Chazz has said that the movie is based on his life. He said that he dated an African American girl when he as a teenager and that he was befriended by a local monster. Whether that's true or not I have no idea. Does anybody have any idea who this mobster is though?
Have you read any of my posts?
The part about the Black girl was not in the original play. The Sonny character is a composite, if that. He's not based on a real person. I lived in that neighborhood during that era. Chazz perfectly captured the SPIRIT of the neighborhood. But most of it never happened.
And please don't link me to articles about Chazz and the Black girl. What's he gonna say after DeNiro made him famous? I saw the play on the East Side in 1989. There wasn't a peep about a Black girl. DeNiro added that, and it worked. When Chazz revived the play a few years ago he had to put the Black girl in it. What choice did he have?
It doesn't diminish what Chazz has accomplished at all. But no one was shot over a parking space, a neighborhood boss wasn't shot in a local bar, and a car full of teenaged Italian bigots didn't burn to death on Webster Avenue. Trust me on that.
