American filmmakers had a big effect on us — people like Scorsese, from Mean Streets on, recognizing those characters trying to come to terms with violence. Violence is not widely discussed in relationship to U2, but it has been an obsession. It came out of living in a very violent era.

I first saw Mean Streets when I was young. It must have been a revival-house down in Greenwich Village. I think my dad took me down there. My dad grew up in an Italian community in the Bronx and had a lot of affection for Scorsese's work and passed that love along to me.

Mostly I love the ’70s and ’80s stuff: The King of Comedy, Raging Bull, Mean Streets.

Mean Streets — Robert De Niro is so gorgeous. Again, the beginning of all these people’s careers. What a full, well-rounded movie. Then you go to Goodfellas, it’s hard. [Picking five] really is hard. I also loved Wolf of Wall Street, I have to say. That was a fun movie. Matthew McConaughey, so good.

I had been heavily influenced by the films Marty and Mean Streets.

I was torn between saying Raging Bull, Taxi Driver, The King of Comedy or Mean Streets.

I always pine for what I’ve looked at as sort of the Golden Age of Movies in the Seventies — you know, here comes Serpico and Dog Day, The French Connection and Mean Streets, just on and on and on! That kind of early Seventies gritty, urban film. Even a movie like Death Wish, which is way more commercial than the movies I just mentioned, you look at something like that and think, that was what Hollywood was putting out then? Everybody saw those movies and thought, 'I'm not going anywhere near New York City, no way!' I saw them and thought, 'Oh man, I have to get to New York City!' You know what I mean?