Customer Reviews

Mean Streets [Blu-ray]

5 star:		(27)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

Watching this you see where the vocabulary and style of The Sopranos came from, thirty years before its time. I love the rawness of a New York neighbourhood and this rings true - cemeteries, drinking dens, a beach, rooftops, and a street festival - I enjoyed the story, the backdrop and the characters.

What a film! Although i had to watch this film 3 times to really appreciate it, it is no doubt one of my personal favorites. Its not a goodfellas/godfather style film, it is a unique film (at least when it was released it was) that is both brilliant and funny. Although its anything but a comedy, i just found Johnny Boy's (De Niro) lack of respect and responsility to anyone and everything just hilarious. Kietels performance along with De Niros are among the strongest and most convincing ive ever seen. Kietel is brilliant in the lead role and De Niro is like seasoned pro in his first major film. This is a must for any Scorese/De Niro/Kietel fan...in fact, if you like film you'll love this. Its more like a 10 star film rather than a five star. Enough from me...just watch it!

A film that is very problematic. It is not that old but the action is set in quite an older period, yet Robert de Niro looks like a young actor just out of drama school trying to imitate his mentor Robert de Niro himself, an older version of himself in a way. The film has little depth actually. We all know you must not play with the law of the street that the bad boys of the underworld are imposing onto those who are dumb enough not to be blind and what's more who want to have their share of the cake they have not contributed to kneading, baking and glazing. The real point is that a few thousand dollars become a monumental debt when the borrower becomes dumb enough to pretend in the lender's face and in front of quite a few witnesses he will never pay back because the lender is a dumb idiot. The end is signed in that declaration. Death. And death again and again on two innocent acolytes. The film has essentially one interest: the young de Niro and how he is already building his artistic texture, a texture he will never lose nor change. I guess good whisky gets better by aging, provided of course it ages in the proper vessel, vat or barrel.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

Mean Streets is a mostly unseen but none the less highly important part of the scorsese canon that stands as a testement to this unique film maker. This story of life in little Italy is virtually plotsless, with only a broad story of Di Nero's character Johny Boys debts moving the film along dramatically. This may be a problem for some viewers as it makes te film very unconventional compared to most hollywood fare. Mean streets is instead concerened wth the many different little incidents and stories that make up life in little italy in new york. The films portrayl of the characters, their clothes, food, casual rascism and attitudes towards religion are perefctly illustrated by the director with his as this stage youthful impetuosity concerning camera movement and the use of music, and of course by getting perfect performences from his talented cast. The deeply persoanl resonance that the film has for the director is mainly illustrated by the religious guilt felt by Harvey Keitels character. This instils the film with the nessesary passion and audience engagement for the central chracter. It may well take several viewings to get the best out of this film and eally apreciate it, but it is well worth it because after these you will be hooked.

David Proval. I saw this film last weekend on TV late at night and was genuinely surprised by this actor, the one man in the film who didn't look like he was acting. I recognised the face but didn't know who he was. I am old enough to have seen this 40 years ago but didn't although I worked in the film industry at the time. An outstanding film in many ways, full of surprises and I think it stands the test of time. De Niro and Keitel went on to make great careers, Proval, so natural and easy never got the star billing but he stands out in this.

Made in 1973 by the fledgling Italian-American director when he was only 31, Mean Streets was Martin Scorsese's breakthrough film. Watching it again for the first time in over 10 years, I was once again caught up in (and touched by) what is probably the man's most personal film, autobiographical hints abounding, as he conjures up an authentic and evocative atmosphere of a 1970s New York Italian-American (criminal) community. Frequently reminiscent of the likes of Fellini's I Vitelloni updated with a modern American urban sensibility, and with hand-held camera dynamics redolent of Cassavetes, Mean Streets stands up very well to the passage of time, establishing what was undoubtedly one of the finest American directors of the era (following this with other outstanding films such as Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, Taxi Driver, New York New York, Raging Bull and The King Of Comedy).

At the centre of Mean Streets, of course, is the 'brotherly' relationship between Harvey Keitel's Charlie, local (family) mob member, struggling to come to terms with his feelings of (Catholic) guilt ('I'm doing my own penance for my own sins') over his life-style, and Robert De Niro's bravura turn as Charlie's friend the errant, out-of-control Johnny Boy. Scorsese's depiction of this increasingly fractured relationship is simply brilliant (for me, one of the best in cinema), set as it is within the context of 'family loyalty' in 70s New York, where racial groups don't mix (Italians, blacks, Jews, etc) and everything is flares, kipper ties, sideburns and mullet haircuts. For me, Keitel has probably never been better than here, whilst De Niro's performance is a revelation and only bettered (for me) by that in Raging Bull.

