Mean Streets (1973)

Director:

Martin Scorsese

Writers:

Martin Scorsese (screenplay) and
Mardik Martin (screenplay) ...
(more)

Release Date:

14 October 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets...

Plot:

A small-time hood struggles to succeed on the "mean streets" of Little Italy.

Plot Keywords:

Snorricam | Female Nudity | Alcohol | Violence | Bar

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Robert De Niro	...	Johnny Boy
Harvey Keitel	...	Charlie
David Proval	...	Tony
Amy Robinson	...	Teresa
Richard Romanus	...	Michael
Cesare Danova	...	Giovanni
Victor Argo	...	Mario
George Memmoli	...	Joey
Lenny Scaletta	...	Jimmy
Jeannie Bell	...	Diane
Murray Moston	...	Oscar (as Murray Mosten)
David Carradine	...	Drunk
Robert Carradine	...	Boy With Gun
Lois Walden	...	Jewish Girl
Harry Northup	...	Soldier
Dino Seragusa	...	Old Man
D'Mitch Davis	...	Cop
Peter Fain	...	George
Juli Andelman	...	Girl At Party (as Julie Andleman)
Robert Wilder	...	Benton
Ken Sinclair	...	Sammy
Jaime Alba	...	Young Boy #1
Ken Konstantin	...	Young Boy #2
Nicki 'Ack' Aquilino	...	Man On Docks
B. Mitchell Reed	...	Disc Jockey
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Catherine Scorsese	...	Woman on Landing (uncredited)
Martin Scorsese	...	Jimmy Shorts (uncredited)

Directed by
Martin Scorsese

Writing credits
Martin Scorsese		(screenplay) and
Mardik Martin		(screenplay)
Martin Scorsese		(story)

Produced by
E. Lee Perry	....	executive producer
Jonathan T. Taplin	....	producer

Cinematography by
Kent L. Wakeford		(director of photography) (as Kent Wakeford)

Film Editing by
Sidney Levin		(as Sid Levin)

Production Management
Paul Rapp	....	production manager

Second Unit Director or Assistant Director
Ron Satlof	....	second assistant director (as Ron Satloff)
Russell Vreeland	....	first assistant director
Paul J. Crossey	....	dga trainee (uncredited)

Art Department
Bill Bates	....	property master
Doyle Hall	....	assistant visual consultant
David Nichols	....	visual consultant
William Sandell	....	assistant art director (uncredited)

Sound Department
Walter Goss	....	sound re-recording mixer
Charles Grenzbach	....	sound re-recording mixer (as Bud Grenzbach)
Donald F. Johnson	....	sound mixer (as Don Johnson)
Kenneth Schwarz	....	boom operator (as Kenny Schwarz)
John Wilkinson	....	sound re-recording mixer (as John K. Wilkinson)

Special Effects by
Bill Balles	....	special effects (as Bill Bales)

Stunts
Bill Catching	....	stunt coordinator (as Bill Katching)

Camera and Electrical Department
Norman Gerard	....	additional photographer
John Murray	....	key grip
Pat O'Mara	....	assistant camera
Bobby Petzoldt	....	gaffer
Gene A. Talvin	....	camera operator (as Gene Talvin)
Bill Young	....	best boy
Harry Young	....	second assistant camera

Costume and Wardrobe Department
Norman Salling	....	wardrobe

Editorial Department
George Trirogoff	....	assistant editor

Other crew
Joe Cupcake	....	assistant to producer
Peter Fain	....	production coordinator
Cornelia McNamara	....	clothing consultant
David Osterhout	....	production coordinator: second unit
Neil Rapp	....	assistant to producer
Bobbie Sierks	....	script supervisor (as Bobby Sierks)
Chris Thompson	....	production secretary
George Toth	....	animal trainer
Sandra Weintraub	....	pre-production and post-production coordinator
Pamela Williams	....	assistant to producer

Thanks
Paul Almond	....	special thanks
Frank Aquilino	....	special thanks (as Frankie Aquilino)
Nicki 'Ack' Aquilino	....	special thanks
Frankie Bananas	....	special thanks
Dale Bell	....	special thanks
Mitchell Block	....	special thanks
Dean Bojorquez	....	special thanks
Larry the Box	....	special thanks
Hooter Brown	....	special thanks
Jay Cocks	....	special thanks
Brian De Palma	....	special thanks
Norman Garey	....	special thanks
Jenny Goldberg	....	special thanks
Alec Hirschfeld	....	special thanks
Dr. Robert Kahn	....	special thanks
Richard Katz	....	special thanks
John Krauss	....	special thanks
Angelo Lamonea	....	special thanks
Jim McCalmont	....	special thanks
Bill Minkin	....	special thanks
Michael Mislove	....	special thanks
Nancy Nigrosh	....	special thanks
Lee Osborne	....	special thanks
Sally Red	....	special thanks
Bill Saluga	....	special thanks (as Billy Saluga)
William Sandell	....	special thanks (as Bill Sandell)
Catherine Scorsese	....	special thanks
Brad Shattuck	....	special thanks
George Smith	....	special thanks
Edward Stable	....	special thanks
Dita Sullivan	....	special thanks
Brian Swain	....	special thanks
Harry J. Ufland	....	special thanks (as Harry Ufland)
Anna Uricola	....	special thanks
Dominic Vaccaro	....	special thanks
Fred Vaccaro	....	special thanks
Roger Vreeland	....	special thanks
Barbara Weintraub	....	special thanks

