Stuart Rosenberg’s beloved 1984 film The Pope of Greenwich Village features two of the best over-actors and scenery-chewers of their generation: Eric Roberts and Mickey Rourke. Plot-wise, it’s a crime caper flick but the real reason anyone watches this movie is for the acting. One who has interest in studying the craft could study up their Sanford Meisner and Uta Hagen, or one could simply watch and rewatch the joy of Roberts and Rourke in The Pope of Greenwich Village. Here are 10 fun facts about what should be your favorite movie.

 

1. Who directed The Pope of Greenwich Village?

The Pope of Greenwich Village (1984) was directed by Stuart Rosenberg. It is the 14th feature film Rosenberg had directed, which includes Cool Hand Luke (1967), The April Fools (1969), Voyage of the Damned (1976), The Amityville Horror (1979), and Brubaker (1980). Stuart Rosenberg once won an Emmy in 1963 for his directorial work on the television drama The Defenders. The movie tends to be in and out of print as the years go by and can even get a little pricey, but if it’s one of your favorites, you’ll probably want to own it.

Click on the movie to buy The Pope of Greenwich Village!

 

2. Who is in The Pope of Greenwich Village?

The Pope of Greenwich Village stars Eric Roberts and Mickey Rourke: two of the best scenery-chewers of their generation. The film also features Daryl Hannah, Geraldine Page, M. Emmet Walsh, Burt Young, Tony Musante, and Kenneth McMillan. Four of these actors — Rourke, Roberts, Young, and Page — have been Oscar nominees, though only Geraldine Page has won.

 

3. Is The Pope of Greenwich Village any good?

The estimated budget of The Pope of Greenwich Village and the North American box office take was $8 million and $6.8 million, respectively, according to IMDB. Rotten Tomatoes’s Tomatomer has a 77% score, with an audience score of 74%. Metacritic has it less favorably, with a score of 58. Roger Ebert wrote that The Pope of Greenwich Village is a “Behavior Movie,” where the movie is not exactly trying to say something about human nature so much as it is an excuse for the actors to showcase their talents. He’s not wrong! To sum up in a word, yes, The Pope of Greenwich Village is a good movie. It is certainly the favorite movie of more than one person on this planet (including the fictional Vinnie from Entourage).

 

4. The Pope of Greenwich Village book by Vincent Patrick

The Pope of Greenwich Village was originally a book by Vincent Patrick published in 1979, and Patrick eventually adapted it for his first screenwriting credit. Vincent Patrick’s other screenwriting credits include Family Business (1989, based on his novel), The Godfather III (1990), At Play in the Fields of the Lord (1991), Money Train (1995), and The Devil’s Own (1997). The book The Pope of Greenwich Village is well-worth reading for the extra insights into the characters, even if you’ve already seen the movie.

 

Click on the book to buy The Pope of Greenwich Village by Vincent Patrick!

 

5. Was The Pope of Greenwich Village nominated?

The legendary Geraldine Page was nominated for an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Pope of Greenwich Village — despite only being in two scenes totaling about 8 minutes. This was Geraldine Page’s seventh (7th!) nomination without a win, as she lost to Peggy Ashcroft for A Passage to India (1984). Fortunately, though, the Academy gods would smile on her the following year by awarding her the Oscar for Best Actress for her performance in The Trip to Bountiful (1985).

 

6. Robert De Niro & Al Pacino in The Pope of Greenwich Village?

According to Mickey Rourke: High and Low by Christopher Heard, the original plans for the casting of The Pope of Greenwich Village involved Robert De Niro and Al Pacino, with Michael Cimino to direct. Both De Niro and Pacino confirmed this in an interview with Leonard Maltin on ET while they were promoting Heat in 1995. As brilliant as those two actors may be, it is still very hard to imagine a version of The Pope of Greenwich Village where Robert De Niro has a perm.

 

Click on the book to buy Mickey Rourke: High and Low by Christopher Heard!

 

 

7. What is Eric Roberts’s favorite role?

Eric Roberts told the A.V. Club in 2014 that The Pope of Greenwich Village was “The greatest acting experience of my life, as far as character work. I took every chance an actor could, and I think I made him work. I’m very proud of that piece. Mickey Rourke and I became lifelong friends. I love him. It was probably the most fun I’ve ever had playing a character.” The script called for a tough guy, but Eric Roberts being Eric Roberts, thought the role would benefit from a fresher take. “I’ll play a mama’s boy who wants to be a tough guy but isn’t,” he told the A.V. Club. “So I used all the same dialogue. I didn’t change any of the dialogue. I just changed how he dressed, how he looked, how he talked, and how he walked. And I permed my hair and lost 30 pounds, so I’d be a string-bean walking spaz attack.”

 

8. How did the Smoking Popes get their name?

The Chicago punk-pop trio Smoking Popes record Born to Quit (1995) is a should-be classic of the genre. The Smoking Popes were inspired to name their band based Mickey Rourke’s chain-smoking character in The Pope of Greenwich Village.

 

Click on the album cover to buy Born to Quit by Smoking Popes!

 

9. Who composed the score to The Pope of Greenwich Village?

We hear Frank Sinatra’s “Summer Wind” like three times in The Pope of Greenwich Village, but the score was composed by Dave Grusin. The 10x Grammy-winning composer also won an Oscar for Best Original Score in The Milagro Beanfield War (1988). Dave Grusin has had a very accomplished career with multiple Oscar nominations, and his other notable scoring credits include The Graduate (1968), Heaven Can Wait (1978), On Golden Pond (1981), Tootsie (1982), and The Goonies (1985).

 

Click to buy the soundtrack to The Pope of Greenwich Village by Dave Grusin!

 

10. Will there ever be a sequel to The Pope of Greenwich Village?

In 2013, Eric Roberts told the A.V. Club that there has been talk of a sequel, but Vincent Patrick — who wrote both the original novel and screenplay for The Pope of Greenwich Village — supposedly will not write another one. If it ever does come to fruition, however, Eric Roberts insist that it will be a road movie that begins with Charlie and Paulie dashing on a hotel bill in Miami.

Looking for more fun facts about great movies? Check out our list on Searching for Bobby Fischer, Bringing Out the Dead, and Michael Mann’s Miami Vice.

 

 

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