The movie Robert De Niro dedicated to his father: “I’m very proud of it”
Given the kind of career that Robert De Niro has enjoyed for countless decades in the world of cinema, any parent would be deeply proud of the New York City-born actor. Widely considered one of the greatest and most influential actors of all time, De Niro has transcended the role of the profession and become a genuine cultural artefact in his own right.
Of course, any actor can only really ever be made up by the performances they give, and it’s fair to say that De Niro has provided some of the best ever committed to film, from his early efforts in Mean Streets and Taxi Driver to his acclaimed turns in The Godfather Part II and The Deer Hunter.
Now, we know fully well what a brilliant actor De Niro is, but what about De Niro, the director? Having established himself as an American cinema icon in front of the camera, De Niro has tried his talent behind it on two occasions, and over a decade before his sophomore effort, 2006’s The Good Shepherd arrived, De Niro delivered his directorial debut in 1993, with A Bronx Tale.
The coming-of-age crime drama was adapted from Chazz Palminteri’s 1989 play of the same name and tells of an Italian-American who is torn between the allure of the organised crime world and his commitment to his honest and hardworking father, with Lillo Brancato Jr playing the son at age 17, De Niro the father, and Palminteri the local Mafia boss, Sonny.
When A Bronx Tale was released, De Niro dedicated his directorial debut to his own father, who had separated from the actor’s mother when De Niro was just two years old after announcing that he was gay. In an interview with Interview magazine, De Niro once spoke of his father’s artistic ambitions and his early memories of him.
“I saw how he was living and so on,” the actor explained. “Struggling, I guess, for want of a better word. He led a classic New York artist’s life, in a loft, always downtown.” De Niro grew up in Greenwich Village, but he always went to visit his father and remained close to him despite his separation from the actor’s mother.
On dedicating A Bronx Tale to his dad, De Niro noted, “I thought it would be a nice thing to do – and the movie’s about fathers and sons.” The actor went on to express his love and pride for his father’s art and his dedication to his craft despite his personal financial struggle. “I’m very proud of it, but I wasn’t an art enthusiast the way he was,” De Niro said. “It was his whole life.”
Growing up in the Greenwich Village and Little Italy neighbourhoods of Manhattan, De Niro became friends with the kids of the streets when he was growing up, which drew the disapproval of his father. Such a biographical facet plays well into the narrative of A Bronx Tale, which sees a father long for his son to stay away from the alluring world of organised crime.
It’s easy to see a man with as much cultural standing as De Niro to be a person all of his own being, but like anyone, he is naturally the product of his upbringing. When making his first effort as a director, De Niro was sure to give a touching tribute to his father, who undoubtedly played a key role in his early life.
