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Mean Streets (1973)
Directed by Martin Scorsese.
Directed by Martin Scorsese · Shot by Kent L. Wakeford · Cut by Sidney Levin · Music by Eric Clapton · 112 min
How it was made
- Scorsese and co-writer Mardik Martin worked on the script on and off for seven years under the working title Season of the Witch, before critic Jay Cocks suggested the eventual title, taken from a line in Raymond Chandler's essay The Simple Art of Murder.
- Roger Corman offered to finance the film on the condition that every character be black; Scorsese considered it before road manager Jonathan Taplin instead raised the $300,000 budget, and Warner Bros. financing ultimately let Scorsese keep the Italian-American cast he had written.
- Robert De Niro asked to play the lead role of Charlie, but Scorsese, who had written the part with Harvey Keitel in mind, kept Keitel in the role; the two actors discussed swapping parts, which Scorsese vetoed.
- Because of the low budget, most interiors were shot in Los Angeles, with only seven days of location filming in New York City, much of it without permits and relying on favours from friends including Francis Ford Coppola.
- The trash-can fight and the improvised bar dialogue between Keitel and De Niro were both created on the spot by the actors rather than scripted.
- Scorsese built the soundtrack almost entirely from vintage pop records rather than an original score, an unusual choice at the time; the opening use of the Ronettes' Be My Baby is widely cited as one of the most effective needle-drops in Hollywood history.
Behind the scenes
Elsewhere
More by Martin Scorsese
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