Mean Streets (1973)

Truly Dreadful Film

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Great movie. Not sure what people expected but I found it highly entertaining.

'Mean Streets (1973)' is seasoned with sprinklings of greatness, at times showing shades of what Scorsese would go on to do (i.e. 'Goodfellas (1990)'). Despite some solid acting throughout and a few entertaining sequences, though, the film generally falls flat thanks to the fact that there really isn't all that much of a plot and, as such, there isn't any real drama to latch onto. The result is a picture which feels much longer than it is and is also actually rather boring, floating along from set-piece to set-piece without any compelling connective tissue. It ends just as it seems to get going, too. 5/10

A small-time hood aspires to work his way up the ranks of a local mob. Despite the talented 2 leads (De Niro and Keitel) and an amazing director like Martin Scorcese 'Mean Streets' is one heck of a boring drama and with terrible characters that i didn't feel anything about plus for half of the movie Robert De Niro talks like freaking Sylvester Stallone and he is annoying as hell and the same goes for Harvey Keitel because unlike Casino or Goodfellas where there's some affection with the characters this movie has none of that plus it's slow paced and drags alot from start to finish. Overall one big disappointment for me regarding a terrific director. (0/10)

Mean Streets is a deeply personal crime film from Martin Scorsese. After a slew of subpar films, he directs a semi-autobiographical that's a love letter to New York's Little Italy where he grew up. I have not always been a big fan of this film. I've always liked it, but found it to be inferior carbon copies of future hoodlum flicks done by Scorsese himself and others down the road. I'm not changing my mind about this being the blueprint or that Taxi Driver, Goodfellas and Do The Right Thing were better. I also found this to be pretty similar to On The Waterfront, which is one of my 25 favourite films ever! Keitel works for the mafia and has an attack of conscience where his best friend that needs to be destroyed. In Waterfront: Brando works for the mafia, has an attack of conscience, and needs to take a stand against his superiors. Luckily for Mean Streets, there is enough originality and raw power to separate it from those and see that Scorsese simply drew cinematic inspirations from oldies and he is constantly outdoing himself in years down the road. For any more negativity I've had about Mean Streets in the past, I watched it with the wrong people and on bad days. The movie doesn't change, but days do. In the "neighbourhood" Charlie (Hardy Keitel's breakout role) is a devout Catholic and well- respected gangster. He goes to church to pay for his sins, but constantly saying standard prayers isn't much retribution. Scorsese voices Charlie's conscience and says "You don't pay for your sins in church, you do it in the streets." So true. This can be applied for all walks of life in how merely saying prayers isn't nearly enough that needs to be done to rectify sins. Charlie lusts and gets involved in violence and drugs, so his guilt is always there. He is caught in a vicious circle: he wants to live a clean life, but also wants to stay loyal and respectable among his peers. Rising to the top of the mafia underworld may give him some freedom. He works for his cousins and friends who are mobsters and loan sharks. His best friend is the psychotic Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro's breakout role too) who is less respectable than Charlie. The first half or so takes the viewer into the hellacious underworld. We get to see the shenanigans that they must deal with on a regular basis. In the basement bar, Scorsese carefully illuminates the scenery blood red. New York itself looks pretty normal. But the hangouts are their own worlds that look evil and vicious. There's areas that are not red but have minimal lighting for a similar effect. They are dungeons in the underworld. Sometimes Scorsese uses hand-held cameras to increase the intensity. Charlie is almost a free agent in the underworld he is so respected. Even the people not affiliated with his family like him. But Johnny Boy is becoming increasingly more hated by everyone. He doesn't pay his debts and his violent nature is getting out of control. He is like Joe Pesci in Goodfellas, but De Niro is much wilder. Charlie starts having a fling with Johnny's cousin and even she hates him. Charlie is conflicted in his loyalties, but he knows Johnny needs to be stopped. The intensity between these characters keeps growing and never stops until the wild finale. De Niro and Keitel are so good. De Niro was deserving on an Oscar win; Keitel, a nomination (1973 was a pretty competitive year for leads). Mean Streets paints the mafia in such a ugly light, not seen since the film-noir days. Wild The Godfather movies painted the mafia with a black brush, it isn't very common seeing mafia that high up. It is more common seeing mafia really low standing that aren't even the most elite in the city. And Scorsese creates an intimate portrait of life in crime and the consequences that come with it all. Scorsese shows us early on that he's a masterful film maker and that the two leads will take cinema by storm.

Scorsese's first personal movie is a gangster epic that has all the hallmarks of the director's tour-de-force style that would reappear later in his career: from the fresh tracking shots to the unnerving camera angles, particularly one sequence where a camera is strapped to Keitel and the viewer takes part as he stumbles into a drunken stupor. The only real difference between this film and later offerings like GOODFELLAS is the budget, which at this stage in Scorsese's career wasn't great. Nevertheless the director crafts a plot-heavy epic which really puts across a picture of life in the big city, possibly more so than his second collaboration with De Niro, TAXI DRIVER.The film is quite slow-paced, which may be off-putting to some, and there isn't a great deal of the director's trademark violence to punctuate the more mundane moments as in his later movies – aside from the powerhouse climax, in which the red paint flows leaving the viewer feeling as if they've been punched in the face. Keitel is fantastic in the leading role and brings a real compassion to the part of the guy whose love for his friends gets him into serious trouble. However, as might be guessed, De Niro steals all his scenes here, as a small-time psycho who likes nothing better than to shoot his revolver from rooftops and beat up strangers on the street. De Niro is twitchy and deranged and scarily believable in this part, yet sympathetic at the same time too. He infuses his character with dynamism whilst at the same time invoking fear at the inescapable consequences of his actions. So, there you have mean streets: a typical enough gangster epic, infused with the energy of its young director and two stars, with enough originality, charisma, and hard-knuckle realism to make it a more than worthwhile watch.