- Genre : Drama
- Topics : School ( High School ) , History
- Run time : 121 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- MPAA explanation : Strong language and several scenes of violence.
- Last updated : September 18, 2025
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