Editing Mean Streets (section)

==Production==
Apart from his first actual feature, ''[[Who's That Knocking at My Door]]'', and a directing project given to him by early independent filmmaker [[Roger Corman]], ''[[Boxcar Bertha]]'', this was Scorsese's first feature film of his own design. Director [[John Cassavetes]] told him after he completed ''Boxcar Bertha'', "You've just spent a year of your life making a piece of shit". This inspired Scorsese to make a film about his own experiences.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmmakersonfilm/7366950/Martin-Scorsese-interview-for-Shutter-Island.html |title=Martin Scorsese interview for Shutter Island |location=London |work=[[The Daily Telegraph]] |first=Mick |last=Brown |date=March 7, 2010}}</ref> Cassavetes told Scorsese that he should do something like ''Who's That Knocking at My Door'', which Cassavetes had liked. ''Mean Streets'' was based on events that Scorsese saw almost regularly while growing up in New York City's [[Little Italy, Manhattan|Little Italy]].

The screenplay began as a continuation of the characters in ''Who's That Knocking''. Scorsese changed the title from ''Season of the Witch'' to ''Mean Streets'', a reference to [[Raymond Chandler]]'s essay "[[The Simple Art of Murder]]", in which Chandler writes, "But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid".

Scorsese sent the script to Corman, who agreed to back the film if all of the characters were [[African Americans|Black]]. Scorsese was anxious to make the film, so he considered this option, but actress [[Verna Bloom]] arranged a meeting with potential financial backer [[Jonathan Taplin]], the road manager for [[The Band]]. Taplin liked the script and was willing to raise the $300,000 that Scorsese wanted if Corman promised, in writing, to distribute the film. The [[blaxploitation]] suggestion came to nothing when funding from [[Warner Bros.]] allowed him to make the film with Italian-American characters.<ref>{{cite web |last=Musto |first=Michael |date=2011-11-01 |title=Mean Streets Was Almost a Blaxploitation Flick! |url=http://blogs.villagevoice.com/dailymusto/2011/11/mean_streets_wa.php |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130923233146/http://blogs.villagevoice.com/dailymusto/2011/11/mean_streets_wa.php |archive-date=2013-09-23 |access-date=2016-10-20 |work=[[The Village Voice]]}}</ref>

''Mean Streets'' was filmed from April 1973 to June 1973.<ref>{{Cite AV media |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070379/locations/ |title=Mean Streets (1973) - Filming & production - IMDb |language=en-US |access-date=2024-08-11 |via=www.imdb.com}}</ref>