Cheap Cds - Mean Streets (Special Edition) [1973]

Back to Mean Streets (Special Edition) [1973]

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Customer Rating:

Summary: "You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets."
Comment: Orson Welles said that a director's first film was always his best because he would put more into it
and hadn't got into bad habits like developing a style yet. Mean Streets may not be Scorsese's first
film, but it otherwise bears out Welles' words. Set in New York's Little Italy, Harvey Keitel plays
Michael, who exists on the fringes of crime and whose dreams of managing a restaurant his
money-lending uncle is about to take over are threatened by his affair with his epileptic cousin
(Amy Robinson) and his terminally unreliable childhood friend Johnny Boy's pressing debts. />
As with Goodfellas, it is plot-lite and style heavy, but where in the latter the style
dominated, here it has a rough-cut and ready-dubbed feel that energises the film and accurately
reflects the precarious state of the characters, be it financial, mental or moral. All the
trademarks are here - the tracking shots down bars, the sudden explosions of violence, a popular
music soundtrack that exists as much within the film as over it, the concern with incompatibility of
religion with everyday life - but here they are fresh and integral to the film rather than carefully
stage-managed.

If De Niro's unstable Johnny Boy now looks a bit too much like
barnstorming with many of the tricks he has since pretty much worn out through over-use, Keitel's
diplomatic lead and the astonishingly natural performances from the supporting cast are the real
glue that holds the film together and convince us we are eavesdropping on real lives.
/>Filled with astonishing moments Mean Streets remains one of the few key American films of the
early Seventies that still grabs your undivided attention with none of its original power diluted by
time and imitation.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Captivating, realistic, engrossing, brilliant all-round.
Comment: A superb film. Harvey Keitel and Robert De Nero turn in stunning performances, in fact the whole
cast shines, especially Teresa, the girl Charlie (Keitel) shouldn't be dating as her epiplespy is
frowned upon. As usual with De Nero, certain scenes just explode, and the intensity is literally
fightening, for example the scene where he (Johnny Boy) erupts with rage at Charlie (or rather,
himself, due to his own predicament at being unable to meet owed payments). The charm of the film is
the way Keitel is torn between his mob lifestyle and a sense of ethics. The musical score is
incredibly effective; as pointed out by another reviewer the drunk-in-bar scene is brilliant, and
the music just highlights the rather eerie and dark feel of the whole scene. To think I snapped up
this film for about £5 off Amazon; I guess some things in life are fantastic value for money after
all! Awesome.

Customer Rating:

Summary: RAW MOVIE
Comment: Mean streets
........This movie has everything from the streets...great
characters,location,language, the works. Its a pure realistic gangster movie set in a small
hood.

Made superbly, before scorcese films had a bigger budget etc-which is a great
thing as this movie captures it so differently(even though his other movies are slick and
great),reson being- its so real looking-it is real,but the characters such as'johnny boy'! I think
we 60% have a mate like that in our lives,at least i have do.

De niro plays this
character 'johnny boy'superbly.......a hood whos half crazy...in debt to other made guys/or small
time gangsters, pushing his luck all the way to the end, you can understand why 'charlie' keitels
character' feels he must help him out all the time and protect him....hes making up for his sins...
like he sais 'you make up for your sins in the streets' sure does....

I love the scene
when 'johnny boy' is behind the bar going crazy, on the roof popping off a gun and dancing to that
tune 'mickeys monkey'-classic. Charlie on the other hand is also brilliant,always looking sharp
trying to keep everybody happy, hes a lost guy ,but keeps everybody happy cause its good for him and
his boss.

Any way all the cast are excellent ,i could go on for pages about the great
scenes in this movie,its one of my top ten-highly recomended movie.

Customer Rating:

Summary: Great
Comment: I am a very big fan of Martin Scorsese director of 'Mean Streets' I have almost watched all his
films. It was great to see one of his very first films that first introduced Robert De Niro. He
plays a young guy that causes a lot of trouble around New York and for his friend played by Harvey
Keitel. This film follows these two guys throughout seeing what business they get up to. A great
film which will keep you gripped and make you laugh throughout while you get to know Johnny Boy(De
Niro) and Charlie(Keitel) until the unforgettable climax!

Customer Rating:

Summary: A top film
Comment: This is one of the most important movies of the 70's, released after The Godfather, and whilst
probably not as good a film, I think it has been far more influential on other filmmakers -
Tarantino for one. This is Scorcese's first masterpiece and rewards repeated viewings. The film is
loosely based on Scorcese's own upbringing in little Italy.

The cast are perfection.
Harvey Keital and Robert DeNiro spark brilliantly off each other, helped by a fabulous script and I
believe some improvisation as well. Noteably the scene in the back of the bar "you mean last
Tuesday". The dialogue in this film is marvellous and occasionally it is intentionally funny as
well.

Prior to this film Scorcese had made some interesting films but none of them
had his stamp on them. Mean Streets comes straight in out of nowhere as a fully fledged masterpiece:

The use of music when Johnny enters the bar; Its done in slow motion to the Stones Jumpin'
Jack Flash.
The use of colour.
The drunk scene, not very long, but perhaps the best
ever done. The camera (some sort of steadycam) faces Harvey Keital and we are staggering around with
him, until eventually he falls over and passes out on the floor - the camera goes with him. />The wonderful fight sequence in the pool room over being called a "Mook"; when nobody knows what a
Mook is...

Look out for Scorcese in an uncredited cameo role as Jimmy Shorts, and also
for David Carradine as a drunk.

This is essential for any movie collection.

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