Mean Streets

How can you endlessly watch a total screw-up borrow from the mob, annoy the only friend he has, and basically wreck his life without wanting to run away from it all? When the screw-up is played by young Robert DeNiro you are fascinated, you don't want to turn away. MEAN STREETS was not the debut of both Martin Scorcese or his stars Harvey Kietel and Robert deNiro. They struggled in the field for some time. This is the film that told the world, new head-honchos have arrived on the screen! MEAN STREETS tells of low-rent street hoods in Little Italy. Harvey Kietel plays the one hood whose a voice of reason, who doesn't mess up all the time, who is smart enough to avoid trouble. When DeNiro's Johnny Boy is first seen here, he is playing infantile tricks, and is telling his friend how he can't go in half the stores around him because he owes everybody money. Martin Scorcese uses a gritty documentary-shooting style to unfold his movie. It remains probably the best film of 1973 (But 1973 was not one of the best years for movies.)

Charlie may be small time but the authority and standing of his Uncle Giovanni in the community of Little Italy offers him the chance to become more than just a local hustler. One of the things he should be careful of is the company he keeps and who he stands with. Unfortunately Charlie is very protective of his cousin Johnny Boy, who seems determined to borrow as much money as possible, gamble it away and not pay it back and also in a relationship with Johnny's relation Teresa. While the fun and energy of the street life continues, dark consequences of all these things threaten Charlie and those around him.

It has been years since I saw this film and I noticed that I had last watched it before I started reviewing. As a result I watched it again yesterday to refresh my memory. Seeing it with older eyes is an impressive experience because I appreciate what Scorsese has gone on to do and found it fascinating to look back on this, one of his earliest films. The plot is a mash of characters and events that come together to create a sense of place that is convincingly done; the overall narrative focuses on Charlie, in particular where his relationships are taking him but this aspect ebbs and flows with the events. It is funny, violent, personal and engaging, only a few aspects come over as weak. The script flows like real dialogue, producing the different moods of each scene and also being memorable and rough.

The style and direction of the film are impressive and it is interesting to see the influence Scorsese had with this and his other films. The techniques employed here will ring bells with anyone who watches modern cinema and television with more than a passing interest, Sopranos in particular owes him a debt. Here we have the slow-motions, chest-mounted camera (I'm sure there is a proper name for it), impressive use of music and so on that we have come to be used to with Scorsese and one cannot help be impressed by how well developed these ideas were at an early stage in his career. Of course along with stylistic constants, several of the cast would become regulars. Keitel is the heart of the film for me and, although his opportunities in the script are surprisingly limited, I felt he did well with the themes handed to him. De Niro of course catches the eye more because of what was to come but also because he has the more energetic character. Robinson didn't make much of an impression on me but the support cast features early turns from faces such as Proval, Romanus, Argo and others.

Mean Streets might be a bit rough and ready when placed next to the polished films that Scorsese would go on to do but it does not take away from its strengths to look back at it. So much of Scorsese's style and calling cards are in place even at this early stage and his film convincingly creates the streets and characters of the place. The main players involved have done better films since this one but it is still strong, stylish and interesting and definitely worth a look for anyone who has since any other Scorsese films.

Like the Irishman long after it, Mean Streets is a gangster film that hones in on the mundanity of it all. The violence is pretty nasty when it happens but for the most part, focusing on the everyday life of these low level gangsters and their struggles in recognisably Scorsese fashion is this film's greatest strength.

Harvey Keitel leads the film with an inner turmoil that's great to witness. Overall, it's a very restrained performance which works so well since he's repressing all of his troubles. Seeing Robert De Niro in a role like this really shows how far he's come as this volatile and juvenile performance is almost unrecognizably him.

As director, co-writer and co-editor, Martin Scorsese has a fully formed vision. His usual themes are present, the editing mostly has the rhythm of his later work and New York is definitely a character in itself. Another signature trait of his work are the needle drops and there's a terrific selection of them on display in this.

