Mean Streets (1973)

Starring: Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro, with cameos from David Carradine and Martin Scorsese
Grade: A

Mean Streets might be one of the very few features where I didn’t come off hating Harvey Keitel. He’s outstanding and carries the grimy and dark humored film like no one else could.

Summary

“You don’t make up for your sins in the church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit, and you know it.”

In New York’s Little Italy, Charlie Cappa (Keitel) wakes up in the middle of the night, looks in the mirror for a bit, and heads back to bed. Through a montage, we see Charlie and a lot of his associates and friends.

Tony (David Proval) kicks a guy out of his bar for doing heroin in the bathroom. Next, he kicks the dealer out who sold it to him and yells at doorman George for not doing anything about it. In the early hours of the morning, we see loan shark Michael (Richard Romanus). He bought two shipments of German lenses to sell, but the guy in the backseat of the car with him explains they aren’t worth anything because they’re actually Japanese adaptors. Following this, we see delinquent Johnny Boy (De Niro) blow up a mailbox. Lastly, we go back to Charlie who attends church by his lonesome. He’s religious but he struggles with how he suffers for his sins, as the usual ten Hail Mary’s or so doesn’t really do it for him. Later, Charlie shows up at the strip club and enjoys himself. As he struggles with liking one stripper because she’s black, Michael shows up and gives Charlie the carton of cigarettes he bought. He asks if he’s seen Johnny Boy. Charlie says he’s supposed to be there, but he’s not sure what goes on in that kid’s head. Michael is bothered because Johnny Boy owes him money and he thinks he’s trying to duck him, but Charlie defends him. He says he won’t pay for Johnny Boy’s debts, but he will straighten him out for Michael. Just as Michael brings up how Johnny Boy owes debts left and right, a fight breaks out behind them, and they have to clear it up. Afterwards, Michael asks why Charlie hangs out with such a punk, but Charlie mentions how it’s a family thing he can’t explain. Just then, Johnny Boy enters with two women and goes right over to Charlie and Tony. He introduces them to Sarah Kline and Heather Weintraub. He met them at Cafe Bizarre in the Village. When he tries to buy a round for all of them, Charlie stops him. Instead, Charlie pays for the round and takes Johnny Boy into the back room to ask him if he made his payment to Michael last Tuesday. Johnny Boy insists he did and doubles down when Charlie mentions Michael is out front. When Charlie goes to get Michael to straighten things out, Johnny Boy admits it was the Tuesday before that he paid. He’s been depressed about other things and can’t focus on his payments.

Apparently, he did have the money last Tuesday in cash, but he ran into Jimmy Sparks. He’s owed Sparks $700 for four months, so he had to pay him first. After giving some money to his mother, Johnny Boy ended up with $25 at the end of the week. Today, he was playing Bankers and Brokers at Joey Clams (Joey Scala; same guy, “aye”), and was up $600-$700 until some kid said the cops were coming. He runs out but couldn’t find a way out of the building. He ends up going back and the kid said it was a false alarm, so they restarted the game. Just like that, he lost $400. Then, Frankie Bones was there, and he has owed him $1,300 for 7 or 8 months. After Frankie kept poking at him, Johnny Boy gave him $200 and got depressed. So, he went to Al Kaplan and got a new suit. Annoyed at Johnny Boy going shopping when he knew he had to pay Michael, Charlie demands what he has left. Johnny Boy gives him around $40, so Charlie holds onto it in good faith for his next payment. Johnny Boy swears he will sign off his next paycheck for $110 to Charlie next week but is now focused on the girls outside because he’s convinced that they’re going to get laid. With this, he convinces Charlie to give him some money to play around with. Then, the two walk back into the bar to hang with the girls. After Johnny Boy asks for an annoyed Tony to put everything on his tab, Michael approaches and Johnny Boy greets him. As they talk, Charlie gives Michael a signal that Johnny Boy is good for the money, so Michael relaxes a bit and just tells Johnny Boy to stay on top of things after he swears on Christ (not his mother) that he will pay him on Tuesday. They all take a shot in celebration. Sometime later, Charlie meets with restaurant owner Oscar to collect for his boss and uncle Giovanni (Cesare Danova). Unfortunately, Oscar has nothing and wants Charlie to relay that he can’t make his payment this week. He’d rather just hand the restaurant over to him, but Charlie knows Giovanni would rather have the loan paid.

