MEAN STREETS (1973)

Country: U.S.A.

Genre(s): Crime / Drama

Director: Martin Scorsese

Cast: Harvey Keitel / Robert De Niro / Richard Romanus

Plot

A young New York wiseguy risks everything to protect his reckless best friend from a local loan shark.

What I Liked

“You don’t make up for your sins in church.  You do it in the streets.  You do it at home.  The rest is bullshit, and you know it.”  That opening line to “Mean Streets” not only sums up a lot of what’s going on in this movie, it sums a lot of what goes in in most of the Martin Scorsese movies that would follow.  The practicality of faith in today’s world; guilt; penance; the unfulfilled quest for redemption; Scorsese is clearly fascinated by these themes and they all run as an undercurrent in his first major film.

The inclusion of these elements into a “gangster” brought maturity and complexity to the genre, something only “The Godfather,” released just a year before, had accomplished was as much success.  Yet “Mean Streets” was nothing like “The Godfather,” at least not on the surface.  Where the earlier movie was concerned with the upper echelon of the Mafia, mythologizing criminals as family men devoted to honor and respect, “Mean Streets” gives an ultra-realist perspective, depicting the hustlers on the street, smacking around women, scamming kids out of twenty dollars, and getting in drunken brawls.  As Scorsese grew up in the same streets in which his movie is set, his familiarity with the people who live there and their lifestyles lend an authenticity to the film that “The Godfather,” in all its deserved glory, never approaches.

As good as he is, Scorsese was lucky to have access to such terrific young actors as Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro to play his leads.  The director may have broken new ground with his concept and approach, but their talent and chemistry are what truly make the movie enjoyable to watch.  Like him, they grew up in New York and were familiar with the type of characters they were asked to play.  Keitel is magnificent as penance-obsessed Charlie, the numbers runner trying to make good the eyes of his Mafioso uncle (and God) while also being pulled into the gutter by De Niro’s character, Johnny Boy.  But De Niro outshines even Keitel, making the most of his character Johnny, a man who is aflame with charisma, unpredictability, and danger.

What I Didn’t Like

Not yet confined by the need to please major film studios, Scorsese put together more of a slice-of-life film than a concisely plotted, action-packed gangster picture.  Hardly economical the drama drags through the copious character development, particularly early on.  Luckily we can still enjoy watching some fine actors in their prime have a great time with their craft, so the action isn’t missed too much.  However, “Mean Streets” is nowhere as colorful or slick as the director’s later underworld pictures like “Goodfellas,” “The Gangs of New York,” and the “Departed.”

Most Memorable Scene

Nobody can shoot a bar scene like Scorsese.  He has the camera carouse through the wasted denizens as though it were one of them, rocking along with the tunes of the Ronettes, the Marvelettes, and the Stones.  There are so many great bar moments in “Mean Streets,” I can’t single out just one, so I’ll have to go with two.  There’s Johnny Boy’s “crossfire hurricane” entrance to “Jumpin’ Jack Flash,” and Charlie’s shitfaced stroll through the bar, hugging and kissing anyone who comes within reach to the wacky sounds of “Rubber Biscuit.”  Both scenes are two of my favorite moments in all of cinema and are absolutely definitive Scorsese, featuring techniques he would use time and again, especially in “Goodfellas.”  Most importantly, it was scenes like these that would be so influential on later filmmakers like Quentin Tarantino and Spike Lee.

My Rating: 4.5 out of 5