Mean Streets



Mean Streets is a 1973 American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese and co-written by Scorsese and Mardik Martin. The film stars Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro. It was released by Warner Bros. on October 2, 1973. De Niro won the National Society of Film Critics award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as John "Johnny Boy" Civello.

In 1997, Mean Streets was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Plot
Charlie (Harvey Keitel) is a young Italian-American man who is trying to move up in the local New York Mafia but is hampered by his feeling of responsibility towards his reckless younger friend Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro), a small-time gambler who owes money to many loan sharks. Charlie works for his uncle Giovanni (Cesare Danova), the local caporegime, mostly collecting debts. He is also having a secret affair with Johnny Boy's cousin Teresa (Amy Robinson), who has epilepsy and is ostracized because of her condition—especially by Charlie's uncle. Charlie's uncle, a dignified man who takes his role as caporegime seriously, also wants Charlie not to be such close friends with Johnny, saying "Honorable men go with honorable men."

Charlie is torn between his devout Catholicism and his Mafia ambitions. As the film progresses, Johnny becomes increasingly self-destructive and disrespectful of his creditors. Failing to receive redemption in the church, Charlie seeks it through sacrificing himself on Johnny's behalf.

At a bar, a local loan shark named Michael (Richard Romanus) comes looking for Johnny to "pay up", but to his surprise, Johnny insults him. Michael lunges at Johnny, who retaliates by pulling a gun on him. After a tense standoff, Michael walks away, and Charlie convinces Johnny that they should leave town for a brief period. Teresa insists on coming with them. Charlie borrows a car and they drive off, escaping the neighborhood without incident. But then a car that had been following them suddenly pulls up alongside, Michael at the wheel and his henchman, Jimmy Shorts (Martin Scorsese), in the backseat. Jimmy fires several shots at Charlie's car, hitting Johnny in the neck and Charlie in the hand, causing Charlie to crash the car. The film ends with an ambulance and police arriving at the scene, and paramedics take them away.

Cast

 * Robert De Niro as John "Johnny Boy" Civello
 * Harvey Keitel as Charlie Cappa
 * David Proval as Tony DeVienazo
 * Amy Robinson as Teresa Ronchelli
 * Richard Romanus as Michael Longo
 * Cesare Danova as Giovanni Cappa
 * Victor Argo as Mario
 * George Memmoli as Joey
 * Lenny Scaletta as Jimmy
 * Jeannie Bell as Diane
 * Murray Mosten as Oscar
 * David Carradine as Drunk
 * Robert Carradine as Boy With Gun
 * Lois Walden as Jewish Girl
 * Harry Northup as Soldier
 * Martin Scorsese as Jimmy Shorts

Production
Apart from his first actual feature, Who's That Knocking at My Door, and a directing project given him by early independent film maker Roger Corman, Boxcar Bertha, this was Scorsese's first feature film of his own design. Director John Cassavetes told him after he completed Boxcar Bertha: "You’ve just spent a year of your life making a piece of shit." This inspired Scorsese to make a film about his own experiences. Cassavetes told Scorsese he should do something like Who's That Knocking At My Door, which Cassavetes had liked, and then came Mean Streets, which was based on actual events Scorsese saw almost regularly while growing up in New York City's Little Italy.

The screenplay for the movie initially began as a continuation of the characters in Who's That Knocking. Scorsese changed the title from Season of the Witch to Mean Streets, a reference to Raymond Chandler's essay "The Simple Art of Murder", wherein Chandler writes, "But down these mean streets a man must go who is not himself mean, who is neither tarnished nor afraid." Scorsese sent the script to Corman, who agreed to back the film if all the characters were black. Scorsese was anxious to make the film so he considered this option, but actress Verna Bloom arranged a meeting with potential financial backer Jonathan Taplin, who was the road manager for the musical group The Band. Taplin liked the script and was willing to raise the $300,000 budget that Scorsese wanted if Corman promised, in writing, to distribute the film. The blaxploitation suggestion was to come to nothing when funding from Warner Bros. allowed him to make the film as he intended with Italian-American characters.

Reception
The film was well received by most critics; some even hailed it as one of the most original American films of all time. Pauline Kael was among the most enthusiastic critics: she called it "a true original, and a triumph of personal filmmaking" and "dizzyingly sensual". Other critics like Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader said "the acting and editing have such original, tumultuous force that the picture is completely gripping". Vincent Canby of The New York Times reflected that "no matter how bleak the milieu, no matter how heartbreaking the narrative, some films are so thoroughly, beautifully realized they have a kind of tonic effect that has no relation to the subject matter". One of Scorsese's most consistent supporters, Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times, wrote: "In countless ways, right down to the detail of modern TV crime shows, Mean Streets is one of the source points of modern movies." Time Out magazine called it "one of the best American films of the decade". The film holds a 98% "Certified Fresh" rating on Rotten Tomatoes. James Gandolfini, when asked on Inside the Actors Studio (season 11, episode 2) what films most influenced him, cited Mean Streets among them and said he watched the film four times in a row.

American Film Institute recognition

 * AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated film

Home media
Mean Streets was released on VHS and Betamax in 1985. It was released on Blu-ray for the first time on April 6, 2011 in France, and in America on July 17, 2012.