May 9, 2002
Mean Streets
USA. 112 minutes. Director: Martin
Scorsese. Cinematographer: Kent Wakeford. Screenplay: Martin
Scorsese and Mardik Martin.
Editor: Sid Levin. Producer:
Jonathan T. Taplin.
Cast:
Harvey Keitel (Charlie)
Robert De Niro (Johnny Boy)
David Proval (Tony)
Amy Robinson (Teresa)
Richard Romanus (Michael)
Cesare Danova (Giovanni)
Synopsis
Charlie is a smalltime
gangster in 1970’s Little Italy. He
works for his uncle, Giovanni, collecting money on loans and debts although he
seems a bit compassionate for this type of business. His real dream is to own his own restaurant. However, standing in the way of this dream
are his own doubts about his religious beliefs, Teresa (the epileptic woman he
loves), and Teresa’s cousin Johnny Boy.
Johnny Boy is a loudmouth, violent kid Charlie has known for most of his
life and, because of this, feels a need to help him get out of his outstanding debts
to a local loan shark, Michael. When
Johnny Boy refuses to pay Michael, Charlie takes Teresa and him on the lam to
Brooklyn. But Michael catches up to
them and attempts to put a violent end to Johnny Boy’s crazy ways by shooting
up their car on the mean streets of New York City.
Reviews
Canby, Vincent. “Take a Walk Down ‘Mean Streets’.” Rev. of Mean Streets, dir. Martin
Scorsese. New York Times 14 Oct.
1973: 1+35.
Canby nails the essence of
“Mean Streets” right on the head. After
his initial screening he was already able to recognize it as the classic it was
to become. He not only praises the
story but also the direction of the then up-and-coming Martin Scorsese. Interestingly, Canby compares the story to a
sort of “George-and-Lenny relationship transplanted….to the lower East Side.” He is referring to the bond that Charlie and
Johnny Boy share, and its easy to agree with that comparison after watching
their wonderful chemistry onscreen. The
acclaim that Canby gives to Scorsese is also much deserved. He comments on his use of authentic setting,
“juke-box primary” color, and camera work.
Its impressive to see him catch all of this after just one screening,
and easy to agree with every point he made about the significance of this film.
Schickel, Richard. “A Closed Circle.” Rev. of Mean Streets, dir. Martin Scorsese. Time 5
Nov. 1973: 100-01.
Schickel totally missed the
point of “Mean Streets” in his review.
He uses words like “dull” and “tiresome” to describe the action and
characters. In fact, most of the time the
film is the exact opposite of this. It
focuses on developing believable relationships and a realistic plot that
ultimately leads to a frenzied finale.
Scorsese takes a more character-building approach rather than an
action-building, which Schickel may not have been used to. Despite, Schickel still claims to not feel
anything for these tragic characters in the end. However he doesn’t completely hate the film, he can at least
realize the immense talent in Scorsese’s direction. This is pretty much the only agreeable point the made on this
film.
Zimmerman, Paul D. “Sons of the Godfather.” Rev. of Mean Streets, dir. Martin Scorsese. Newsweek 22 Oct.
1973: 125-26.
Zimmerman found “Mean
Streets” to be an excellent film.
Although he doesn’t praise it as much as others, he does pick up on some
valid points. First, he calls to
attention the very important relationship between Charlie’s “Catholic training”
and “the code of the street,” which is the main point of the entire film. Zimmerman also recognizes these religious
overtones and comments on Charlie’s many penance, such as the fingers over
flames and Johnny Boy. He recognizes
the talents of the two lead actors, too.
Robert De Niro is said to have “beautifully realized” the role of Johnny
Boy, the “parody of the cool Mafioso.”
Meanwhile, Harvey Keitel is acclaimed for his “touching and tortured”
portrayal as Charlie.
Thomas, Kevin. “Movie Review: Mean Streets.” Los Angeles Times. 13 Mar. 1998. Retrieved 11
Mar. 2002 http://calendarlive.com/top/1,1419,L-LATimes-Movies- X!ArticleDetail-4745,00.html.