Oscar knows Giovanni is a good man, but it’s looking like he’s running out of options. Oscar can’t even count on his partner Groppi because no one knows where he’s at including his wife. As he continues to air out his frustrations, waitress Natalie drops a bunch of dishes in the background. Later, Charlie meets with Giovanni, and he admits he was at some shooting the night before, but Giovanni corrects him and tells him he wasn’t. They go into a private room, and Charlie expresses that he thinks Oscar is lying about not being able to make payments and wonders what he should do. Even so, Giovanni doesn’t want him to do anything. He wants Charlie to wait it out. On a street corner, some random guys from Riverdale approach Michael to buy firecrackers because they couldn’t get any in Chinatown. Michael says they’re illegal until they say they have $40. Tony is next to him and agrees to use his car to get the fireworks. All four go to a spot certain spot. After Michael refuses a check, they give him cash. Michael and Tony have the two wait on the street and they drive off, knowing they never had fireworks in the first place. It turns out that the kids stiffed them at the same time and only paid $20. Even so, Michael gives Tony $5, and they drive to the movies. They see Charlie hanging with Frankie and Sal, so they call him over. They tell Charlie they stiffed some kids for $20, so he gets in the car because he wants to go to the movies too. The next day, Charlie, Johnny Boy, and Tony drive to a spot for someone who owes a couple of hundred dollars. Jimmy specifically wanted Charlie to do the talking, which bothers Johnny Boy. They show up to the pool hall and Jimmy joins them. The group looks for Joey (George Memmoli) since he owes money for some huge bet. Joey takes them over to the bar for a drink, but Johnny Boy escalates the tension in the room after a back-and-forth with Joey. This turns into Joey calling Jimmy a “mook” and punching him. As a result, a brawl ensues throughout the pool hall and the cops have to break it up.

They frisk everyone and a cop named Davis finds a small knife in Charlie’s pocket. He gives him shit for it, but Joey explains how they’re cousins and everyone’s cool. Joey knows Davis too and asks what he can do to clear things up, offering “carfare”. Saying he’s going to New Jersey and then Philadelphia after Joey gives him some money, forcing him to give more, Davis leaves with his partner and gives Charlie back his knife. The group shares a drink with Joey now that things have calmed down, and he pays them. He admits he just doesn’t like being pushed around. Once they start counting the money and Joey gets a little offended by this, Johnny Boy doubles down and insists they count it. Joey tries to make friends with Johnny Boy, but he refuses and calls Joey a scumbag. As a result, Joey punches him and another scuffle breaks out. This time, Charlie, Johnny Boy, Tony, and Jimmy fight Joey and his friends off for a moment and escape. The group goes back to Tony’s bar and go into a back room where George is with some girl. After kicking him out to go back to work, Tony shows them two jungle cats he has in cages. Naturally, he doesn’t have a license for them, so he wants them to keep quiet about it. Tony gets into the cage with the baby tiger and pets it, and everyone freaks out. They calm down after seeing everything is fine. Later, Charlie, Johnny Boy, and Tony play pool, and Tony talks about some phony story a priest on a retreat told them about how a couple who decided to have sex two weeks before their marriage got killed by a truck as a way to tell kids not to have premarital sex. Tony laughs about how Charlie was mad at finding out the truth over the story because he trusted them. Tony thinks Charlie should be more like him, but he wants to be saved and that’s his problem. After a younger guy walks in to wait for Joey, a drunk regular (Carradine) heads to the bathroom. Charlie, Johnny Boy, and Tony discuss what to do after Tony closes the bar for the night. Charlie suggests they play a game, and Johnny Boy immediately asks for how much, but Tony turns him down because he knows Johnny Boy owes money to everyone and can’t pay anyone back.

