Tragic Backstory Behind Martin Scorsese's Directorial Debut
The tragedy forced the director to create something that would make him and the world around him better.
The main "gangster" of Hollywood, one of the most prolific directors, and a living legend of cinema – all these words apply equally to Martin Scorsese, the legendary director whose every movie becomes an event.
In October 1973, at the International Film Festival in New York, the world saw Mean Streets – a movie that many viewers call the great director's debut.
But the story behind the cinematographer's motivation to make this movie was extremely tragic.
During one of the interviews, the director talked about inspiration and touched on the subject of filming Mean Streets.
Martin revealed that the movie was based on a true story when he was in the middle of gun shooting and thinking: "We're on borrowed time…How could this life be this way?"
The director also shared how he was influenced by the fact that he later witnessed the death of his 16-year-old friend:
"I won't forget I went to the Long Island cemetery, thousands of graves and there was Continental Can Company overlooking. I looked around and said 'is this what it is? There must be something more to life, that maybe pull out of this madness.'"
Mean Streets not only announced the name of the young director to the world, but also revealed the talent of Robert De Niro, who played the street gangster John Civello.
In 1997, the movie was added to the National Film Registry of the Library of Congress, and in 2008, one of the largest magazines, Empire, ranked the movie 377th on its list of the 500 greatest films of all time.
Mean Streets gave viewers a glimpse of several themes that would recur throughout the director's career – a fascination with the urban underworld, both the up-and-coming gangsters and the unpredictable savages.
By the way, the word "f*ck"and its derivatives are used fifty times in the movie. At the time of its release, it was the highest profanity rate in cinema.
Subsequently, the strong language became a kind of trademark for many of Martin's films.
Source: The Economic Club of Chicago