In his review Thomas is
taking a look back at “Mean Streets,” twenty-five years after its original
release. He claims to have been
initially “blown away by a film that confirmed a major talent.” Now its twenty-five years later and he can
only praise the film more. Thomas says
that to see it again “is to appreciate the innate sense of structure and pace,
not to mention spontaneity, with which Scorsese sustains the career-making
portrayals of Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro.” After seeing a few of these actors’ other movies, one can
definitely see what he is talking about.
They give some of their best performances in this film, which was early
in both of their respective careers.
One can see the seed of Travis Bickle planted in De Niro’s psychotic
Johnny Boy, while Keitel’s Charlie is straightforward and earnest. Thomas also recognizes some of the stylistic
elements of the film, such as the use of color.
Background & Anecdotes
“Mean Streets” is
the film that introduced Martin Scorsese as a true visionary director, despite
having written several well-received short films prior to it (Behind the
Scenes).
It was originally intended to be a sequel to Scorsese’s
previous film “Who’s That Knocking At My Door?” and was titled “Season of the
Witch.” The treatment was sent to producer Roger Corman who said he would
produce it only if the characters were black.
An anxious Scorsese actually pondered this, but once Jonathan Taplin
came aboard the financing became set and Scorsese was free to do what he wanted
on a limited budget (Kelly 68).
Scorsese drew from his own experiences for “Mean
Streets,” much like his earlier film “Who’s That Knocking At My Door?” It is a semi-autobiographical look at things
that Scorsese had lived through or seen on the streets of New York City (Behind
the Scenes).
The film was shot quickly in an almost documentary
style. Actors were told to improvise
certain scenes to give the dialogue and action of the film a more real feel
(Behind the Scenes).
Filming entirely on location would have been too
expensive for the then still up-and-coming Scorsese. Instead, the interior scenes were all shot in Los Angeles for
less money, while the exteriors were shot in New York City (Kelly 75).
Filming wasn’t without incident. Hard rain and hurricane force winds were
constant throughout the filming.
Despite, the entire film was shot in twenty-seven days. The crew then took three days to capture
Little Italy’s San Gennaro Feast on film.
Hidden cameras were used in most of these streets scenes (Behind the
Scenes).
The soundtrack was laid out before the film had even been
edited. It featured songs by the
Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton, The Shirelles, and The Ronettes. Scorsese and producer Jonathan Taplin were
no strangers to music. Taplin was a
concert producer and road manager for artists like Judy Collins, Bob Dylan,
George Harrison, and The Band. Scorsese
was assistant director and supervising editor on the Academy Award winning
documentary “Woodstock.” The pair later
re-teamed on The Band’s farewell concert documentary “The Last Waltz” (Musical
Notes).
Jon Voight was originally approached to play the role of
Charlie. After he backed out Harvey
Keitel was given the role.
Coincidentally, this was the same role Robert De Niro initially wanted
to play when he first came to the film.
However, Keitel talked him into taking the Johnny Boy role and it turned
out to be one of his most famous (Kelly 74).
Scorsese showed a cut of Robert De Niro’s performance as
Johnny Boy to fellow director and friend Francis Ford Coppola, subsequently
landing him the Academy Award winning role of the young Vito Corleone in “The
Godfather Part II” (Cast & Crew).
Before becoming a filmmaker, Scorsese originally studied
to become a priest. After his first
college choice rejected him, he decided to go into film instead, hence the
religious overtones in “Mean Streets” (Cast & Crew).
“Mean Streets”
was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1997 (Tidbits).
A scene in the film was shot in a cemetery at St.
Patrick's Cathedral in Manhattan, where Scorsese had been an altar boy growing
up (Tidbits).
Scorsese’s mother Catherine plays the woman who helps
Teresa when she has an epileptic fit.
He has often cast both his mother and father in bit parts like this in
his films (Trivia).
Scorsese himself makes an appearance as Jimmy Shorts, the
gunman in the back seat of Michael’s car (Trivia).
Critical Analysis
“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 (Mean Streets).”
These are the first words heard in Martin Scorsese’s “Mean
Streets,” and already they set the mood for the entire movie. They are used as a nightmare to wake up the
main character, Charlie. He wakes up
sweating and looks at his reflection in the mirror while sirens shriek in the
background. After seeing this image and
the look on his face one gets the feeling that this happens a lot to Charlie,
and that is why these words are important.
