Product description

Mean Streets (Special Edition) [1973]

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Average customer rating: 4.0

Binding : DVD
EAN : 5050582243437
Label : Universal Pictures UK
Manufacturer : Universal Pictures UK
Publisher : Universal Pictures UK
Release date : 2005-04-18
Title : Mean Streets (Special Edition) [1973]
Actor : Array
Audience rating : Suitable for 18 years and over
Format : Array
Languages : Array
Number of items : 1
Original release date : 1973-01-01
Region code : 2
Running time : 103
Studio : Universal Pictures UK
Theatrical releaseDate : 1973

Editorial reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
After Martin Scorsese went to Hollywood in 1972 to direct the low-budget Boxcar Bertha for B-movie mogul Roger Corman, the young director showed the film to maverick director John Cassavetes and got an instant earful of urgent advice. "It's crap," said Cassavetes in no uncertain terms, "now go out and make something that comes from your heart." Scorsese took the advice and focused his energy on Mean Streets, a riveting contemporary film about low-life gangsters in New York's Little Italy that critic Pauline Kael would later call "a true original, and a triumph of personal filmmaking." Starring Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel in roles that announced their talent to the world, it set the stage for Scorsese's emergence as one of the greatest American filmmakers. Introducing themes and character types that Scorsese would return to in Taxi Driver, GoodFellas, Casino, and other films, the loosely structured story is drawn directly from Scorsese's background in the Italian neighbourhoods of New York, and it seethes with the raw vitality of a filmmaker who has found his creative groove. As the irresponsible and reckless Johnny Boy, De Niro offers striking contrast to Keitel's Charlie, who struggles to reconcile gang life with Catholic guilt. More of an episodic portrait than a plot-driven crime story, Mean Streets remains one of Scorsese's most direct and fascinating films--a masterful calling card for a director whose greatness was clearly apparent from that point forward. --Jeff Shannon

Customer reviews

review by: garyfraser_78 date: 2008-12-29 rating:

Overated
Very poor-I have always been of the opinion that Scorcese is overrated, although Taxi Driver and Raging Bull are both exceptional movies. I also find Scorsese movies like Mean Streets, and later Casino and GoodFellas to be very annoying because of the pop music score featured throughout the films which tends to get in the way of the acting.

review by: A soul doctor, so to say date: 2008-12-14 rating:

Fascinatingly hatching
A film that is very problematic. It is not that old but the action is set in quite an older period, yet Robert de Niro looks like a young actor just out of drama school trying to imitate his mentor Robert de Niro himself, an older version of himself in a way. The film has little depth actually. We all know you must not play with the law of the street that the bad boys of the underworld are imposing onto those who are dumb enough not to be blind and what's more who want to have their share of the cake they have not contributed to kneading, baking and glazing. The real point is that a few thousand dollars become a monumental debt when the borrower becomes dumb enough to pretend in the lender's face and in front of quite a few witnesses he will never pay back because the lender is a dumb idiot. The end is signed in that declaration. Death. And death again and again on two innocent acolytes. The film has essentially one interest: the young de Niro and how he is already building his artistic texture, a texture he will never lose nor change. I guess good whisky gets better by aging, provided of course it ages in the proper vessel, vat or barrel.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

review by: brendoclarke date: 2008-09-11 rating:

Low budget movie
This is a low budget classic from Scorsese made in 1973. There is certainly an impressive sense of time and place in this film, and it came as a shock to me to learn that most of it was filmed in Los Angeles. I suppose it is not too much to say that this movie presaged the rock video, in that there is a seemingly constant stream of doo-wap and Italian music on the soundtrack that is inextricably woven with the on-screen action. Like a low-budget, urban Sergio Leone, Scorsese choreographs the music and the action into something like an opera. There is an intense energy that flows through its frames and occasionally overflows in outbursts of violence that erupt and subside with their own unique rhythm. Even across all these decades, it is clear why film critics at the time (especially New York ones) got excited.

8/10.

review by: Gus date: 2008-05-12 rating:

A little taste of near perfection
I can understand why some people would dislike mean streets due to it's lack of plot and structure should they have watched the movie only once. It is, however, the same as passing comment on good music after only listening to it once. Impossible to judge, in my opinion.

Scorsese plays heavily on his childhood in content, introducing the audience to his world through the eyes of four local hoods. There is none of the morals of it's contemporary mafia based film, The Godfather... and none of the thrills and wealth portrayed later by Scorsese in 'Goodfellas'. It is a real world where gun crime is unusual and shocking and violence is sporadic and adrenalin fueled.

The cogs that keep the film moving forward are that of Charlie's questionable faith and his desire to prove himself by helping Johnny Boy free himself from a mountain of debt he has built up with Michael, a small time shark. The centre point for the scenario is a bar owned by Tony, and the four players weave in and out of each others lives with tensions getting more serious and a downfall becoming more inevitable as the film progresses.

Mean Streets is also improvisational comedy at it's best in parts. The relationship between Charlie and Johnny Boy (and the sheer talent of the two leads) allow much unscripted conversation to flow and it leaves you grinning widely, if not full out laughing.

I believe that taste is accountable for most things, and quality comes to a slightly lesser extent. To me, this film has something that I cannot put my finger on that makes it shine brightly. As mentioned before, it demands multiple viewings, but give it a chance... and watch it on the big screen if you're lucky enough to have it shown locally, and you might well discover a film that takes pride of place as your favourite, just as I did.

review by: date: 2008-02-14 rating:

Forget it's Scorsese; it's rubbish
I am a big fan of Goodfellas, and some of his other films are OK at best. But this is so terrible I couldn't bring myself to finish watching this amateurish piece.

It is "raw" alright. If "raw" means "not very good", then it is.

Avoid!

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