Review of Mean Streets (1973) by Sanyam J — 02 Nov 2008

Mean Streets is a coming of age story about things you must do and people you must leave behind in order to be considered a man. It is a beautifully self conscious movie. Charlie (Harvey Keitel)plays a small time hood on the way up in Little Italy. He is very Catholic but wants to pay for his sins his way. Johnny Boy (Robert DeNiro) is a man who refuses to be accountable, almost socio-pathic. You see his reckless behavior in the opening sequence of the film when he blows up a mail box just for fun. Charlie sees in Johnny his mission. Charlie will 'save ' Johnny. In return Charlie will redeem himself.

Mean Streets is about paybacks, paying up, balancing the big tab against the little tab "so it balances off." It's about f***ng with the infinite, it's like film noir except there's color bleeding off each frame. There are great drunken scenes here. You can taste the Scotch, you can feel the room spinning. You can see the inevitable doom creeping up next to you in a car on the highway. Mean Streets is one of the best movies ever made. Great rock n roll. Check out the scene when Johnny Boy first appears in the bar...slow motion and Jumpin Jack Flash playing. This is a great movie, I gotta say that again, this is a great movie. Johnny Boy Staggers down the alley, Charlie on his knees, his uncle watches the end of a movie on the TV The curtain closes. The End. As Charlie says, "Thank you Lord....".

Scorcese's style virtually intact from the off. Superb acting from De Niro and Keitel. The pool-hall brawl scene, the scene where De Niro explains to Keitel why he missed a payment and the scene where Keitel is drunk are all worth watching the film for on their own. Paper-thin plot (getting involved with crime can get out of hand and not be very good for you), but draws you along so that you don't notice until it's all over. 'Goodfellas' is much better (and so is 'Casino' for that matter), but this is an important stepping-stone in the history of the genre.