Scorsese's choice of music for his soundtrack is throughout one of the most evocative (and apt) ever (with soul and Motown being particularly well-represented), but it is during the film's opening 15 or 20 minutes, which includes The Ronettes' Be My Baby over the film's titles and The Rolling Stones Jumpin' Jack Flash over Johnny Boy's mesmerising slo-mo bar entrance, that Scorsese surpasses himself. Of course, following Johnny Boy's bar entrance is the great (and largely improvised) scene between him and Charlie as they debate whether or not Johnny has made his weekly mob payment.

In addition to Keitel and De Niro, Amy Robinson is also outstanding as Johnny's cousin and Charlie's guilty romantic secret, the self-confident, but epileptic, Teresa, as are each of Richard Romanus as Michael, the cool mobster given the run-around by Johnny Boy, and David Proval as bar room owner, Tony.

Scorsese's film scores by virtue of its authenticity and dynamism - in fact, it does not have a particularly strong narrative. Other than Charlie's relationships with Johnny Boy and Teresa, its storyline focuses on Michael's increasingly frustrated attempts to recover Johnny Boy's unpaid protection money. Instead, it is a series of superb vignettes, which include: a violent pool-room brawl (to the ironic tune of The Marvelettes' Mr Postman, and the hilarious dialogue, 'What's a mook?'); big cats in a cage 'backstage' in Tony's bar; David Carradine's bar-room shooting; cruising in a car with a couple of homosexuals; the dustbin lid fight; Charlie peeping through his fingers at Teresa; a Vietnam vet's homecoming party and a visit to the cinema (to see Vincent Price in Roger Corman's The Tomb Of Ligeia). Oh, and of course a brilliant ending, something of a forerunner to that of Taxi Driver.

On reflection, I guess one of the most ironic things about Mean Streets is that Scorsese did not win (nor was he even nominated) for the directing Oscar for this film. Nor of course did he win for Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, The King Of Comedy or Goodfellas, but instead finally won for the much inferior, 2006's The Departed. That's Hollywood for you!

This is of of my favorite DeNiro movies, A great "Mob" movie, DeNiro is great as always, the car chase at he end is a great climax to the movie!!!

Its worth watching but is really just typical gangster film with gatherings and meetings and a few kills there and then , if you like de niro which he was good in this you will be inspired to watch but it is really just mean streets thats it the title says it all . Decent watch

Mean Streets is directed by Martin Scorsese who also co-writes the screenplay with Mardik Martin. It stars Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro, David Proval, Amy Robinson, Richard Romanus and Cesare Danova. Plot finds Keitel as Charlie, a young Italian-American crook trying to work his way up the New York Mafia scene. But his way is blocked by Catholic guilt and his obligation to take care of loose cannon pal Jonny Boy (De Niro), who is in debt to hoods and doesn't seem to care.

A film of significant firsts. It would begin the Scorsese/De Niro relationship that served cinema so well and it laid the foundation for Scorsese's hoodlum filmic empire. Viewing Mean Streets now is an odd experience, for although there are some great things to sample, the piece undeniably seminal in the history of American cinema, it also plays as a pretty straight forward film. There are no surprises in store, the trajectory of characterisations runs true and goes exactly where you expect it too. Had I personally watched it upon release in 1973 I'm sure I would have been a bit more awed, but it very much feels over-rated now, with some critical appraisals of it appearing to pump it up more because of its importance than for any narrative quality.

As Scorsese goes for gritty realism, the story at the core lacks vibrancy. It's only when De Niro (jumping-bean) as borderline nutter Jonny Boy is doing his nutter Jonny Boy thing, does the picture actually perk up. The roll call of characters aren't engaging since they aren't fleshed out, the girl characters are badly written and the key bar-room brawl is very unconvincing. On the outside the picture is ace, opening our eyes to a scuzzy Little Italy, Scorsese a master at portraying an environment he knows so well, but it's all polish with no actual substance underneath. Tech credits are high, camera work, lighting and sound-tracking, all carry the hallmarks of future classics, but these things ultimately avert your gaze from the simplicity walking the streets down below.

Raw and decidedly honest film making, but weighted down by desperately trying to pulse with religious musings, Mean Streets could have been the masterpiece some have made it out to be. It's not, it has weaknesses that we shouldn't be blind too, even if it does showcase some incredible talents that were about to enter the annals of cinema history. 7/10

Mean Streets was Scorsese's first classic and it was the film that opened up Robert De Niro to the film industry. As a film, it's very modern for it's time and it's very well made. On the side of the fact that it's Blu-ray, you can tell the picture has been refined and there are a lot of special features. A must watch for Gangster movie/Scorsese movie lovers and on the whole a very good product.