Mean Streets (1973)

City Life

I have seen this film over and over. It reminds me of my youth growing up in Brooklyn, NY and the characters one meets in his life time. Great film July 26, 2008

"You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets."

Orson Welles said that a director's first film was always his best because he would put more into it and hadn't got into bad habits like developing a style yet. Mean Streets may not be Scorsese's first film, but it otherwise bears out Welles' words. Set in New York's Little Italy, Harvey Keitel plays Michael, who exists on the fringes of crime and whose dreams of managing a restaurant his money-lending uncle is about to take over are threatened by his affair with his epileptic cousin (Amy Robinson) and his terminally unreliable childhood friend Johnny Boy's pressing debts.

As with Goodfellas, it is plot-lite and style heavy, but where in the latter the style dominated, here it has a rough-cut and ready-dubbed feel that energises the film and accurately reflects the precarious state of the characters, be it financial, mental or moral. All the trademarks are here - the tracking shots down bars, the sudden explosions of violence, a popular music soundtrack that exists as much within the film as over it, the concern with incompatibility of religion with everyday life - but here they are fresh and integral to the film rather than carefully stage-managed.

If De Niro's unstable Johnny Boy now looks a bit too much like barnstorming with many of the tricks he has since pretty much worn out through over-use, Keitel's diplomatic lead and the astonishingly natural performances from the supporting cast are the real glue that holds the film together and convince us we are eavesdropping on real lives.

Filled with astonishing moments Mean Streets remains one of the few key American films of the early Seventies that still grabs your undivided attention with none of its original power diluted by time and imitation.
April 28, 2008

Scorsese's Masterpiece

If Melville's crime films defined cool, then Martin Scorsese's breakthrough Mean Streets became the trademark of his crime films which defined grit. Mean Streets remains Scorsese's most deeply personal and autobiographical film, as well as his masterpiece. The immigrant culture of Little Italy and the atmosphere of New York City, the Catholic themes of sin and redemption, and daily urban life all became recurrent themes throughout his entire oeuvre. Plus, the use of street language, radical and revolutionary cinematography and editing, a rock music soundtrack, and realistic location shooting made Mean Streets not only the most influential independent American film of the 1970s but perhaps the most influential modern American motion picture, in general. April 15, 2008

In some ways, Scorsese's best

Goodfellas must be seen by all film students and half the rest of the population, though the violence and MTV-effect soundtrack can be off-putting and create a strange curiosity outside the framework for viewers. Is that curiosity an indicator that we all have that "dark side" - some of us contain it, some don't; some won't.
This 1973 movie, with its' modest production values, has some scenes so penetrating, so memorable, that the viewer must rewind constantly to convince him or herself somethimg so "real" was communicated: bar-owner/neighborhood philosopher played by David Proval is so powerful one wonders if Scorsese use a hidden camera in a real place in "Little Italy" of the early '70s. He explodes with anger at hopelessly in debt Johnny Boy (DeNiro) when he suggests yet another card game before everyone goes home; Proval's apology is in the best movie tradition - the low-lighting and ambience off the presumptive boom microphone make us think for a moment, that there's something happening beyond the guns, drugs, and thievery.
Harvey Keitel is Charlie, another character suppressing his humanitarian side, nephew of the neighborhood "Boss" played by Cesare Danova; he splits his time between loving Teresa, Johnny Boy's beautiful cousin, who has a physical problem which is not helped by the constantly distracted, negligent men she socializes with; mentoring Johnny himself (it seems that JB sustained a concussion while defending Charlie in a riot and so Charlie cannot avoid this non-monetary debt); and being *mentored* by Gionvanni (CD) - who has instructed him that he must not associate with the two.
He has a religious/spiritual side which is conveyed very convincingly: at first the viewer wonders if he's really delusional, as a man who follows St. Assisi *and* Giovanni at the same time. On that proverbial 1970s walk on the beach scene he says to Teresa that he does not run numbers. His "heart" is revealed in his emotional statement. The love scenes with Keitel and Robinson are perfectly realized through sensitive framing and editing.
There are a number actors here also seen over 30 years later in "The Sopranos". It's great fun to notice them in one dramatic incarnation and refer back to the other.
Scorsese's "open mike" approach - picking up atmosphere, a staircase echo, a car horn, children playing, etc., is interesting, and possibly new to the medium. "Michael", now frantic as he realizes he's been made "sucker" by Johnny Boy once again, pursues Teresa in hopes of getting a lead as to her wild cousin's wherabouts, and finds her in the hallway of her apartment house. The cold desolation of the scene, as he helps her retrieve groceries which dropped out of the paper bag when he grabs her arm, bespeaks menace and romance at the same time.
The hard, cold mean streets cannot permit civilization among these directionless, ultimately well-meaning individuals. February 22, 2008

Epic Crime / Gangster Film from 1973

This is an American Classic! One of the best films ever on the subject of organized crime. The thing that strikes me most about this film, the thing that really stands out to me is the way it was filmed. Scorsese does an awesome job of letting the audience make up their own judgments against each of the characters. He doesn't push you to either like or dislike any of the characters. The story follows a group of friends through the streets of New York and lets you observe how they come together and drift apart throughout the film. The way the movie was filmed is simply brilliant. It doesn't hurt that the story is also very good. De Niro and Keitel, come on, that in itself is priceless. This, in my opinion, is one of the best all time films. February 14, 2008

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