Trivia / Mean Streets

• Acclaimed Flop: The film was not successful upon its initial release despite good reviews and the acclaim it received at the New York Film Festival in 1973. Martin Scorsese thought this was due to Warner Bros.' small financial stake in the film, so they did not promote it enough - and were more interested in their big-budget productions such as The Exorcist, which was released about two months later.
• Acting for Two: In the scene where Charlie is riding in the back of a taxi, the driver is played by Robert De Niro.
• Banned in China: The film was banned by The BBC in the 1980s, due to the strong language and violence.
• Breakthrough Hit: For Martin Scorsese.
• California Doubling: While many consider this to be the quintessential New York film, very little of it was actually shot there. Many scenes, including the famous pool hall sequence, were shot in Los Angeles.
• Cast the Runner-Up: Robert De Niro was offered any of four parts in the film. Once Harvey Keitel came on-board, he convinced De Niro to take on the role of Johnny Boy. Keitel was originally considered to play Johnny Boy.
• Completely Different Title: In Sweden, the film was released as "Dödspolarna", literally meaning "The Death Buddies" (close friends).
• Fake Nationality: Of the four leads, only Robert De Niro is actually Italian-American. Harvey Keitel and David Proval are Jewish, and Richard Romanus is of Lebanese descent.
• Hostility on the Set: According to Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro and Richard Romanus clashed during the production, and Scorsese played on their mutual animosity for the key scene where Johnny Boy pulls a gun on Michael. "I kept shooting take after take of Bobby yelling these insults, while the crew was getting very upset", he explained. "The animosity between them in that scene was real, and I played on it."
• No Budget: Made on a budget of $500,000. In fact, the innovative use of handheld cameras was largely down to the fact that the film's meager budget didn't stretch to laying down lots of tracks for all the tracking shots.
• Production Posse: This was the first De Niro/Scorsese collaboration. Scorsese also reunited much of the crew from Boxcar Bertha, who were veterans of budget-minded filmmaking.
• Real-Life Relative:
  • Martin Scorsese's mother is the woman who comes to Teresa's aid when she has an epileptic fit.
  • Robert Carradine shoots his half-brother David Carradine in the bathroom.
• Reality Subtext: There was some hostility between Robert De Niro and Richard Romanus during the shoot, so the tension between Johnny Boy and Michael was very real, and Scorsese admits he exploited it for the film.
• She Also Did: Amy Robinson (Teresa) went on to co-produce a later Scorsese film (After Hours).
• Sleeper Hit: Earned $3 million at the box office, not a huge smash, but very impressive for a film made for $500,000 by an unheralded director with no big stars.
• Star-Making Role: For Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro.
• What Could Have Been:
  • When raising money for the film, Martin Scorsese was offered a healthy sum by his mentor Roger Corman on the condition that he shoot the movie with an all-black cast. Scorsese was so eager to make the film he very nearly agreed to it, until producer Jonathan Taplin secured the financing independently and ultimately worked out a distribution deal with Warner Brothers.
  • The backers wanted Jon Voight to play Charlie.
  • Scorsese recalled that he showed the script to Francis Ford Coppola, who passed it Al Pacino (he was to play Johnny Boy), but his agent passed on it (they'd also warned him off The Godfather). Pacino promptly got a new agent.
  • The first draft focused on Charlie's religious conflict and its effect on his worldview.
• Working Title: Season of the Witch (there's still a Title Drop for it in the film). Another Bronx-native director, George A. Romero, ended up releasing a (much different) film with that title around the same time.
• Write Who You Know: Martin Scorsese's inspiration for Johnny Boy came from his paternal uncle Joe (the Bug) Scorsese who was often in trouble with the law himself.

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