Analyzing a Bronx Tale Movie - Essay Example

The 1960s was a time of change for racial issues in America.  There were appeals by African American leaders protesting segregation in the United States and the role and status of the black community were transforming.  This film is set in the thickest era of the racial segregation issue within the country.  In the city of New Jersey there was a heavy population of Italian/Americans that lived alongside African Americans and the constant threat of violent encounters kept tensions high within both communities. 

 African Americans were fighting for their right to vote and to end segregation and in the midst of it, a common paranoia was that anyone who seemed to be of white descent was a threat.  This would explain why in the movie there were times when upon immediate contact there were unavoidable confrontations.  African Americans were often subjected to lower positions when they were employed.  This would explain the next scene described.

The first African American shown in the film is a black bartender at the neighborhood pub which the gangsters frequent.  This depiction of an African American in a service position is accurate and represents the lower societal classification of African Americans in the United States in the1960s.  The film’s next portrayal of African Americans is a segregated school bus driving through the Italian neighborhood.  One Italian boy says, “They don’t live here.”  Another Italian boy says, “That’s how it starts.”  The neighborhood boys taunt and yell at the bus passengers, inciting one African American boy on the bus to make an obscene gesture at the neighborhood boys.  This portrayal reveals the territorial nature of segregation as well as the lack of respect and understanding among different ethnicities.  It also shows that the prejudices were mutually held, however, the African American prejudice against Caucasians was probably in response to the Caucasians’ initial prejudice which was rooted in slavery.

This theme of divisiveness is reinforced in a later scene when the teenage Calogero walks the African American girl home but stops before crossing into the African American neighborhood, a block from her actual house.  The reason that Calogero stopped was another example of the lines in the sand that were drawn to keep the two communities separate.  Some African American males yell at the Sicilian boy and one African American young man throws a rock at his back as he walks away.  When several African American boys peacefully ride their bicycles through the Italian neighborhood the group of Italian boys attacks them.  While Calogero abstains from participating, he suffers through guilt by association and is accused of wrongdoing by Jane, whose brother was one of the boys who was attacked.  Later the group of Italian boys fires shots and hurls firebombs at an African American drugstore where several African-Americans are gathered.  One fire bomb is hurled back at them and ignites the car into an explosion, killing all of them.

The film’s violent portrayal of racism during this era is accurate.  The unease and distrust between different races of people were heightened by the general malice and mistrust of the American government and the leaders’ decision-making abilities.  The need to belong and be accepted by one’s peers was greater during this time of uncertainty and change.  Interracial relationships were uncommon and disapproved of.  This again showed the power that racism had over the people of the United States at the time.  There is a scene in the film where Calogero and Jane kiss romantically twice on the street corner.  I doubt if this open display of affection is realistic due to the violent nature of the opposition to interracial relationships.