Johnny Boy flicks his cigarette at him, and they almost get into a fight before Charlie gets in-between them and stops it before anything happens. After everything calms down between them, Charlie asks anyone in the bar if they want to play cards. Michael turns him down and the unknown guy who walked in to wait for Joey also turns him down. The guy goes into the bathroom and finds the drunk man at the urinal and shoots him several times. Surprisingly, the guy doesn’t go down (Charlie later refers to him comically as Rasputin) and attacks the shooter, and they fight into the bar. Everyone heard the gunshots and see the two come out of the bathroom, so they all jump to the ground in a panic. Finally, the shooter shoots the drunk guy a few more times before escaping, and the drunk guy falls outside from a final push from the shooter. Tony has George kill the lights and they kick everyone out the bar just as sirens are heard. Everyone splits up, and Charlie and Johnny Boy go with Michael in his car. Sammy and his boyfriend Benton force their way into the car too but are quickly kicked out after Sammy starts yelling out the window. Charlie and Johnny Boy leave as well. They walk by some gun store and talk about a time when a cop beat Johnny Boy down while Charlie managed to escape. They playfight for a moment until Johnny Boy hides because he sees Joe Black, another guy he owes money to. Charlie sees the guy go the other way, so they continue to mess around with garbage cans and talk. They walk into the morning, steal some bread from Charlie’s uncle’s store, and discuss Charlie’s dying grandmother. Eventually, they get back to Charlie’s apartment. Johnny Boy gives him shit for not having any food, so he thinks they should go to his aunt’s to steal some from her by climbing through the fire escape. Charlie doesn’t think they should because it would scare Johnny Boy’s epileptic cousin Teresa (Amy Robinson).

He makes a joke about her, but Charlie doesn’t appreciate it. It sours Johnny Boy’s mood, and he finally gets in bed next to him. This is just the top of the iceberg of the drama in Charlie’s life. Not only is his friendship with Johnny Boy a major issue for him, the fact that Charlie is secretly dating Teresa may make matters worse.

My Thoughts:

An independent feature, Mean Streets was the first film that Martin Scorsese had his hands all over including directing, writing, and acting. He did not waste this opportunity, as the legendary filmmaker’s talent and vision becomes obvious from the very opening of the movie and leaves you in awe of what is accomplished by the end. Despite the low budget, the raw and gritty crime drama kicked down the door of Hollywood to announce Scorsese’s arrival as a future giant of the business who has influenced countless filmmakers, screenwriters, and actors to this very day. The movie is just special. Even if you didn’t know anything about it beforehand, there is something remarkable about its presentation, the way it’s filmed, the way the characters react to each other and their surroundings, the authenticity of it all, and the realistic and morally ambiguous characters that liven Little Italy for all the world to see. Because of so many crime and gangster films that have followed it, including by Scorsese’s own hand, some of the elements of Mean Streets may not strike a viewer as groundbreaking. However, this movie is a one of a kind original and still possesses an aura about it that not many filmmakers have been able to recapture since. Some movies may look better, and some stories and characters may be better developed, but very few movies are so noteworthy in its style that it inspires a feeling inside the viewer to want to make their own film. For people who want to break into the business and want to see an example of how to make an impactful movie without having a massive production backing it, Mean Streets is required viewing to see what IS in fact possible.

For someone who is known for making such well-researched and deeply involved screenplays to base their movies around, Mean Streets is different in that it has a very loose structure. The premise is simply Charlie and the people he associates with every day in the Little Italy neighborhood in New York. They all take part in basic criminal activity and hustle day to day with no big plans on the horizon. From a jerkoff like Johnny Boy, that makes bad decisions on the daily and owes money to virtually everyone you don’t want to have a debt with, to a loan shark like Michael who does well for himself and has a few different streams of revenue but is still living within his means, nobody has any long-term plans for the future. Each character just lives to do under-the-radar side quests to get to the next day, make money by any means necessary, and have as much fun as possible during the nighttime. This group of people have turned this area of New York into their own playground of crime. Everyone’s in on it, and they all let things happen as they do because people are willing to do anything for money. Either it’s a loan for something they need like with Oscar and his restaurant, or it’s paying off a cop to look the other way like in the pool hall sequence. No matter what, the dollar goes a long way in this part of town, and it makes the whole area work. What’s cool about these scenes that could come off as “unfocused” to some is how authentic it still feels because of its style. Nothing is forced in the story. It just happens as it happens. It’s as if the characters are real people that the camera is just following around. There’s an unrehearsed vibe to the volatile atmosphere they reside in, and the actors are simply reacting to each other with each line said. Because of this, there’s this aggressive style to the movie that makes Little Italy and the people that encompass it feel like the Wild West. Considering how reckless their behavior can be at times, like at the party for Vietnam veteran Jerry that sees chaos ensue with Charlie shooting shot glasses off the bar with his cue stick while The Chips’s “Rubber Biscuit” plays on the jukebox and a fight breaking out later after Jerry grabs some girl from another guy, there is this feeling in this cinematic space that anything can happen in the underground world Scorsese creates.

