Product: Mean Streets (1973)
Rating: 5.0
An Independent Masterpiece that Showcased Scorsese's Talent!
One of Scorsese's earlier films but all his personal trademarks are here. Scorsese is a very talented and original filmmaker and his personal backdrop has always been evident in his films and this one particularly is personal filmmaking at it's best. A shocking, riveting and explosive tale of small time hoods in Little Italy. Harvey Keitel marked his second collaboration with Scorsese, he also starred in Scorsese's debut 1968's 'Who's that knocking at my door?' and would later reteam with him in 'Taxi Driver' and 'Last Temptation Of Christ'. Keitel is excellent as Charlie a guilt-stricken catholic who pays for his sins 'his own way'. DeNiro is nothing short of brilliant in the role of psychotic and reckless Johnny Boy. While the film is famous for having a minimal plot, it is still a fascinating character study. The plot has to do with Charlie aspiring to move up in his Mafia career but can't because of his friendship with Johnny Boy and love relationship with his epileptic cousin Teresa (Amy Robinson) whom the bosses think is 'crazy'. All the elements that would later become Scorsese's personal trademarks are here; an awesome rocking 60's soundtrack that seems perfectly appropriate, dizzying camerawork, voice-over narration, instantaneous mad bursts of violence, and of course DeNiro. Richly textured characters and innovative use of lightning. Scorsese would go on and make 'Taxi Driver', one of the best of all films, just 3 years later and if you look closely you may experience deja vu twice. Once with Keitel continuously putting his hand or finger under fire, so does Travis Bickle (DeNiro) in an unforgettable scene. While Charlie does it as some kind of penance, Travis only does it to pass the time or as part of his 'training'. The other element is that DeNiro is shot in the neck, same thing in Taxi Driver. An unforgettably gritty film that brought us the talents of Scorsese, DeNiro and Keitel, we must be thankful just for that reason. Extras: the gunman who shoots DeNiro is Scorsese himself. From a scale of 1-10 I give this film a 10!