Mean Streets

Ramzi

This, not Goodfellas, is the antithesis to The Godfather: this is the low level underworld, not high level manoeuvring. Scamming kids out of $20, failing to settle debts of a couple of hundred. All characters are pathetic (but shown with compassion). Charlie should have a promising future but is tainted by Johnny Boy and is laughed at when he talks out loud to God. Explosion of talent. Use of music revolutionary.

Maximilian XXI

I'm beginning to think this is Scorsese's best...

Barry Levitt

After the second viewing, I was really able to appreciate how wonderful this movie is!

Dave

The grittiest of Scorsese's gangster pictures, which seems to add a whole new level of "authenticity" to everything (whether it actually is authentic is anyone's guess). He would better it in the future, but this one still retains much of the power it had upon its initial release.

Duncan Gray

Revisiting this for the first time since college and concluding it's one of Scorsese's supreme achievements. "Mean Streets" wasn't his first title choice, but it makes sense to name his most soulful gangster movie after its setting because it so acutely observes a place. It also explains Scorsese as a whole—those who wonder how Goodfellas and Wolf of Wall Street could be informed by Catholicism should inquire within.

J. O.

A great deal more jumbled and poorly constructed that I had anticipated - but Scorsese's future as an influential filmmaker does shine through despite the overwhelming flaws. Points for the soundtrack, the key performances, and the gritty cinematography flooded with neon lights and dark shadows.

josé neves

re-rating. I already liked it a lot, now less because of the clichés that the time extended and that would prove to be a constant in this filmmaker work, who usually disguises it with a hysterical energy. See De Niro's character and acting: unbearable. Nevertheless still prevails a beautiful capacity to film a city, New York in the 70's, that with "Taxi Driver" would become mythological.

Michael H. CLAES

Un an après le magistral The Godfather, de COPPOLA, SCORCESE nous livre une compil de combines, cabotinages et clichés sur la Mafia. Depuis, Godfather II & III, et les Sopranos ont rangé définitivement Mean Streets parmi les premières oeuvres sympathiques ... Heureusement SCORCESE nous donna Les Affranchis (Goodfellas) en 1990 et Casino en 1995.