Mean Streets (1973)

Mean Streets is a cinematic earthquake. Compared to more well-known mob films like The Godfather, and GoodFellas, this one hasn't quite gotten it's due in history. It should have. This is one of the greatest films of all time. From the first line of dialogue, to the first shot, I knew I fell in love. Martin Scorsese's first hour on the big screen is arguably his finest. The fact that it took him three years to be taken seriously with Taxi Driver is a joke. 

This is a story about bad young guys, who are the children of the Italian-American dream. As the streets clutter and clamor with the excitement of the annual San Gennaro feast, Charlie and Johnny Boy are getting into way too much trouble. In a strange sense, this is a really tense hang-out movie. Like a Rio Bravo starring wise guys. They jump from bar to bar and have altercations with all the strange characters of their similar ilk. The strip-club and the pool hall brawl remain the most engaging and beautiful sequences of the entire film. Scorsese forces us to live in these moments. We aren't going beat for beat. These scenes feel frighteningly real. These are real New York scenes playing right before our eyes. Keitel and De Niro are drowning in their respective characters. You forget very quickly that you are watching the earlier works of two acting legends. 

Charlie's moral quandary throughout the movie is contrasted with Johnny Boy's stunning lack of morals. One is a caged animal ready to break loose, and the other is a reluctant predator, not knowing how far deep he's headed or whether he should keep going. Charlie's conscience keeps biting at him every time his situation gets worse. Every once in a few scenes here, he finds a (literal) fire to which he sticks his hand in. He knows he's in hell, and he wants to know if he can still feel the flames. Mean Streets is a mob film with a conscience , whereas GoodFellas is a bacchanal of unconsciousness. This film questions whether good people can genuinely live this nasty life, and still be redeemable in the eyes of others and in the eyes of God. But by the film's end, you could say it was God's will that sealed Charlie and Johnny Boy's fate. 5 STARS.