American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince
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| American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince | |
|---|---|
 Promotional poster (with Italianamerican) | |
| Directed by | Martin Scorsese |
| Written by |
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| Produced by | Bert Lovitt |
| Starring |
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| Cinematography | Michael Chapman |
| Edited by |
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| Distributed by | New Empire Films |
Release date |
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Running time | 55 min. |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $155,000[1] |
American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince is a 1978 documentary directed by Martin Scorsese.[2] Its subject is Scorsese's friend Steven Prince, known for his small role as Easy Andy, the gun salesman in Taxi Driver. Prince is a raconteur who tells stories about various events in his life.
The Neil Young song "Time Fades Away" is featured in the film.[3]
A sequel, American Prince, was released in 2009 and was directed by Tommy Pallotta.
Synopsis
[edit]Martin Scorsese and a small group of friends gather in a living room in Los Angeles with the charismatic Steven Prince. Over the course of the evening, Scorsese films Prince talking about various events in his life with a mixture of humor and gravitas. Prince recalls stories such as being a former drug addict, a road manager for Neil Diamond, and a traumatic event in which he witnessed a boy die by accidental electrocution. Scorsese intersperses home movies of Prince as a child as he talks about his family.
When talking of his years as a heroin addict, he recalls Neil Diamond offering to help Prince get clean, but he refused. Later, however, Prince goes through recovery and remembers being shocked to learn he had a green ceiling in his home. He never noticed before because his eyelids had always been half-closed as an effect of the heroin.
Prince recalls injecting adrenaline into the heart of a woman who overdosed, with the help of a medical dictionary and a Magic Marker. This story was re-enacted by Quentin Tarantino in his screenplay for Pulp Fiction.
Prince also tells a story about his days working at a gas station, and having to shoot a man he caught stealing tires, after the man pulled out a knife and tried to attack him. This story was retold in the Richard Linklater film Waking Life.
Cast
[edit]- Steven Prince as self
- Julia Cameron as self (uncredited)
- Mardik Martin as self (uncredited)
- Kathi McGinnis as self (uncredited)
- George Memmoli as self (uncredited)
- Martin Scorsese as self (uncredited)
References
[edit]- ^ "American Boy: A Profile of: Steven Prince (1978)". imdb.com. Retrieved 2006-12-03.
- ^ Meneghetti, Mike (2021-03-25). Martin Scorsese's Documentary Histories: Migrations, Movies, Music. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. ISBN 978-1-5013-3689-8.
- ^ Pappademas, Alex (2020-07-07). "Steven Prince, an Early Scorsese Star, "Was the Guy with the Gun"". The New Yorker. ISSN 0028-792X. Retrieved 2024-04-26.
External links
[edit]- American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince at IMDb
- American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince at AllMovie
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