When the party looks like its ended because Charlie is passed out face first, sweating on the ground. He’s woke up from Michael because Johnny Boy isn’t there to pay him, and they agree on a smaller payment to help Johnny Boy. His second wind kicks in after the fight he breaks up. Then, Charlie dances with the girl from the fight before she passes out in the backroom. Finally, the party looks like it’s coming to a close, but he’s told that Johnny Boy is on the roof of the apartment open firing at the Empire State Building with a .38. It just doesn’t end. Following the aforementioned fight in the pool hall between Charlie’s crew and Joey’s crew, the two different sides team up so neither one is picked up by the cops! Giovanni and Mario openly talk about the father of the shooter who killed the drunk guy and how it was done for Mario, but he didn’t think he had to die for it. The solution Giovanni makes up is to send the shooter to Miami for six months to a year in an effort to lay low, and then they’ll see what they can do to help him out. This is everyday life. It makes these “mean streets” they live on in New York feel like an independent state, and you can’t help but be gripped to every angle of the narrative. In addition, this raw and amateur-like feel to the style of it is what gives the movie its vibe, forcing the viewer to focus on the character work of each scene, the language they use, and the incredible dialogue. A lot of the time, these guys refer to random local figures that we might not see on camera, but the acting is done so well, especially by the powerhouse performances and rapport between Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel, that each conversation is enthralling. Plus, each line, how they deliver it, and how the opposite responds, reveals more and more about who they are and what the environment they live in is like. A great example is the first interaction between Charlie and Johnny Boy when Charlie takes him to the back room to talk about the money he owes Michael. Johnny Boy goes on and on about who else he owes money to, who he had to pay, what he did that day or week, and how he got to the point where he’s at during that very moment.

This is an actor at his best. De Niro knows his character through and through and walks into the body of Johnny Boy that Scorsese created, understanding every ounce of detail to the point where if given the chance, he could talk about his life from start to finish in character without issue. The little asides like him trying to explain his interaction with Joey Clams and how he’s the same person as Joey Scala when Charlie interjects, and they both simply say “Aye”, as it’s a big part of their lingo was hilarious too. The overuse of “Aye” was so funny too. It reminds me of when a group of friends watch Swingers for the first time and can’t help but adopt their phrases because they’re so unique and funny. With Mean Streets, I can’t help but do the same thing, shrugging my shoulders and going, “Aye” to virtually anything said to me. There is a lot of humor in the movie in general that helps complete the story. Some of it comes straight from Teresa like when she refuses a drink twice over when letting Charlie know Johnny Boy’s on the roof to immediately saying she’ll have a “7 and 7”, or when Charlie tells her he needs money to get to Greenwood Lake because Johnny Boy is in trouble. She says he’s coming with, and Charlie refuses it, but we cut to the next scene and she’s in the car with them and they’re all silent.

Charlie isn’t the leader per say, as he works for the quietly powerful Giovanni, but he is high up enough that he carries some weight when he speaks on a subject or comes to collect. This is how he’s able to save Johnny Boy’s ass on so many occasions. If he didn’t have his status and people didn’t trust him, Michael would have gone after Johnny Boy for his money before the movie even starts. Thankfully for Johnny Boy, Charlie is liked and respected amongst his peers and it’s because he’s serious about business, so much so that he feels guilt for a lot of the stuff he does, even deciding against meeting Diane because he didn’t want to be seen with a black woman in the Village as the others may look at him differently. With this twisted mindset in place, Charlie finds himself turning to Catholicism to hopefully cleanse his soul for what he does on the daily. There will be religious allegories like the picture of Christ being present when Giovanni is speaking with Mario, or Charlie will reference his religion outright like when he speaks to Teresa on the beach about her taking the apartment up town. Along with talking about how Francis of Assisi had it all down, and Teresa sarcastically responding, “St. Francis didn’t run numbers”, Charlie tells her he doesn’t want to go with because he wants to stay around town and watch over things, naming Johnny specifically. Even though she calls Johnny Boy crazy and “Fuck him”, Charlie can’t help but defend him. He knows he’s the only one who will watch over him. Essentially, he’s like a twisted guardian angel. Before the finale, Charlie drives the two knuckleheads to safety hopefully and looks to God for help stating, “I guess you could safely say that things haven’t gone so well tonight. But I’m trying Lord. I’m trying”. Of course, the people he’s trying to protect look at him like an idiot. Teresa laughs, and Johnny asks if he’s talking to himself. He is trying, but this life is contributing to his struggle. On top of that, he’s in too deep and cares too much to back out.