These words will shape his actions for the entire movie because “Mean
Streets” isn’t just a movie about small time gangsters in Little Italy. As Roger Ebert says, “it is about living in
a state of sin (Ebert).” It is a story
about Charlie and his need for salvation in a brutal world.
After this opening scene, the film introduces its four
main characters. Tony, Michael, and
Johnny Boy are all introduced in their respective ordinary worlds. Tony owns a bar and is trying to keep drug
dealers and junkies out. Michael is
trying to get rid of some stolen camera lenses, which turn out to be adaptors
instead of lenses. Johnny Boy
pointlessly blows up a mailbox. Then
there is Charlie’s official introduction.
He is just getting out of confession at his church, and in his narration
he tells of how his prayer means nothing.
“He's gonna just give me another 10 Hail Mary's and another
10 Our Father's…they don't mean anything to me; they're just words (Mean
Streets).”
They are just words to him, and he wants to make up for
his sins in his own way. This is when
he proceeds to hold his hand over a candle flame. To Charlie this action is the symbolic hellfire he will be going
to, so to punish himself for his sins he endures hell (Lorefice).
“The pain of hell, the burn from a lighted match
increased a million times. Infinite, and you don't fuck around with the
infinite (Mean Streets).”
Charlie punishes himself for his sins often. At Tony’s bar there is another example of
this punishment. First of all, the bar
is shot with a red gel giving the interior a bright red tint. This is sort of a symbolic hell where
everyone is sinning. People are
drinking, smoking, partying, and there are even topless dancers. When Charlie enters the bar, he glides
through saying hello to friends and ends up dancing with a black topless
dancer. Immediately after he is done
dancing he sits at a table, strikes a match, and holds his hand to it. Again, this is Charlie’s instant penance for
the sin of dancing with a black woman, which is something Italians are not
suppose to do in Charlie’s world. He
even goes on to make a date with the dancer, but ends up standing her up for
the same reason (Lorefice).
Charlie’s highly religious beliefs are not a real big
secret either. When he goes to Joey
Clams’ pool room to collect some money he is called St. Charles. He even goes around the room and performs
the benediction on everything and everybody.
It is all a joke to the rest of the guys, but this is something Charlie
takes very seriously. He is surrounded
by people who sin more than he and none of them care. Not a single other person cares what happens to them in the
afterlife, whereas Charlie is always prepared.
The fact that he does not do anything about this blasphemy just shows
that he knows this is all business. Charlie is good at hiding his true self from
the sinners all around him.
He is even good at hiding himself from the one person who
truly loves him, Teresa. She is his
lover and Johnny Boy’s cousin. She is
also one of Charlie’s conflicts in the story.
She is a conflict because she is epileptic, which his uncle Giovanni
sees as a form of mental illness and weakness.
Giovanni gives Charlie an ultimatum: if he wants to run the restaurant
he has had his eye on, he has to stop hanging around with Teresa. However, as much as he wants the restaurant,
he cannot stop seeing Teresa. Due to his
uncle’s beliefs she is the one woman he cannot have, so he is attracted to her
even more. When his uncle tells him
that he cannot have her, he almost immediately goes into the kitchen of the
restaurant and holds his hand over the flame of a stove for his penance. It is the penance for having sex with the
“mentally ill” Teresa. Meanwhile all
Teresa wants is for him to leave the neighborhood with her, but he cannot do
this because he is constantly looking after her cousin Johnny Boy.
Johnny Boy is completely erratic. From the first time he is shown blowing up a
mailbox to the time he is firing off a gun on a rooftop, it is clear that he is
crazy and has no reason for any of his actions. However, Charlie does not see him that way. He sees him as the ultimate penance sent by
God. He realizes this when Johnny Boy
walks into Tony’s bar dressed in new clothes while he still owes a lot of money
to Michael. Charlie is heard in a voice
over talking to God about his new penance.
