A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints

A Guide to Recognizing Your Saints is a 2006 film starring Robert Downey, Jr., Channing Tatum, Rosario Dawson and Shia LaBeouf. It is based on a 2001 memoir of the same name by Dito Montiel, in which he described growing up in Astoria, New York

during the 1980s.

Montiel also wrote and directed the film adaptation, which was released in the United States in 2006, in the UK and Europe on March 2, 2007 and in Italy on March 9, 2007. The DVD version of the film was released on February 20, 2007 in the United States.

The film is partly set in the present, but mainly in flashbacks in the 1980s. The latter parts are filmed with shaky camera with short shots.

Anachronisms

Much of the film was set in the 1980s. However, it was filmed in 2006. Filming began on June 13 and ended on August 1.

• A phone booth seen in the background appears to be a Verizon phonebooth. Verizon did not exist until 2000, the owner of the phonebooth in 1986 would be NYNEX.

• The movie shows R68s in service. The first ones went into service in June 1986.

• The Astoria Line elevated track structure would have been painted beige in 1985. It was green in the movie, as a result of a mid 2000s paint job.

• Whiteboards were added to token booths in the late 1990s.

• Although the R train running through Astoria was accurate in the 1980s, there were a number of anachronisms with regard to the subway rolling stock seen. The R40 cars seen in the film in 1986 would have been in decrepit shape, covered with graffiti and lacking air conditioning. In addition, the flags seen on the cars were not applied until 2001, after the 9/11 attacks. Although one car has the accurate "two-tone M" logo of the New York City Subway, the "MTA New York City Subway" markings would not be applied until the mid-1990s. Finally, the R40 interiors are noticeably graffiti-free. In 1986, most R40 car interiors were covered from floor to ceiling in graffiti. However, the camera inside the cars focuses on the window scratchitti instead.

• Most elevated subway stations in 1986 would have been covered in graffiti. Although clean-up efforts had begun, the subway cars and stations seen in the film would not be cleaned up until around 1988 and 1989.

• The film mentions 1986 as the year when most of the childhood drama occurs; however, much of the characters and settings suggests at least a few years earlier, if not more. For example, the girls ask Dito if he is,"rock or disco", a question which would've fit in the very early 80s, though by 1986, disco was long since gone, and rock and dance music were king. "Asteroids" was popular in the early 80s, but was probably not influential in 1986.

• The person who Giuseppe is based on is still alive and living in Italy. Giuseppe's story was altered to mix it with a story of a boy they knew named Billy who died in a similar matter. In real life Giuseppe was deported to Italy after being deported too many times.

• The pedestrian crosswalk lights are language neutral pictograms which were installed in the early 2000s, the version in 1985 would consist of nothing but the words "DONT WALK/WALK".

• In 1985 most buildings would have had TV antennas; in the movie few if any do. Many have cellular antennas. Cable TV didn't exist yet for Astoria and rest of Western Queens. The first customers in Western Queens were hooked up in November 1986.The cellular phone network in NYC was only turned on in July 1984, with only 8 towers in all of the city, making it impossible for any of the cellular antenns/towers shown in the movie to be there in 1985.

Cast

• Robert Downey Jr. as Dito Montiel
• Rosario Dawson as Laurie
• Shia LaBeouf as Young Dito
• Chazz Palminteri as Monty Montiel
• Dianne Wiest as Flori Montiel
• Channing Tatum as Antonio
• Eric Roberts as Older Antonio
• Federico Castelluccio as Antonio and Giuseppe's father
• Adam Scarimbolo as Giuseppe
• Martin Compston as Mike O'Shea
• Melonie Diaz as Young Laurie