Mean Streets (1973)

Director:

Martin Scorsese

Writers:

Martin Scorsese (screenplay) and
Mardik Martin (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

14 October 1973 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Tagline:

You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets...

Plot:

A small-time hood struggles to succeed on the "mean streets" of Little Italy.

Plot Keywords:

Little Italy | Epilepsy | New York City | New York | Bar

Awards:

2 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Robert De Niro	...	Johnny Boy
Harvey Keitel	...	Charlie
David Proval	...	Tony
Amy Robinson	...	Teresa
Richard Romanus	...	Michael
Cesare Danova	...	Giovanni
Victor Argo	...	Mario (as Vic Argo)
George Memmoli	...	Joey
Lenny Scaletta	...	Jimmy
Jeannie Bell	...	Diane
Murray Moston	...	Oscar (as Murray Mosten)
David Carradine	...	Drunk
Robert Carradine	...	Boy With Gun
Lois Walden	...	Jewish Girl
Harry Northup	...	Soldier

Also Known As:

Season of the Witch (USA) (working title)

Runtime:

112 min | Spain:107 min (DVD edition)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Glen Glenn Sound)

Certification:

Hong Kong:III | Argentina:18 | Iceland:16 | Canada:R (DVD rating) | Brazil:16 | Australia:M | Canada:18A (video rating) | Finland:K-16 | France:-12 (re-rating) | France:-16 (original rating) | Ireland:18 | Italy:VM14 | New Zealand:R18 | Norway:16 (1977) | Singapore:NC-16 | South Korea:18 | Spain:18 | Sweden:15 | UK:18 (re-rating) (1993) | UK:X (original rating) | USA:R | West Germany:16

Filming Locations:

Belmont, Bronx, New York City, New York, USA

Company:

Taplin - Perry - Scorsese Productions

Trivia:

Director Trademark: [Martin Scorsese] [mother]the woman who comes to Teresa's aid when she has an epileptic fit.

Goofs:

Factual errors: While it's true that the soundtrack incorrectly lists "Steppin Out" as "Hideaway", by Cream, that's because on the "Live Cream Vol.2" CD, which is where this track came from, the track is mislabeled that way.

Quotes:

Giovanni Cappa: This Johnny Boy is like your mister Groppi...a little crazy. It's nice you should help him out because of his family and our family but watch yourself...Don't spoil anything. His whole family has problems...his cousin, the girl who lives next door to you...
Charlie: Teresa.
Giovanni Cappa: ...The one who's sick, right? In the head.
Charlie: No, she's got epilepsy.
Giovanni Cappa: Yeah. That's what I said, sick in the head.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Next Scorsese (2006)

Soundtrack:

DESIREE

The Scorsese Template

Scorsese's first film, the interesting catastrophe "Boxcar Bertha," marked his birth as a director, but it was with his second feature, "Mean Streets" that we witnessed the birth of an artist. Most of "Mean Streets" is slightly unfocused with a simplistic plot based around a lot of machismo grandstanding and long bouts of boring dialog (occasionally made interesting by DeNiro's off-kilter star-making turn as Johnny-Boy), with spats of visceral violence (far less gory here than in later Scorcese pics), and a visual bravado that seems slightly less disciplined but no less entertaining than your standard Scorsese crime flick.

Despite its drawbacks (mainly due to youth and inexperience), the template was set. The opening credits (done to the tune of "Be My Baby") suck you right into the film, and the rest of the movie is peppered with Scorsese's loving treatment of popular music that would later become one of his most endearing hallmarks. The basic premise featuring Harvey Keitel as Charlie (the young hood with a heart of gold and conflicted internally by the religion of the Church and the religion of the Streets), Robert DeNiro as Johnny-Boy (the equally loved and hated loose-canon brother figure), and Amy Robinson as Theresa (the woman our hero wants to put on a pedestal as a saint but often treats like a whore), is a trifecta of archetypes we see repeated again and again in Scorsese's films (most obviously in "Casino" with the DeNiro-Pesci-Stone characters, and most subversively in "The Last Temptation of Christ" with Jesus-Judas-Mary Magdalene). The religious iconography, the brotherhood of crooks, the attraction to the gangster lifestyle, the keen eye for depicting violence in artistic and startling ways...these are displayed here in "Mean Streets" in their rawest form.

Though flawed in many ways, "Mean Streets" set the stage and laid the the template for the type of film Scorsese would perfect seventeen years later with "Goodfellas." This heralded the arrival of a new talent and a new genre, and the world of film has thankfully never been the same.