Why I Brought Bronx Tale Back After Almost Twenty Years

Over the past 20 years everywhere I travel, whether here or abroad, people approach me with lavish compliments for the movie I wrote based upon my play, A Bronx Tale. Some even saw the original play some two decades ago and see it as a fond memory.

After appearing in 50 movies, people tell me that A Bronx Tale is their favorite. A broad spectrum of fathers and sons tell me that the message of the film changed their lives. "The saddest thing in life is wasted talent" was the theme that ran through the movie, a message my father, Lorenzo Palminteri, instilled in me when I was nine years old. The genesis of the phrase involved a young boxer who was extraordinarily talented, but died from an overdose of drugs at the tender age of seventeen. My father was devastated. He looked me in the eyes and with conviction in his heart uttered the phrase that drove the movie. He even wrote it on an index card and in my room on the wall.

My father's passion in that phrase made a great impression on me and served me well through the tough years as an actor and writer. I was determined not to waste mine. At the lowest point of my life I saw my father's card and I was determined to succeed.

Unemployed and broke, I was contemplating leaving LA and going back home when I decided that if they wouldn't give me a great part, I would have to write my own. I wrote A Bronx Tale and it changed my life.

I'm back on Broadway now to see if I can inspire and change some young people's lives and have them realize that the talent inside of them will bubble to the surface if they have faith in themselves and persevere. Many parents come to see the show and wait outside for me with their children and express how much the message of the play and the movie mean to them. I give them all a little going away gift, a card that says "The saddest thing in life is wasted talent." I sign it and ask the child to do the same, a social contract designed to inspire. The parents are generally moved and it makes me feels like the child has made a promise to all of us.

A young mind is so precious that it can go astray in a NY minute. We have the power to keep them on the straight and narrow. Sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. But, I believe that we all have the talent to be anything we want. We just don't use it. It's not about looking outside ourselves, it's about looking inward. The idea is not to waste what we already have. Wasted talent is a great sin against our potential. Whether you are a Rhodes Scholar or an ex-convict, you can achieve anything you want. That is why I am back on Broadway to make people realize that they all have the power within.

Comments

[TomR]

It's great Mr. Palminteri that you aren't letting circumstances waste your talent, i.e. bringing your play back to Broadway. The solution you came up with, writing A Bronx Tale, is a lesson for all of us about making our own opportunities when they don't fall into our laps.

Passion and dedication are more important toward building one's talent than the initial perceived aptitude a person may have.

- Tom

ps. Your film has an excellent soundtrack.

[GhiaccioPronto]

Well you can't please everyone. My family on my fathers side is from that neighborhood, and were pretty excited about the movie coming out. The neighborhood you portrayed is not the one that they knew, but a stereotyped gangster movie with a politically correct twist. Your movie was entertaining, but it seems, since godfather, movies about Italians have become the minstrel shows of our day. Getting more than a little sick of it.

[3fingerbrown]

Glad you mentioned "Bullets Over Broadway." Woody Allen has evolved over the years into a "woman's director," ala George Cukor, someone who specializes in getting great performances out of actresses, like the career-best performance he got from Jennifer Tilly in "Bullets." But in that same movie Chazz gives the best performance ever by a male actor in an Allen farce, with Jim Broadbent finishing a very close second.

[castlerider]

Sad to note that the fella who played the older young man C got in some trouble in a robbery and actually has had to face time for it.
Waste of talent indeed, but what can you do.. My prayers have been with the kid. The people he hurt, too.

Thanks for a great post, Mr. Palminteri. I also am one of the many that consider this play, and of course the movie a work of art that sits in a special place in my library. It is so full of my favorite all time scenes, including where you drive all the way to your work in Reverse gear, where the Beatles' "Come together" clicks us into an absolute laying-down-the-law scene of street justice, the "Sonny"test, Oh, man- the whole movie, sir.. When I watch it, it lifts me and I can hear do-whop for days in the back of my mind.
I love that.
Forgive me for not noticing that you had been the one to write it, but to see that now inspires me all over again, because you were my favorite in the story.
Best of luck in your re-play. Hope I can get to see it, somehow.

[JMEB]

I love, love, love this movie (never saw it on stage). Bravo for bringing it back to Broadway.