Compared to everyone else he associates with, he puts in a great effort to keep religion in his life, but he still has trouble with the finer details of it at times. A big part that he points to is the lack of accountability and the church not doing much else outside of confession than giving him the punishment of a few Hail Mary’s. It’s hard to feel worse or closer to Christ if he deems it too easy to be forgiven. It’s strange in that because of the tough life he lives, it’s almost as if Charlie wants to suffer a bit more for what he’s done, so he can connect in his head that some of the stuff he does is wrong and he should feel more guilt. He’s not necessarily a glutton for punishment because he does try to play peacekeeper more often than not, but he’s not really looking for a way out of his relatively dangerous job that strives on intimidation and potential violence. It’s not until his relationship heats up where he considers a move from this lifestyle. Giovanni refers to Teresa as being “sick in the head” when referring to her epilepsy and tells Charlie to keep an eye on her because he heard she may want her own apartment. Not knowing how close they are already, Giovanni adds for him to not get involved with her. This is when Charlie realizes how much he does like her company. He goes back to tell Teresa they can’t see each other for a while on account of Giovanni, how he may have to run the restaurant, and how he was told specifically to stay away from her and Johnny Boy, but he finally admits he doesn’t want to stop seeing her. Once she says she loves him and agrees to let him do the restaurant gig first because it may make things easier between them down the line, we can see how this relationship will force the story into certain directions. This relationship is what will make him consider other options.

This is when the actual focus of the narrative takes shape, and it’s an hour into the movie. There, we see that Charlie, who has his head on straight compared to the characters he has to deal with, has involved himself with Teresa. Had he not started dating Teresa, he’d be safe from a financial standpoint and would have even less ties to Johnny Boy’s family, which would allow him to possibly free himself from the burden that self-destructive Johnny Boy is. Unfortunately for him, he’s locked in once Teresa is in the picture. He already acts as an older brother to the misguided Johnny Boy, but once he becomes further entrenched in that family, he finds it impossible to turn a blind eye to his actions even though everyone (included the viewer more than likely) is practically telling him to drop Johnny Boy like a bad habit. Giovanni even gives him the same sound advice. In a conversation with Charlie, he compares Johnny to the “half-crazy” Groppi, who commits suicide later in the movie to further his point, and urgers Charlie to watch out for himself instead. He knows Johnny Boy is bad news and how hanging with him can affect Charlie (“Honorable men go with honorable men”). This also leads to the aforementioned part of the conversation where Giovanni requests for Charlie to not get involved with Teresa, not knowing they are already dating. The fact that Charlie is willing to disobey such a powerful figure in the community for this girl and her idiot cousin shows Charlie’s biggest character flaw. Strangely enough, it’s his soft side, if you can call it that. He has compassion, even if he’s not outright obvious about it. We see it in little moments like when Teresa is a dick to the maid, and he goes out of his way to apologize to the woman. Being the only religious person in the movie who takes his faith seriously and is still trying to understand it every day, it opens this vulnerability that the other low life people, criminals, and gangsters don’t have. Because of this, Charlie can’t cut ties and move on. His personality won’t allow him to. He cares too much despite knowing how much it could cost him. Still, he can’t give up, which is why it ends up costing him dearly, with that foreshadowing of him laying on that tombstone in the cemetery while talking with Johnny Boy being as clear and as eerie as day.

It’s very much like being in a toxic relationship. The man and woman subconsciously or even consciously know things will never work out between them and they go through devastating breakup after devastating breakup. For some reason though, they keep coming back together to try and make things work because there is something inside them that won’t allow for them to let go. Everyone has a version of a Johnny Boy in their life, though probably not to this extent. Above all else, Mean Streets is a cautionary tale for those dealing with this type of person in their lives. Leave this type of friend in high school people! They will only cause you grief when you’re trying to better yourself. Johnny Boy is that of a lost cause. Not only does he owe money to some dangerous people, but he also continues to sweet talk, borrow more, and refuses to pay. When he does pay up, it’s because he’s threatened. Even in this case though, it’s still like pulling teeth to get the money from him. There’s also the other chance of him taking the money he won and blowing it immediately on a few rounds at the bar or a suit he wants. He’s just bad with money. He gambles every day and is constantly in debt, though he is the first one who wants to play cards or some game. A great example of this is the scene at the bar when Tony doesn’t want to play because he knows Johnny Boy’s penchant for not paying up and the current financial strain that he’s in. Even so, it doesn’t matter. Just like with almost everyone else, he lives day by day and makes just enough money to get to tomorrow. Charlie tries harder than most to help out Johnny Boy, putting his own reputation on the line consistently to get others to give him a break, but Johnny Boy doesn’t appreciate it to the extent most would. He just wants to have fun and blow it all. He legitimately doesn’t care who he pisses off. Had he been diplomatic in these tense situations he causes, it’s possible he’d be given even more chances, but he refuses to even consider the possibility. When they see Joey at the pool hall, he’s already mad that Charlie was asked to do the talking instead of him, so he walks in with a pissed off attitude as the third or fourth most important guy in the room.

