Evil streets

Charlie ( Harvey Keitel ) is a young Italian-American who is trying to rise in the local mafia, and his own sense of responsibility towards his childhood friend, Johnny Boy ( Robert De Niro ), a street gangster who owes money to many usurers, is stopping him. Charlie works for Uncle Giovanni (who is a local capital ) and is mainly engaged in debt collection. He also secretly meets with cousin Johnny Teresa ( Amy Robinson ), who suffers from epilepsy. Charlie is torn between his Catholic piety and his mob ambitions. As a result, Charlie seeks to live by the righteous ideals of St. Francis, but promotes these ideas on the streets due to his limited understanding. In the course of the plot of the film, Johnny's behavior is becoming increasingly self-destructive, his debts are constantly increasing. He becomes indifferent to the foundations and laws of society, he only needs to have fun. At the bar, a local lender finds Johnny to "knock out" the debt, but to his surprise, Johnny insults him by calling him a "jerk." The usurer attacks Johnny, who retaliates by pointing a gun at him and threatening to kill. Charlie and Johnny escape from the bar with Teresa by car. The moneylender, continuing his pursuit, soon overtakes the car with Charlie, Johnny and Teresa. In an attempt to stop them, he shoots toward Charlie and gets into Johnny's neck, causing the car to have an accident. The film ends with the scene of the arrival of ambulances at the scene of the accident.

• Robert De Niro - Baby Johnny
• Harvey Keitel - Charlie
• David Provel - Tony
• Amy Robinson - Teresa
• Richard Romanus - Mike
• Caesar Danova - Giovanni

In addition to his student work - the movie " Who's Knocking at My Door? , As well as Berta, nicknamed “Freight Car, ” administered by independent director Roger Corman, Wicked Streets was the first feature film by Martin Scorsese to be shot directly by him. The preview of the film “ Bertha nicknamed“ Freight Car ” ”, among others, was also attended by director John Cassavetes . After the show, he walked over to Scorsese, hugged him and said: “ You just spent a year of your life creating a piece of shit. "( Eng. You've just spent a year of your life making ). He advised Scorsese to take pictures that he knew and understood ^[1] . This inspired Scorsese to make the next film based on his own life experiences. ^[2] As a result, in the movie “Evil Streets” events were recreated, witnessed regularly by Scorsese who grew up in Little Italy.

The script of the film was originally proposed as a continuation of the plot of the film “Who is knocking on my door?” And was to be called “ Season of the Witch ”. Later, Scorsese changed the name to “ Mean Streets ”, referring to Raymond Chandler’s essay “The Simple Art of Killing,” where he writes, “ But down these evil streets, that person should go, who are not angry, which is not only untainted, but not afraid either. ” ^[3] . Scorsese sent the original script to Corman, who agreed to support the film if all the characters were black. ^[3] Since Scorsese was keen to make a film at any cost, he seriously considered this offer by Corman, while actress Verna Bloom did not schedule him to meet with a potential financial patron, Jonathan Teplin, who organized the band The Band . Teplin liked the script and he was ready to increase the film’s budget from $ 300,000, to which Scorsese agreed, with Korman’s written promise to release the film.

According to Scorsese, the film’s original plot focuses on Charlie’s religious conflict and the effect on his worldview. To this end, Scorsese, along with co-screenwriter Mardik Martin, often drove around Little Italy in a Mardik car while writing a script. They found a place next to the park and began to write, all the time plunging into the sights and sounds of what ultimately appears on the screen.

As soon as a source of funding was found, Scorsese began recruiting actors. Robert De Niro met the director in 1972. He liked what he saw in “Who's Knocking at My Door?”: It impressed how truthfully the film showed the life of Little Italy. After one of the actors left the project, Scorsese chose Harvey Keitel, with whom he had previously worked, to play the lead role of Charlie.

Very little was filmed directly at the scene of the film, New York . Most of the scenes, including the famous scene in the billiard room, were filmed in Los Angeles ^[3] . The unusual methods of shooting with a portable camera were largely the result of the meager budget of the film, which was lacking in the installation of a large number of tracks for shooting. So, in order to really capture the drunken scene of Harvey Keitel really realistic, the camera was actually tied to the actor in order to convey the hero's intoxicated and drunken feeling ^[3] . For the same reason, as a result, the shooting schedule was only 25 days ^[4] .

The film was well received by most critics; some even recognized him as one of the most peculiar American films. Pauline Cale was among the most enthusiastic critics: she called the film "truly original, a triumph of personal filmmaking" ( English a true original, and a triumph of personal filmmaking ) and "dizzyingly sensual" ( English dizzyingly sensual ) ^[5] . Critic Dave Ker on the pages of Chicago Reader wrote that “action and editing have such an original, stormy power, thanks to which the picture completely captures” ( eng. The text is completely gripping ) ^{[ 6]} . Vincent Canby of The New York Times wrote that “no matter how dark the environment is, no matter how heartbreaking the story itself is, some films are so carefully and perfectly realistic that they have a tonic effect, regardless of the subject of their story” ( eng. some films are so beautifully understood, no matter how much the heart is melting ^[7] . One of the most ardent supporters of Scorsese, Roger Ebert from the Chicago Sun-Times, wrote that “In countless ways, down to the details of modern criminal television shows,“ Evil Streets ”is one of the starting points of the modern film industry” ( eng. In countless [Shows the number of points of modern movies ” ^[8] . Time Out magazine called the film "one of the best American films of the decade" ( One of the best American films of the decade ) ^[9] . Currently, the film has 98% of “freshness” according to the Internet portal Rotten Tomatoes and this result is based on 45 movie reviews ^[10] .

The musical accompaniment for the film Scorsese was mainly from his own collection ^[3] . As a result, many pop and rock hits are heard in the film, including “Rubber Biscuit” by The Chips , “Be My Baby” by The Ronettes , a cover version of the song “ Please Mr. The Postman ”by The Marvelettes , as well as the songs“ Jumpin 'Jack Flash ”and“ Tell Me ”by The Rolling Stones . The purchase of rights to the use of musical compositions in the film cost half of its budget ^[3] .

• Evil Streets on the Internet Movie Database  
• Evil streets (eng.) On the site allmovie  
• "Evil Streets" (English) on the Rotten Tomatoes website