Great Character: Johnny Boy (“Mean Streets”)
The Great Character theme for the month: Rebel. Today: Johnny Boy from Mean Streets (1973), screenplay by Martin Scorcese and Mardik Martin, story by Martin Scorcese. Here is Jason Cuthbert’s weekly Great Character post.
After grinding out a street smart indie flick called Who’s That Knocking at My Door and the low budget Roger Corman-produced Boxcar Bertha, the motion picture maestro Martin Scorsese graduated to a bigger Hollywood canvas with the 1973 Warner Brothers studio release of Mean Streets. With a screenplay originally called Season of the Witch co-written by Scorsese and his fellow New York University alum Mardik Martin, the prestigious eight-movie Martin Scorsese/Robert De Niro collaborative portfolio begins with this rough-around-the-rim New York City, Little Italy crime drama.
We are escorted around this testosterone-heavy lower Manhattan enclave by Harvey Keitel’s mob affiliated character Charlie, who is trying to reconcile his sinful activity through trial and error. But it is the younger recipient of Charlie’s big brotherly favors — the rebel without a cause or a pause: Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro) — that slowly saunters into his scenes like a creepy gray cloud and exits with the bombastic bang of a thunderbolt.
Mean Streets plot summary from IMDB:
A small-time hood struggles to succeed on the “mean streets” of Little Italy.
Even his name “Johnny Boy” elicits the perception of delayed maturity, a man-child fighting fist to fist with his own responsibilities. Johnny’s cousin Teresa, who provides him with the roof over his hard head, is secretly dating Johnny’s unconditional protector Charlie, who’s high ranking mob uncle Giovanni has refused to except Teresa because of her epileptic conditions. Even with all the sacrifices Charlie and Teresa make to accommodate Johnny Boy’s seemingly random lifestyle, he defiantly repeats his cycle of gambling, getting incoherently drunk, borrowing large sums that he can’t payback, skipping out on his job and waving guns around. When it becomes time to pay, Johnny only pays the payment no mind. He just cashes in every suspect excuse that he can conjure up.
Johnny Boy’s rebellious nature bites him in the foot, kicks him in the testicles and makes his associates lose their mind. He literally has the nerve to owe three thousand dollars to load shark Michael (Richard Romanus) and still feel complete comfortable sporting a new shirt and tie, admit that he just bought them, and have his priorities revolving around running up a bar tab for the pair of Greenwich Village gals he is strutting around with.
JOHNNY BOY: Hey. What are you doing? You’re making me look bad Charlie. In front of the girls over here.
Charlie has been buying Johnny Boy as the debt collector Michael spends most of his screen time in pursuit of his overdue dollars. Michael’s reputation has clearly been carefully crafted by his dedication to not being made a sucker of in public. With Michael knowing where Johnny lives and sharing many of the same mutual acquaintances, the question remains: why would Johnny risk his life like this? He is getting chance after chance to make good on his obligation. Tuesday payment plans have even been initiated.
JOHNNY BOY: I borrow money from you, because you’re the only jerk-off around here who I can borrow money from without payin’ back, right? You know, ’cause that’s what you are, that’s what I think of you: a jerk-off.
There is no form of danger or authority that Johnny seems to take seriously. Even when he is tagging along with Charlie’s crew to collect money from rotund tough guy Joey “Clams,” it is Johnny Boy who some how finds it necessary to insult him in front of his pool hall crew, and get temperatures boiling to the point of a cataclysmic confrontation.
It’s as if Johnny Boy’s decisions are purposely to provoke problems. He has an appetite for destruction that seems to nourish him even better than his neighborhood Chinese take-out restaurant. He is a young man who has to rely on the kindness of others, yet he refuses to follow their rules when they assist him. You could make the argument that he is confronting abandonment issues. His parents are nowhere in sight. His father figure is near his age and moving around in the mob, and won’t pull him up the ranks with him. In short, Johnny Boy is struggling to look like he has it all together. Loan after botched loan.
At the end of the day, Johnny Boy’s true state of mind can be summed up in one statement:
JOHNNY BOY: I fuck you right where you breathe, because I don’t give two shits about you or nobody else.
For his unpredictably ballistic behavior, his flammable temper getting fed gas by his hurt emotions and his rebellious attitude that serves as a cautionary tale for the severe consequences of perpetual lying — Johnny Boy is an intensely GREAT CHARACTER.
A special end note to this week’s Great Character post:
My name is Jason Cuthbert, a GoIntoTheStory.com contributor to GREAT CHARACTERS since June 8th 2012. I’m directing my very first feature length documentary entitled: “COLOURING BOOK: The Mixed Race Documentary” that compares diversity in the United States to Canada, through three generations of my own multicultural family. Academic experts and animated segments will be blended in to enhance the educational value of the core storyline. My team and I are currently raising funds at SeedandSpark.com to finance equipment for “COLOURING BOOK,” as well as future documentaries and scripted narratives. Any support would be incredibly appreciated.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Website Link: http://www.colouringbook.info
Campaign Link: http://www.seedandspark.com/studio/colouring-book-productions
Jason’s Twitter Handle: @A2Jason
Colouring Book Twitter Handle: @ColouringBk
There are at two damn good reasons to throw some support Jason’s way. First, this looks like a fascinating and worthy documentary. Second, a show of gratitude to Jason for his steadfast contributions to this blog and to the life of the online screenwriting community with his insightful weekly Great Character posts.
To contribute to Colouring Book, go here.