A Bronx tale: Screenplay

by Chazz Palminteri

Unknown Binding

Published January 1, 1989

Reviews

[Britt Echols · Rating 4 out of 5]

How Screenplay differs from Movie: A Bronx Tale

-Chazz Palminteri’s character is named Sonny in the movie, in the screenplay his name is Johnny. I like Sonny better.
-The neighborhood hangout is called The Chez Joey. In movie it is called The Chez Bippy. I like movie better.
-When we first see the inside of The Chez, first character introduced was Rudy Ice. He would only sing everything. C also narrates that Rudy always wore the same Tom Jones’ shirts. This character was changed to Tony Toupee in the movie. He rarely spoke/sang.
-After C goes to confess about witnessing the murder, he is sitting out front of his stoop crying. The Pirates beat the Yankees in the World Series and he is upset. Johnny (Sonny) comes to console him. He tells C not to cry about Mickey Mantle and the Yankees and not to talk about baseball anymore. He then takes him to get an egg cream. I believe in the movie they bring C to talk to Johnny in the bar, and they talk briefly about baseball. This is where Johnny/Sonny calls Cologio “C” instead.
-After C wins a lot of money for Johnny/Sunny playing craps, he walks him out of the bar and that’s when he gives him the name “C”. He also gives him a $100 bill. C says he has never had a $100 bill before, Johnny says he never had a boy before. Then he tells C that he will tell everyone in the neighborhood to call him C now. He also invites him to go to the Zoo. (Not in movie)
-Montage in the screenplay that show C going with Johhny to get a new suite, introducing C to everybody in the candy store, playing poker with C behind him looking at his cards. (Not in movie)
-In screenplay like movie, Lorenzo tells Johnny to stay away from his son and then tells C to stay away from Johnny. As Lorenzo, C and Rosa walk back to their building, they show Johnny peering through the window at Lorenzo with him arm around his son and his wife, and Johnny has a longing for this. I wish this was in the movie. Shows that Johnny/Sonny has respect for Lorenzo and maybe he does wish he had what he had.
-In screenplay, when they are betting on the horse race and Mush bets the same horse, the horse’s name is #7. In the movie the horse’s name is Kryptonite.
-In screenplay, after the horse race C is back at the bar where Wiseguys from all over the country are there. They are all talking about how tough they are when C has a flashback to the Zoo when he was 9 and Johnny showed him that the baboons that hit their chest are acting tough. The toughest one is the one in the corner sitting there observing. None of the Wiseguys are paying any attention/respect to C. When Johnny shows up, he introduces C as his boy, all the Wiseguys then show him love and respect. (Not in movie)
-When C is 17 years old on the bus with his dad he notices Jane. In the screenplay, when Jane gets off the bus (after she and C make some flirty eye contact), there is a drunk passenger in the back of bus. C and Lorenzo go to get him off and he swings at Lorenzo. C wants to take care of it (aggressively) but Lorenzzo says no, and they go back to the front and start driving the bus. When the opportunity arose, Lorenzo told C to watch carefully as he braked hard and the drunk hit his head and passed out. They then got him off the bus, and Lorenzo told C that you can take care of your problems without getting your hands dirty. Very much the opposite of how Johnny takes care of things. (Not in movie).
-The screenplay has this Rudy Ice character that does nothing but sing throughout. Instead of talking, he signs. In the bar fight with Bikers, he is one of the guys beating up the bikers and he was singing while doing it. I’m glad they cut that character from movie.
-When fight was over with Bikers, Johnny/Sonny walks back into The Chez and tells his guys good job, Rudy keeps singing and it is annoying Johnny. We then heard him say put Rudy in the bathroom. This was kind of funny but with no Rudy character in the movie that scene didn’t exist.
-After bar fight, C is outside by himself looking at the bikers all spread out on the ground hurt. He goes up to Red Beard (leader of gang) and says look at my face, remember this face cuz I’m almost the guy who did this to you. Very weak and cocky moment for C. I’m glad it was not in movie.
-After the black kids get jumped, C goes to Johnny/Sonny’s house. He goes into the house to talk about what happened. We see a girl with Johnny that is one of his regulars. The screenplay describes his house with good detail. In movie we only see outside of Johnny/Sonny’s house.
-When Johnny/Sonny is talking with C about the Door Test (which is my favorite scene), they are talking about it at his house then they get into his car. He drives to the bar going over the instructions. In movie he is talking about the Test while driving the car backwards. I really liked that little weird detail which the screenplay didn’t describe.
-At the end of the screenplay when C is going to see Johnny/Sunny at The Chez after he and Jane kiss, we see a man in a bathroom stall loading a gun. The script description is awesome of how we don’t see his face for a bit. He is the guy that shoots and kills Johnny/Sonny. I wish the movie included that build up, it was pretty good.