Mean Streets (1973)

User Review

• 

  Barneyonmovies

  6 / 10

  WHAT I LIKED: 'Mean Streets,' is widely regarded as the film that gave Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro and of course Martin Scorsese their big breaks, and it's certainly not hard to see why.
  It was part of a group of pioneering 70s genre films that made it fashionable to look at mobsters in a more sympathetic light, as - like many of Scorsese's subsequent works - it specifically explores how such people in New York's Little Italy have their religion or conciense pitted against their addictively destructive and violent lives. It largely does this by placing the camera at a relative distance and observing gangster meetings and then the consequential effects of the outcomes on Keitel and De Niro's characters, and that kind of naturalism is also something we'd see from Scorsese in the future. The translation of that is also helped by the excellent performances across the board (particularly from De Niro) and all in all it makes for an interesting movie that shows off exactly what Scorsese is all about.
  
  WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE: Whilst the naturalism helps the themes and characterisation translate to some extent, it also shows Scorsese revelling in the gangster stuff rather a lot. He clearly enjoys the draw of this poisonous world, and as such there's a lot of ancillary scenes in the film which could have been cut without damaging the developement of the characters or themes.
  
  VERDICT: Hardly for the last time, 'Mean Streets,' shows Scorsese pit conscience against destructive lifestyle in a naturalistic piece that spends its time brilliantly observing its characters and often getting distracted by the lure of their poisonous world.

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