Mean Streets (Special Edition) [DVD]

Four Italian-Americans from New York’s lower East Side hang around at a local bar. Charlie (Harvey Keitel), the most responsible of the group, tries to protect his girlfriend’s cousin Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro) from the local debt collectors, but his young charge seems determined to live fast and die young. Heavily influenced by the French New Wave, ‘Mean Streets’ provided the first high-profile success for director Martin Scorsese and star Robert De Niro.
After Martin Scorsese went to Hollywood in 1972 to direct the low-budget Boxcar Bertha for B-movie mogul Roger Corman, the young director showed the film to maverick director John Cassavetes and got an instant earful of urgent advice. “It’s crap,” said Cassavetes in no uncertain terms, “now go out and make something that comes from your heart.” Scorsese took the advice and focused his energy on Mean Streets, a riveting contemporary film about low-life gangsters in New York’s Little Italy that critic Pauline Kael would later call “a true original, and a triumph of personal filmmaking.” Starring Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel in roles that announced their talent to the world, it set the stage for Scorsese’s emergence as one of the greatest American filmmakers. Introducing themes and character types that Scorsese would return to in Taxi Driver, GoodFellas, Casino, and other films, the loosely structured story is drawn directly from Scorsese’s background in the Italian neighbourhoods of New York, and it seethes with the raw vitality of a filmmaker who has found his creative groove. As the irresponsible and reckless Johnny Boy, De Niro offers striking contrast to Keitel’s Charlie, who struggles to reconcile gang life with Catholic guilt. More of an episodic portrait than a plot-driven crime story, Mean Streets remains one of Scorsese’s most direct and fascinating films–a masterful calling card for a director whose greatness was clearly apparent from that point forward. –Jeff Shannon