“Alright, okay, thanks a lot lord, thanks a lot for
opening my eyes. I talk about penance and you send this through the door. Well,
we play by your rules don't we? Well, don't we? (Mean Streets)"
Charlie takes it upon himself to look after the reckless
Johnny Boy and tries to get him on the right path. In his eyes this is his duty given to him by God. Johnny Boy is impossible to help
though. Every time Charlie buys him a
break with Michael or anyone else Johnny Boy always blows it. He even causes trouble when there is no need
for any. When Charlie and he go to Joey
Clams’ pool hall, he causes two fights for no reason at all. One starts after he insults the girls in the
place, and the other starts after the first is settled because he calls Joey a
scumbag.
All of Johnny Boy’s actions make him Charlie’s most
serious conflict in the story. The fact
that Charlie is constantly searching for forgiveness is the only reason why he
will not give up on him. He is
convinced not only that Johnny Boy is good and wants to do the right thing, but
also that he can help him with this. In
the end though it is clear that Johnny Boy is doomed. After all the chances Charlie buys him, he still screws up and it
ultimately costs him his life. After
Johnny Boy is shot, one of the final shots is of a bloodied Charlie on his
knees looking up to God. It is a
position of forgiveness, as if he was pleading with God. This shot really drove home the theme of
religion and the redemption that Charlie was searching for but could never
find.
Ultimately, Martin Scorsese explains his own film the
best. He calls it a “story about a
modern saint.” However this saint is
far from perfect in the world he lives in.
Scorsese explains that in the world of gangsters people do not always do
“the right thing,” and when they don’t they need to be violently punished for
it. The character of Charlie is so hell
bent on doing the right thing that he puts more important things aside like
straightening the wrong-doers out, in this case Johnny Boy. After putting things off for so long they
eventually blew up in Charlie’s face.
This makes the argument that Charlie is indeed representative of a
flawed modern day saint (Kelly 71).
“Mean Streets” is not a very plot oriented film. Instead it is a story of one character and
his struggles. It just thrusts you into
the world of Little Italy and does not let you out until the end. There are even times when there is nothing
to do and the guys just hang out and scam kids. It seems like a pointless scene to have in the movie, but it
continues the development of these characters.
It really makes this film a realistic account of what life was like in
1970s Little Italy.
Works Cited
"Behind the
Scenes." Mean Streets. Directed by
Martin Scorsese (1973). DVD. Warner Bros.,
1998.
Canby, Vincent. “Take a Walk Down ‘Mean Streets’.” Rev. of Mean Streets, dir. Martin
Scorsese. New York Times 14 Oct.
1973: 1+35.
"Cast
&Crew." Mean Streets. Directed
by Martin Scorsese (1973). DVD. Warner Bros., 1998.
Ebert, Roger. “Mean Streets.” Chicago-Sun Times.
Retrieved 6 May 2002 <http://www.suntimes.com/ebert/ebert_reviews/1999/01/mean118.html>.
Kelly, Mary Pat. Martin Scorsese: A Journey. New York: Thunder’s Mouth Press, 1991.
Lorefice, Mike. “Mean Streets.” Raging Bull. Retrieved
6 May 2002 <http://www.metalasylum.com/ragingbull/movies/meanstreets.html>.
Mean Streets. Dir. Martin Scorsese. Perf. Robert De Niro and
Harvey Keitel. Warner Bros., 1973.
“Mean Streets Tidbits.” Rottentomatoes.com. Retrieved 7 Apr. 2002 <http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/MeanStreets-1095005/about.php>.
"Musical
Notes." Mean Streets. Directed by
Martin Scorsese (1973). DVD. Warner Bros.,
1998.
Schickel, Richard. “A Closed Circle.” Rev. of Mean Streets, dir. Martin Scorsese. Time 5
Nov. 1973: 100-01.
Thomas, Kevin. “Movie Review: Mean Streets.” Los Angeles Times. 13 Mar. 1998. Retrieved 11
Mar. 2002 <http://calendarlive.com/top/1,1419,L-LATimes-Movies- X!ArticleDetail-4745,00.html>.
“Trivia for Mean
Streets.” IMDB.com Retrieved 7 Apr.
2002 <http://us.imdb.com/Trivia?0070379>.
Zimmerman, Paul D. “Sons of the Godfather.” Rev. of Mean Streets, dir. Martin Scorsese. Newsweek 22 Oct. 1973: 125-26.