Tag: Mean Streets

I like movies that are directed and written by the same person. That is the reason I like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin movies. You won’t find this much anymore unless it’s an indie movie. Movies that are written by a committee are sometimes slick and predictable. We need more movies and music like this. I talked about this last Friday in the comments with different people about The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and remembered I wrote it about this one as well.

You will hear one word in many of these reviews…and that word is gritty. The 1970s movies set in New York have grit, filth, and realism. The way these were made looks like they were made on the fly. I mean that in the best way. The characters look as if they were lifted off the streets and filmed. There is a good reason for that. It had a small budget so they couldn’t afford a union-shot movie. Many scenes were shot with natural lighting, and guerrilla filmmaking techniques were employed to save costs. They shot it in 26 days and made excellent use of a handheld camera.

This 1973 film opens with a famous monologue by Charlie, played by Keitel, which sets the tone for the character’s internal conflict. This introspective voice-over became a signature element of Scorsese’s storytelling style. Mean Streets is set in New York City’s Little Italy and follows Charlie (Harvey Keitel), a small-time hood trying to make his way in the local Mafia, and his reckless friend Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro), who owes money all over town. The film explores the struggling street life and the demands of mob life…along with a lot of guilt.

It’s directed by Martin Scorsese and I think this is one of the best movies of its kind. He would later make other mob movies that are more well-known such as Goodfellas, Casino, and The Irishman but none of them are as, here is that word again, gritty as this. Scorsese knew the vibe well, growing up in his New York City neighborhood and dealing with a formative period in his life during the early 60’s. He shot this movie with Roger Corman’s crew with 6 days of location in New York and with most of the interiors done in Los Angeles. Scorsese edited much of the movie in his bedroom. It was written by Scorsese and his childhood friend Mardik Martin. What lends to the atmosphere is many of the film’s scenes were improvised. Scorsese encouraged his actors to ad-lib their lines to create a more authentic and natural feel.

The actors were fantastic. Harvey Keitel, De Niro, Amy Robinson, Victor Argo, and many more. Keitel stands out to me in this like he does in most of the films he made. Here he balances out toughness with vulnerability. He got this part because Jon Voight had dropped out.

Let’s talk about the music a little bit here. Not many directors are as good as Scorsese at placing music in movies. In the first few minutes of this movie, you hear two Stones songs and Derek and the Dominos as he fits the scenes beautifully.

The movie is not action-packed…it’s almost like a day in the life of these characters. You can see parts of Scorsese’s later movies in this one as well. Much like you can see Pulp Fiction in Reservoir Dogs for Quentin Tarantino.

Quotes:

Voice in Charlie’s Mind: You don’t make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit, and you know it.

Charlie: You know what the Queen said? If I had balls, I’d be King.

Charlie: It’s all bullshit except the pain. The pain of hell. The burn from a lighted match increased a million times. Infinite. Now, ya don’t fuck around with the infinite. There’s no way you do that. The pain in hell has two sides. The kind you can touch with your hand; the kind you can feel in your heart… your soul, the spiritual side. And ya know… the worst of the two is the spiritual.

I saw this review about a book on mobster films that talks about this movie.

Over time, Scorsese would make “slicker, better-crafted movies,” according to authors George Anastasia and Glen Macnow in The Ultimate Book of Gangster Movies, “but the nuts and bolts of who he is and what he’s about are here.” The authors rank Mean Streets No. 14 of the Top 100 gangster movies, just behind Léon: The Professional and ahead of Reservoir Dogs. “On one level, watching Mean Streets is like finding some old film of Joe DiMaggio and Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays during their first seasons in the big leagues,” the authors wrote. “The raw talent is there. There are sparks and smoldering potential.”

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