John Hughes
Directed Discussion Reflection
11/02/13

A Bronx Tale
A Bronx Tale is an excellent portrayal of morality, coming of age, and racial tension that has a plethora of cultural relativism in every scene. It has been one of my favorite Mafioso films since I first saw it years ago with my dad. It has fascinating references to the glitz and glam of the gangster lifestyle and riveting illustrations of how the choices we make when we are young can affect the rest of lives. A perfect example of these life lessons is a quote by the main character’s father “The worst thing in life is wasted talent”. is a opens with the grisly murder of a man by a local mafia boss, Sonny (Chazz Palminteri). The mafia boss commits the act because he is trying to save his friend from an attacker by another man. The young son of Lorenzo Anello's (Robert De Niro), who is known as Calogero (Francis Capra) witnesses everything but he is unwilling to tell the NYPD officers the truth. This makes the mafia boss to like the young boy. Although the mafias are gangsters in the neighborhood, one realizes that they are liked in the society.
This shows race disparity in the society because the mafia being whites are acceptable in the society as opposed to blacks who engage in crime. Calogero’s father lives an honest life as a driver but does not hate Sonny although he knows that Sonny is a gangster. When his son does not tell the police, what he saw, Lorenzo is happy because he does not want his family to get involved in the mafia’s issues. However, he is not amused by the fact that Calogero is running errands for the mafia boss. This shows that Lorenzo does not trust the mafia whereas he does not want them to be exposed to the police. In addition, after the death of Sonny very many people in the neighborhood attend his funeral as a sign of togetherness.
Sonny believes that a man in a very short time can understand womens’ desires. This is evidenced when he keeping the grown up Calogero on how to pick up a girl for an outing. Sonny makes so simple such that Calogero is not able to understand it. Sonny is of the idea that, if the girl does not pull the button for him to get into the car, then she must be very selfish. He tells Calogero to dump her, Jane (Taral Hicks) immediately to show that he regards women as the weaker gender. Sonny does not belief that women have the right to dump men as sees men as being superior to women.
Calogero being an American of Italian origin is engaged in a gang of local Italian boys. The gang of Italian boys beat up some cyclist because they are black. Calogero does not like the idea because he knows that the cyclists are innocent but he has nothing