I was never clear at just why Harvey Keitel was putting himself out on a limb for Robert DeNiro in Mean Streets. Sure he's taken with DeNiro's cousin Amy Robinson still I'm not sure he was worth the effort.

Keitel is a small time hood in Manhattan's Little Italy who's not really into it. DeNiro is another small time hood but he's completely and psychotically out of control. He's borrowed a few grand from local loan shark Robert Romanus and Romanus wants his money. Now during the climax scene DeNiro does ask a relevant question, why after he has borrowed and stiffed everyone in the neighborhood would you lend him any money?

In fact Keitel is all that's standing between DeNiro and gangster retribution. Is it all worth it even for Amy Robinson who is an epileptic and for some reason Keitel's uncle Cesare Danova thinks that disqualifies her as a potential bride.

The story is a bit muddled but the characters especially Keitel and DeNiro are unforgettable. Mean Streets made the career of both of them and of director Martin Scorsese. Keitel has become a valued character player and DeNiro a star with an astonishing variety of roles. In fact next to John Ford/John Wayne, Martin Scorsese/Robert DeNiro is probably the most successful director/player combination in film history.

This must have been a labor of love since Martin Scorsese grew up in Little Italy grown a lot smaller since he was a kid there. No doubt Keitel, DeNiro and the rest are drawn from characters he knew. His mom Catherine Scorsese also makes an appearance as she does in many of her son's works.

I don't think Mean Streets ranks up there with Casino, The Departed, The Aviator and Goodfellas, but it's an interesting work.

Mean Streets has all the characteristics we have come to associate with Scorsese - the fluid camerawork, the expressionistic lighting, the sudden explosions of violence, the eclectic soundtrack. In later films, he took cinema to new heights with the flowering of his technical skills and the broadening of his material, but Mean Streets remains unsurpassed for the emotional intensity which only a young director, passionate about film and intent on making a personal statement, could achieve.

The theme of the film is contained in the famous first line 'You don't make up for your sins in church; you do it in the streets' (a Scorsese voice-over). An extended preface which delineates the nature of the film and its characters before the narrative begins includes brief cameo scenes introducing the four protagonists (a much copied device: see, for example, Trainspotting).

Scorsese's alter-ego is played as in the earlier 'Who's That Knocking At My Door?' by Harvey Keitel, giving the performance of his young life. He is Charlie, a junior member of a Mafia family who collects debts and runs numbers, but who also has aspirations to sainthood. The other key figure is his anarchic friend, Johnny Boy, played with ferocious energy by de Niro.

Charlie is introduced coming out of confession, dissatisfied with his penance. Reciting words doesn't mean anything to him and he can't believe that forgiveness could come so easily. Deliberately burning his hand in a candle flame is a more effective reminder of the pain of hell. The camera follows Charlie from the altar into Tony's bar, a red-lit inferno, and when Johnny Boy comes in, to the tune of Jumping Jack Flash, Charlie recognises that this is the form his penance will take. Johnny Boy is the cross he must bear. 'You send me this, Lord' he says resignedly.

Johnny Boy's irresponsibility and impulsiveness make him everything Charlie, with his controlled, anxious, guilt-ridden persona, is not. The argument which follows in the back room about Johnny Boy's debts deserves its reputation as one of the great scenes in seventies cinema.

Charlie's life moves in well worn, claustrophobic circles. Hardly anyone outside his immediate circle appears in the film and other ethnic groups are viewed with suspicion. The characters seldom appear outdoors or in daylight. Charlie inhabits a world of bars, pool halls and cinemas. In the one scene he appears in sunlight, he looks ill at ease. The suit and heavy overcoat he wears (reflecting his Mafiosi ambitions) look distinctly out of place on a beach. It's significant that in this scene Teresa, his girlfriend, scorns his small-time gangsterism and challenges him to join her in moving away to a new life. But Charlie is trapped by his desire to please his uncle.

Scorsese has said that his choice in adolescence lay between becoming a priest and becoming a gangster and that he failed on both counts. Mean Streets allows him to explore that choice to devastating effect.