[JCP]

I took a film class at Univ. of Vermont with a professor who once taught Jon Kilik (who, if I'm not mistaken, produced Bronx Tale, and many other fantastic films). We got to speak by video conference with several film industry folks, including costume designers, cinematographers and some other off camera folks. But the highlight of that class BY FAR (and my college career) was a short videoconference with Mr. Palmintieri, who spoke to us about screenwriting. He was so gracious, funny, and interested in what a bunch of college freaks were asking, I'll always think fondly of him. I may have to venture to NYC to see that phenomenal story on stage!

[LutherBrixton]

Thank you, Chazz! I remember seeing the Bronx Tale at a sneak preview back in 1993 in small theater in New Jersey. I was absolutely mesmerized by the film and knew I was watching a rare masterpiece! I have since watched the movie roughly 20 times over the past 15 years (at least once a year). Everything about that story was fantastic - the dialogue, the pacing, and of course the message.

At a time in the U.S. when it's so easy to become despondent, and to feel helpless at the direction this country has gone in, and watching as our very identity as a nation has been smashed to pieces by the morally bankrupt and narcissistic Bush administration, the message your father left you with is something everyone should remember. That it"s within all of us to be our best selves if we so choose. And anything is possible if we don"t waste our talent.

Thank you, Chazz!

[joho65]

My wife and I saw Chazz last fall in New York in "A Bronx Tale". If you ever have a chance to see him do this play don't miss it. It was wonderful.

[hiprogloho]

Mr. Palminteri, a lot of aspiring thespian or literary talents are wasted by the system and not personal tragedy. For there is a wealth of lost dreams in the Italian-American community due to a hundred years of unrelenting bad guy stereotypes the media still gets away with to this day with scant social protest or outrage.

Thanks for a Bronx Tale. It's unfortunate that there aren't enough morality plays to stem the tide of cultural sellouts who build careers on mafia movies. For every successful mob actor there are multitudes of the alienated in life who fail because they remind society of the black hats on TV or in film. Food for thought.

[Buddhabman]

One of my all-time favorite movies. Bravo Chazz!

[lovethesinner]

Chazz, I was just thinking about your movie the other day. I'm not sure why, exactly, but I finally put it down to something about Obama's life story, and the excitement his candidacy brings.

Oh, wait. I remember. It was when Robert DiNiro delivered that halting endorsement at Obama's rally at the Meadowlands. I thought, "jeez, Bobby's having a tough time with his timing here, what's up with that?" And, then I realized, he's speaking from his heart, not a script.

I drifted off into some adjacent universe and thought, "Bronx Tale! Best thing DiNiro ever did." And then I started swimming in the deep morality of the story.

You did some fine acting yourself, Chazz. I had an uncle Pasquale who was a pit boss in Vegas. He had a mole on his chin, and moxy literally oozed from his skin. He wore undershirts and smoked cigars at breakfast. He let me stand up in his Austin Healy when he took and my friends friends for rides.

I could smell his aftershave when I watched you play that part in Bronx Tale, Chazz. You were that good.

That story really is one of the "greatest of all time" Chazz. I just had to add my cheers. And you're so right, it is a tragedy to watch talent go unrewarded or worse, wasted. There is nothing sadder.

That's something to think about, deeply.

[Spookcatcher]

You're not the only one savvy enough to want to be Cashing in on the latest "inspirational" opportunities presented by the movement onto the scene.

[SisterJ]

My daughter and I LOVE a Bronx Tale. It's one of our movie night favorites.

If your father was anything like the character, you were truly blessed. In the movie, his son inherited a sensitive spirit and a strong sense of justice. It's deep that this actually saved his life later (when his friends' race war got out of hand).


One of my favorite scenes is the "wasted talent" scene.

It stands in direct contrast to the one where Sonny explains to C that it's better to be feared than loved... and how he gives his crew enough so they need him but not so much that they hate him for controlling their money (sounds like the government could learn a little from Sonny).


I hope we make it to New York to see it on Broadway. You should be rightfully proud of your life's work. It definitely touches people from different backgrounds.



Peace,
SisterJ
Philly

[FearlessFreep]

When someone unlocks a car door so I can get in, I always open the door on his side!

[grendl]

Unrecognized talent is just as sad as wasted talent. Just ask Mr. Van Gogh.

And say hi to DJB the next time you see him Mr. Palmienteri. Tell him grendl sent you.

[Tasies]

Hopefully, Mr. Palmenteiri, we can elect officials who care about the cultural legacy of America. We need to turn the page on easy buck, low brow entertainment, and focus more on how our Civilization will be judged in future years. We need to encourage our youth to write more "Bronx Tales," and support them in their efforts, without the pressures of the market place dictating that they should pander, pose and appeal to our lesser selves.