Martin Scorsese Has A Favorite Movie From His Career, But He Can't Watch It
Martin Scorsese (who may or may not be making a Frank Sinatra biopic soon) is our greatest living filmmaker. I don't think that's a controversial or even hyperbolic statement; it's just true. The man lives and breathes cinema, and he has one masterpiece after another to his name. But it all started with "Mean Streets." To be clear: "Mean Streets" was not Scorsese's first feature film. His debut film was 1967's "Who's That Knocking at My Door," which began as a student film before Scorsese reworked it into a feature. He followed that up in 1972 with "Boxcar Bertha," a crime flick produced by legendary B-movie auteur Roger Corman.
It was "Boxcar Bertha" that would lead directly to "Mean Streets." The story goes that when Scorsese's friend, mentor, and fellow director John Cassavetes saw "Boxcar Bertha," he told Scorsese: "You've just spent a year of your life making a piece of sh*t." Ouch. As tough as that criticism was, it caused a change in Scorsese. He realized that he needed to make a personal movie; a movie that came from deep inside him, drawn from his own real-life experiences. That film would be "Mean Streets," and according to Scorsese, it's a favorite of his own filmography — but that doesn't mean he can stand to revisit it.
Martin Scorsese's favorite movie
"Mean Streets" is set in New York's Little Italy and follows Charlie (Harvey Keitel), a local guy who struggles with Catholic guilt and hangs out with various criminal figures, including his ne'er-do-well best friend Johnny Boy, played by Robert De Niro. It would mark the first time Scorsese and De Niro worked together — beginning a relationship that would end up spanning 50 years, most recently presenting itself in Scorsese's "Killers of the Flower Moon" (read our review of that latest Scorsese masterpiece right here).
Scorsese drew on his own neighborhood experiences to make "Mean Streets" (he co-wrote the script for the picture with Mardik Martin), and it's this very personal element that makes the film both a favorite and something the filmmaker doesn't plan on resisting anytime soon. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Scorsese was asked which of his movies "means the most" to him. Scorsese replied:
"Well, Mean Streets is always a favorite of mine because of the music and because it was the story of myself and my friends. It was the movie that people originally took notice of. It's kind of a favorite, but I certainly couldn't watch it. It's too personal."
Scorsese would go on to make bigger (and in my humble opinion, better) movies than "Mean Streets," but it makes sense why the film would be difficult for him to revisit. Not only is it a very personal movie, but it's also the movie that pretty much put him on the map and signaled him as a filmmaker worth paying attention to. And we've been paying attention to him ever since, for 50+ years.