Mean Streets is a consistently gripping, highly personal ode of Martin Scorsese’s to the neighborhood in which he grew up, New York’s Little Italy. It contains a star-making performance by De Niro as well as a great one by Harvey Keitel.
Four Young Hoods Center the Film
Keitel is very genuine in his role as Charlie, the conscience behind a pack of four ne’er-do-well small-time hoods, including Tony (David Proval), who owns a strip joint frequented by drug pushers and other assorted lowlifes, Michael (Richard Romanus), who is so desperate for a good deal that in the movie’s first scene he mistakenly buys two shipments of Japanese adaptors, thinking they are German telescopic lenses, and worst of all Johnny Boy (De Niro), who owes money to everyone in town.
Johnny Boy, played with the recklessness and hair-trigger temper that De Niro would use to such stunning effect in several other films, can barely hang on long enough to the little money he makes to pay Michael, to whom he owes $3000, an amount which goes up astronomically by the week because of interest.
Charlie’s Previous Vouching for Johnny Puts Him In Debt to Michael
Charlie had told Michael Johnny would pay the money back very quickly after it was lent, and as Johnny continues to duck out of meeting with Michael to systematically pay back the money, Charlie is left making promises that he’s unsure Johnny will keep. Because Charlie considers himself very religious, his continued relationships with men who are obviously morally corrupt lead him to look for ways to leave his low post on the mob’s totem pole, ways that ultimately prove unsuccessful.
The scenario of the mob’s lack of sympathy for those who tire of the game and its constant pulling back in of these people is common, but Scorsese gives it added weight through his attention to detail and empathy for his characters. Though they are all shown to be careless in some way, their childish antics and exaggerated argot makes, at least in the cases of Johnny and his brother-like protector Charlie, very endearing to this viewer.
Scorsese and Mardik Martin’s Screenplay and Kent Wakeford’s Cinematography Impressive
The film’s writing is great not only because it puts the action in a very specific place and gives it a close sense of community, as in several scenes set in the San Gennaro Catholic Feast, which juxtapose the highly religious lives of older Italian-Americans with the violence and mischief exhibited by the younger generation, but also because it gets little details just right, for example when Charlie’s girlfriend doesn’t want him to look at her while she’s getting dressed.
Finally, the cinematography certainly takes its part alongside the excellent writing, directing, and acting the film showcases, especially in the aforementioned San Gennaro-related parade scenes, as well as a neat montage of clips from “home movies” that serve as the opening credits sequence, and a party scene showing Keitel’s exhilaration rising alongside his growing intoxication. Add to this the now-Scorsese-trademarked excellent soundtrack of period songs as well as Rolling Stones music, and you have a mobster film for the ages.
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