Product: Mean Streets (1973)
Rating: 5.0
Martin Scorsese's breakout film
Written and directed by film making master Martin Scorsese in his early years, Mean Streets c1973 is basically a film about the neighborhood of his youth. Starring Harvey Keitel, playing the part of Priesthood leaning, religious Martin himself, and all the lower level poseurs at organized crime in New York's little Italy of the 1960's, also shows Robert De Niro's talents playing the demented best friend Johnny, and David Proval (Richie Aprile on The Sopranos TV show c2000), the nightclub owner.Keitel has an uncle (Cesare Danova, another New York actor) who is bringing his nephew into the lower eschelon of the family business, loan sharking and gambling. At the same time, best friend Johnny is in a lot of trouble with another shy and trader of stolen goods (Richard Romanus), and Keitel finds himself trying to keep his buddy from getting killed. Also, the Uncle wants his protege to stop seeing a girl (Amy Robinson) because she has seizures.Johnny escalates the situation by pulling a gun on the hood in my favorite scene. Scorsese himself is seen (uncredited) as a hit man in the back seat (where else) of a car. The ending is almost the precurser of the film Taxi Driver, Martin Scorsese's 1976 masterpiece.A special feature commentary by Scorsese himself is worth the price I paid for this DVD. A must -have for all Scorsese and De Niro fans.