Production Companies

• Taplin - Perry - Scorsese Productions

Distributors

• Warner Bros. Pictures (1973) (USA) (theatrical)
• Aquarius TV (1998) (Greece) (TV)
• Argentina Video Home (2004) (Argentina) (DVD)
• Argentina Video Home (2004) (Argentina) (VHS) (re-release)
• Encore Entertainment (1994) (UK) (video) (laserdisc)
• Indies Home Entertainment (2001) (Netherlands) (DVD) (VHS)
• Manga Films (2002) (Spain) (DVD)
• National Broadcasting Company (NBC) (1977) (USA) (TV) (broadcast premiere)
• Warner Bros. (2004) (Argentina) (all media) (re-release)
• Warner Home Video (1991) (USA) (video) (laserdisc)
• Warner Home Video (2004) (USA) (DVD)
• Warner Home Vídeo (19??) (Brazil) (VHS)
• Warner Home Vídeo (2004) (Brazil) (DVD)

Other Companies

• Angel Editorial  sound effects

Also Known As:

Season of the Witch (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

112 min | Spain:107 min (DVD edition)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Glen Glenn Sound)

Certification:

Brazil:16 | Iceland:16 | Hong Kong:III | Argentina:18 | Canada:R (DVD rating) | Australia:M | Canada:18A (video rating) | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 (re-rating) | France:-16 (original rating) | Ireland:18 | Italy:VM14 | New Zealand:R18 | Norway:16 (1977) | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 (re-rating) (1993) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:R | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Belmont, Bronx, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Taplin - Perry - Scorsese Productions

Trivia:

The production was pretty much made on-the-run from the Teamsters, as it would have been financially impossible to make the film had it been a union shoot.

Goofs:

Continuity: The end credits on the DVD incorrectly list David Carradine as "Oscar" and Robert Carradine as "Drunk".

Quotes:

Oscar: Look Charlie, you're a good boy. Will you just tell your uncle that I have nothing. There is nothing to give him. No envelopes with cash inside, no checks, nothing.
Charlie: That bad, huh?
Oscar: I can't make this week's payment and if this keeps up not next week's either.
Charlie: Not next week's either... listen... you tell that to Giovanni, not me.
Oscar: Listen, I should wrap up this place in a ribbon and hand it to him, you know that. I don't need this aggravation. I'm getting old.
Charlie: He'd rather have the loan payed, you know that.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Making 'Taxi Driver' (1999) (V)

Soundtrack:

CANTA PE'ME

The Scorsese Template

Scorsese's first film, the interesting catastrophe "Boxcar Bertha," marked his birth as a director, but it was with his second feature, "Mean Streets" that we witnessed the birth of an artist. Most of "Mean Streets" is slightly unfocused with a simplistic plot based around a lot of machismo grandstanding and long bouts of boring dialog (occasionally made interesting by DeNiro's off-kilter star-making turn as Johnny-Boy), with spats of visceral violence (far less gory here than in later Scorcese pics), and a visual bravado that seems slightly less disciplined but no less entertaining than your standard Scorsese crime flick.

Despite its drawbacks (mainly due to youth and inexperience), the template was set. The opening credits (done to the tune of "Be My Baby") suck you right into the film, and the rest of the movie is peppered with Scorsese's loving treatment of popular music that would later become one of his most endearing hallmarks. The basic premise featuring Harvey Keitel as Charlie (the young hood with a heart of gold and conflicted internally by the religion of the Church and the religion of the Streets), Robert DeNiro as Johnny-Boy (the equally loved and hated loose-canon brother figure), and Amy Robinson as Theresa (the woman our hero wants to put on a pedestal as a saint but often treats like a whore), is a trifecta of archetypes we see repeated again and again in Scorsese's films (most obviously in "Casino" with the DeNiro-Pesci-Stone characters, and most subversively in "The Last Temptation of Christ" with Jesus-Judas-Mary Magdalene). The religious iconography, the brotherhood of crooks, the attraction to the gangster lifestyle, the keen eye for depicting violence in artistic and startling ways...these are displayed here in "Mean Streets" in their rawest form.

Though flawed in many ways, "Mean Streets" set the stage and laid the the template for the type of film Scorsese would perfect seventeen years later with "Goodfellas." This heralded the arrival of a new talent and a new genre, and the world of film has thankfully never been the same.