Visual Motifs In The Film: A Bronx Tale

In the movie "A Bronx Tale" which is staged in the Bronx, New York, circa 1968, many narratives as well as visual motifs are present. The movie mixes many narrative structures such as the intertwinement of race, morals, and a kid growing up in the Bronx during this time. It also demonstrates the larger picture about the mafia and the power that seems to overcome everyone who gets involved. A prime example of a bound visual motif in this film is a scene in the very beginning of the film. A small boy named Collegeno always sits outside his apartment building that over looks the street. One morning he witnesses Sonny and his gang murder a man over a parking spot. This is a visual motif throughout the movie because it ties everything together. This scene is played in the beginning and is what brings Sonny and Collegeno together. At the end of the film, when Sonny dies, Collegeno asks the next mob boss in line from Sonny if the man murdered eight years earlier (in the beginning of the film) was really murdered over a parking space. The new mob boss explains the man that was killed that day tried to kill him earlier. This ties everything together because Collegeno and Sonny's friendship began and ended in the same way-- with death.
The power issue plays a huge roll in this film.
It is the larger picture the writer and director want people to see throughout it. The mafia is what ran the streets of New York during this time period. The entire movie was based around the mafia and their activities. The gambling, the bars, the violence. It was all a part of the mafia and its power. The opposing side to the power issue with the mafia is that of what his father tries to teach him in regards to it as well as to the issues of racism and the morals a person should have. The issues his father brings into the film all play into the way the characters interact with each other and the smaller picture that is going on inside the mafia-run streets of New York in the
1960‘s. Another visual motif in this film is the depiction of crime boss vs. blue collar worker. You see Collegeno's dad go off to work everyday as a city bus driver. He is making just enough money to comfortably live, but without room for extras. His dad makes the point to say they will be better off in the end without all the things Sonny has. Sonny dies in the end, while Robert De Niro and his family continue on with their lives. The depiction of blue collar worker vs. crime boss is used in order to show that mob life is a circle of death, and that money does not provide true happiness. A free visual motif in the film is the New York Yankees. In the beginning, you see numerous scenes with Collegeno wearing a Yankee hat. He tells Sonny that he almost started crying when the Yankees lost. Yet when Sonny tells him the Yankees don't give a damn about him so why should he care about them, you do not see him wearing the hat again. At the end of the movie, when Sonny has died, Collegeno narrates that the Yankees lost many games in a row and he couldn't give a damn. This shows that street life, and death took away something special to him. It left him with new thoughts and new outlooks on certain issues, which tie back to many of the issues that occur throughout the film.