Mean Streets (1973)

A small-time hood tries to keep the peace between his friend Johnny and Johnny's creditors.

Director:

Martin Scorsese

Writers:

Martin Scorsese (screenplay), Mardik Martin (screenplay)

Stars:

Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, David Proval

5 wins & 5 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Robert De Niro	...	Johnny Boy
Harvey Keitel	...	Charlie
David Proval	...	Tony
Amy Robinson	...	Teresa
Richard Romanus	...	Michael
Cesare Danova	...	Giovanni
Victor Argo	...	Mario (as Vic Argo) (as Victor Argo)
George Memmoli	...	Joey
Lenny Scaletta	...	Jimmy
Jeannie Bell	...	Diane
Murray Moston	...	Oscar (as Murray Mosten)
David Carradine	...	Drunk
Robert Carradine	...	Boy With Gun
Lois Walden	...	Jewish Girl
Harry Northup	...	Soldier

Storyline

The future is set for Tony and Michael - owning a neighbourhood bar and making deals in the mean streets of New York city's Little Italy. For Charlie, the future is less clearly defined. A small-time hood, he works for his uncle, making collections and reclaiming bad debts. He's probably too nice to succeed. In love with a woman his uncle disapproves of (because of her epilepsy) and a friend of her cousin, Johnny Boy, a near psychotic whose trouble-making threatens them all - he can't reconcile opposing values. A failed attempt to escape (to Brooklyn) moves them all a step closer to a bitter, almost preordained future.

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Plot Keywords:

italian american | epilepsy | bar | close up of breasts | catholic guilt | 

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Taglines:

Go to church on Sunday. Go to hell on Monday.

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Genres:

Crime | Drama | Thriller

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Certificate:

R

Did You Know?

Trivia

DIRECTOR CAMEO (Martin Scorsese): He appears a further two times, in addition to his credited appearance as Jimmy Shorts. First, he is visible in a "portrait" with Harvey Keitel (for one frame) in the opening home movies and main title sequence. Second, his voice appears as narration: "Father, I'm not worthy of your flesh."

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Goofs

As Teresa is getting out of bed when she is with Charlie, in one shot the blanket covering her is pulled off nearly completely, yet in the next shot it covers her again, before being pulled off once again.

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Quotes

Giovanni Cappa: Honorable men go with honorable men.

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Alternate Versions

The version issued on VHS in the UK by Video Collection International (VC3382) is shortened, with many sequences truncated or missing - notably, Johnny Boy checking in his pants at the club with the two girls is gone - it cuts straight to the Jumpin' Jack Flash entrance instead. Why these cuts were made and by whom is not known. All language, sex and violence is intact so it's not for censorship reasons. This was the version in circulation in the UK until the reissue by Electric Pictures in 1993.

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Connections

Referenced in Requiem for a Dream (2000)

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Soundtracks

You
By The Aquatones
Courtesy of FARGO Records

User Reviews

The Scorsese Template

Scorsese's first film, the interesting catastrophe "Boxcar Bertha," marked his birth as a director, but it was with his second feature, "Mean Streets" that we witnessed the birth of an artist. Most of "Mean Streets" is slightly unfocused with a simplistic plot based around a lot of machismo grandstanding and long bouts of boring dialog (occasionally made interesting by DeNiro's off-kilter star-making turn as Johnny-Boy), with spats of visceral violence (far less gory here than in later Scorcese pics), and a visual bravado that seems slightly less disciplined but no less entertaining than your standard Scorsese crime flick.

Despite its drawbacks (mainly due to youth and inexperience), the template was set. The opening credits (done to the tune of "Be My Baby") suck you right into the film, and the rest of the movie is peppered with Scorsese's loving treatment of popular music that would later become one of his most endearing hallmarks. The basic premise featuring Harvey Keitel as Charlie (the young hood with a heart of gold and conflicted internally by the religion of the Church and the religion of the Streets), Robert DeNiro as Johnny-Boy (the equally loved and hated loose-canon brother figure), and Amy Robinson as Theresa (the woman our hero wants to put on a pedestal as a saint but often treats like a whore), is a trifecta of archetypes we see repeated again and again in Scorsese's films (most obviously in "Casino" with the DeNiro-Pesci-Stone characters, and most subversively in "The Last Temptation of Christ" with Jesus-Judas-Mary Magdalene). The religious iconography, the brotherhood of crooks, the attraction to the gangster lifestyle, the keen eye for depicting violence in artistic and startling ways...these are displayed here in "Mean Streets" in their rawest form.

Though flawed in many ways, "Mean Streets" set the stage and laid the the template for the type of film Scorsese would perfect seventeen years later with "Goodfellas." This heralded the arrival of a new talent and a new genre, and the world of film has thankfully never been the same.

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English Italian German

Release Date:

14 October 1973 (USA)

Also Known As:

Season of the Witch

Filming Locations:

Bowery & Bleecker St, New York City, New York, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$500,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$32,645, 15 March 1998

Gross USA:

$32,645

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$41,131

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros., Taplin - Perry - Scorsese Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

112 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor) (uncredited)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1