Review of Mean Streets (1973) by Eduardo C — 29 Feb 2016
Scorsese's masterpiece is about small-time hood gangsters in 1973 "Little Italy" in NYC. They are so small time they have to make weekly payments to a made Mafia man. Harvey Keitel's character is internally torn between his "Devil" status as a gangster, and his secret desire ( expressed through a narration of his thoughts) to be an "Angel".
He is like a split personality and thus, takes it upon himself to watch over and save "Johnny Boy" , his distant cousin and protégé who is also a hood just like him due to Keitel having vouched for him.
Robert De Niro gives an incendiary spectacular performance as Johnny Boy, a nihilistic self destructive gangster who has gambling addiction and seemingly does not care about anything, not even himself though he seems to respect Keitel.
Keitel keeps getting threatened because of his devotion to Johnny boy, because Johnny Boy starts to not make his weekly payments and gets more and more hostile to the made Mafia man. Johnny Boy gets wilder and more and more out of control but Keitel never stops trying to "save" him.
This review of Mean Streets (1973) was written by Eduardo C on 29 Feb 2016.
Mean Streets has generally received very positive reviews.
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