Mean Streets

When you look at "Mean Streets," it's hard to imagine it being associated with that little man who looks so innocently and defenselessly. However, Martin Scorsese directed a film that could easily serve as one of the inspirational sources for Quentin Tarantino's first film, "Reservoir Dogs." And even for other films, while we're at it. Scorsese was not afraid to show the street as it really looked. He didn't exaggerate, but he also didn't hide anything. There's not much violence here, just fights that are definitely better than in the film "Raging Bull". However, what stands out the most are the characters and their performances. Especially the trio of De Niro, Keitel, and Proval, because this time it's truly their acting performances that take the lead. (10/29/2013)

I have a little problem with Martin Scorsese. His older movies are not fun for me, even though I consider his newer ones some of the best flicks there are. I’m such a heathen that I gave Taxi Driver and Raging Bull three stars, and I will do the same with Mean Streets. In this case mainly because it’s so boring. Well, boring might be too strong a word. It’d be safer to say that the story is not as captivating as other mafia crime movies, failing to make me give it 100% of my attention while watching it. (01/22/2013)

After being trained by Roger Corman in the art of rapid-fire directing (Boxcar Bertha), Scorsese got his dazzling filmography off to a good start. Together with story elements from Rocco and His Brothers, this dusky buddy movie contains most of Scorsese’s trademarks: rock songs, slow-motion shots (though it’s sometimes hard to determine the motivation for them) and disturbingly smooth camerawork that’s observational in the manner of a documentary. The semi-improvised acting in the style of films by John Cassavetes doesn’t create any tension with the chosen style (as in the later New York, New York); on the contrary, it superbly serves the dramaturgically loose story, or rather series of stories that have to be “resolved” through a deus ex machina by the director himself (who is not mentioned in the credits). From the group of friends who are sometimes too aggressive in defending their turf, Keitel’s Charlie stands out (and in the individual shots where a place in the centre suits him). He is better able than the unpredictable Johnny Boy to restrain his need to assert his male dominance and, because he is in a more serious relationship, he isn’t entirely committed to a life of high stakes and major losses. Keitel portrays the tension between cultivating a romantic relationship and professional growth without theatrical gestures, only with occasional, and thus all the more effective, outburst of anger. On the surface, the torn nature of Charlie and the other characters, their attitude shifting between “I am the master of the world” and “I'll be a good boy now, mommy”, is manifested differently in their confident behaviour at the bar, bathed in a hellishly red light that adds to their insolence, and on the street, where they live their other, normal lives and are obviously more vulnerable. The precise study of characters and relationships within one closed group prevails over a cohesive story that advances from one point to the next. Some may find that this absence of fixed points of reference in the narrative makes Mean Streets a more arduous viewing experience. Its very stylish exterior conceals a handful of more serious themes like the early and later autobiographically conceived films based on what the director was living through at the given time and the excellent actors serve as comprehensible conduits of complex emotional states. Mean Streets is not just a warm-up for the great films that followed; it’s Scorsese already operating at the top of his game. 80% (08/15/2012)

A fantastically portrayed atmosphere of New York in the 1970s with all the afros and the smoking, but, in terms of script, the film almost fails, because things get going only in the last 10 minutes. The rest is just a bar crawl with long shots with no editing, where the camera atypically flits around a bar trying to authentically portray the world of the time. Scorsese's start, De Niro's awesome performance. (11/24/2015)

A naturalistically dirty routine of good-for-nothings, rubberneckers, brokes, dandies and wannabe gangsters who only shop at bargain stores. It is based purely on situations, spontaneity (often it seems like improvisation), atmosphere and characters, it is not about a story. After all, except for a kind of digression about Johnny's debts, there isn't one. Although with reservations (self-serving slowdowns, paper-rusting internal monologues), it works even today and not only as a "supplementary material FYI", which would work purely in the level of the the movies it draw inspiration from like Taxi Driver, Goodfellas or Casino. (11/20/2017)