He’s just there for muscle in case something goes wrong, but he has to make his presence known and starts talking tough to Joey and it causes TWO fights, with one of them happening after things already calmed down and the cops left! When Michael gives him the umpteenth chance to pay his debt because of his respect for Charlie, Johnny Boy refuses and calls him a jerkoff, adding that Michael is the only one he can get away with borrowing money from and not paying back. This ego-driven jackass is just a loose cannon with a death wish with no understanding of real-life consequences. Johnny Boy thinks he can get away with anything, not realizing he’s getting away with it because of the people he knows that are helping him. What’s even more interesting to note about the character is that no real reason is given as to why he acts this way. He’s just a bad dude that does not care who he steps on and flat-out refuses to learn from past mistakes. He acts thankful to Charlie for getting him out of things, but he goes and stabs him and everyone else in the back every chance he gets because he can’t help himself, coming up with excuse after excuse. The only reason he’s lasted this long is because of the goodwill of others but shrugs his shoulders metaphorically to the idea. Had he given any shred of a fuck and shown some responsibility, Charlie would probably go out of his way to get him a job with Giovanni like he asks routinely. As it stands though, he can’t do it because Johnny Boy can’t be trusted, and that’s coming from someone who clearly loves him. He’s too much of a wildcard. Out of nowhere, he’s on the roof of the apartment firing a gun and getting the attention of the neighborhood. As soon as Charlie stops him, Johnny Boy lights a firecracker and blows shit up for no reason. In another sequence, the camera follows him as he attacks some guy on the street, and he’s later seen anxiously looking behind himself like a madman before climbing to another roof to do air punches and climbing back down.

The scene when Teresa has a seizure tells you all you need to know about Johnny Boy. Johnny Boy shows up late to Charlie’s place and acts careless about the fact that Michael is looking for him for real this time. Next, he acts antagonistic towards Charlie, despite him being the one person who hasn’t given up on him. He correctly deduces Charlie is with Teresa and starts trash talking him, having the audacity to ask what happens to her when she cums. Naturally, Charlie slaps him a few times, so Johnny Boy threatens to tell Giovanni. Teresa gets in-between them, but Charlie and Johnny Boy’s scuffle ends with Charlie falling on top of her, causing her seizure. Despite Teresa being his cousin, Johnny Boy doesn’t even react when Charlie is wondering what to do and he walks towards the door saying, “How should I know? She’s your fucking girl!”. Because their bond is so strong, at least to Charlie, he has a neighbor check on Teresa, so he can go out to speak with Johnny Boy when anyone else would let him walk. The fact that not even a seizure to his girlfriend could stop Charlie from checking on his loser pal, who deserves EVERYTHING coming to him, should show you exactly who both men are and why they are so intrinsically tied together. After all of this, Charlie still helps him with some money to give to Michael. Again, for all those listening, don’t let this person stay in your life. If they retain any of the character traits of Johnny Boy, leave them in the past. They are on a direct path to somewhere, and it’s nowhere you want to be.

Every creative decision added to the narrative to make the movie pop visually just works. The red tint in the bar scenes, the vintage soundtrack highlighted by the iconic opening of “Be My Baby” by The Ronettes, the excellent shooting of the parade, and the use of a handheld camera for the underrated scene of Charlie getting dressed (among other things), Scorsese does more with his shoestring budget than most mainstream movies do today. Of course, I’m referring to movie and its soul, a genuineness and originality that can’t be created with a computer. Considering the world of Hollywood we live in today, something like Mean Streets is the refresher audiences need to be reminded of a real auteur at work and how beautiful it can be when he or she is given the free reign to tell a story in the way they see fit. Complete with a bone-chilling finale with some slow-motion shots that are unforgettable, Martin Scorsese’s Mean Streets is the earliest indication audiences and critics alike had, that this filmmaker was destined for greatness.