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DVD : Mean Streets (Special Edition) [1973] .
Rating: 
- Overated
Very poor-I have always been of the opinion that Scorcese is overrated, although Taxi Driver and Raging Bull are both exceptional movies. I also find Scorsese movies like Mean Streets, and later Casino and GoodFellas to be very annoying because of the pop music score featured throughout the films which tends to get in the way of the acting.
Rating:
- Fascinatingly hatching
A film that is very problematic. It is not that old but the action is set in quite an older period, yet Robert de Niro looks like a young actor just out of drama school trying to imitate his mentor Robert de Niro himself, an older version of himself in a way. The film has little depth actually. We all know you must not play with the law of the street that the bad boys of the underworld are imposing onto those who are dumb enough not to be blind and what's more who want to have their share of the cake they have not contributed to kneading, baking and glazing. The real point is that a few thousand dollars become a monumental debt when the borrower becomes dumb enough to pretend in the lender's face and in front of quite a few witnesses he will never pay back because the lender is a dumb idiot. The end is signed in that declaration. Death. And death again and again on two innocent acolytes. The film has essentially one interest: the young de Niro and how he is already building his artistic texture, a texture he will never lose nor change. I guess good whisky gets better by aging, provided of course it ages in the proper vessel, vat or barrel.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
Rating: - Low budget movie
This is a low budget classic from Scorsese made in 1973. There is certainly an impressive sense of time and place in this film, and it came as a shock to me to learn that most of it was filmed in Los Angeles. I suppose it is not too much to say that this movie presaged the rock video, in that there is a seemingly constant stream of doo-wap and Italian music on the soundtrack that is inextricably woven with the on-screen action. Like a low-budget, urban Sergio Leone, Scorsese choreographs the music and the action into something like an opera. There is an intense energy that flows through its frames and occasionally overflows in outbursts of violence that erupt and subside with their own unique rhythm. Even across all these decades, it is clear why film critics at the time (especially New York ones) got excited.
8/10.
Rating: - A little taste of near perfection
I can understand why some people would dislike mean streets due to it's lack of plot and structure should they have watched the movie only once. It is, however, the same as passing comment on good music after only listening to it once. Impossible to judge, in my opinion.
Scorsese plays heavily on his childhood in content, introducing the audience to his world through the eyes of four local hoods. There is none of the morals of it's contemporary mafia based film, The Godfather... and none of the thrills and wealth portrayed later by Scorsese in 'Goodfellas'. It is a real world where gun crime is unusual and shocking and violence is sporadic and adrenalin fueled.
The cogs that keep the film moving forward are that of Charlie's questionable faith and his desire to prove himself by helping Johnny Boy free himself from a mountain of debt he has built up with Michael, a small time shark. The centre point for the scenario is a bar owned by Tony, and the four players weave in and out of each others lives with tensions getting more serious and a downfall becoming more inevitable as the film progresses.
Mean Streets is also improvisational comedy at it's best in parts. The relationship between Charlie and Johnny Boy (and the sheer talent of the two leads) allow much unscripted conversation to flow and it leaves you grinning widely, if not full out laughing.
I believe that taste is accountable for most things, and quality comes to a slightly lesser extent. To me, this film has something that I cannot put my finger on that makes it shine brightly. As mentioned before, it demands multiple viewings, but give it a chance... and watch it on the big screen if you're lucky enough to have it shown locally, and you might well discover a film that takes pride of place as your favourite, just as I did.
Rating: - Forget it's Scorsese; it's rubbish
I am a big fan of Goodfellas, and some of his other films are OK at best. But this is so terrible I couldn't bring myself to finish watching this amateurish piece.
It is "raw" alright. If "raw" means "not very good", then it is.
Avoid!
- Overated Very poor-I have always been of the opinion that Scorcese is overrated, although Taxi Driver and Raging Bull are both exceptional movies. I also find Scorsese movies like Mean Streets, and later Casino and GoodFellas to be very annoying because of the pop music score featured throughout the films which tends to get in the way of the acting.
Rating:
- Fascinatingly hatchingA film that is very problematic. It is not that old but the action is set in quite an older period, yet Robert de Niro looks like a young actor just out of drama school trying to imitate his mentor Robert de Niro himself, an older version of himself in a way. The film has little depth actually. We all know you must not play with the law of the street that the bad boys of the underworld are imposing onto those who are dumb enough not to be blind and what's more who want to have their share of the cake they have not contributed to kneading, baking and glazing. The real point is that a few thousand dollars become a monumental debt when the borrower becomes dumb enough to pretend in the lender's face and in front of quite a few witnesses he will never pay back because the lender is a dumb idiot. The end is signed in that declaration. Death. And death again and again on two innocent acolytes. The film has essentially one interest: the young de Niro and how he is already building his artistic texture, a texture he will never lose nor change. I guess good whisky gets better by aging, provided of course it ages in the proper vessel, vat or barrel.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines
Rating:
- Low budget movieThis is a low budget classic from Scorsese made in 1973. There is certainly an impressive sense of time and place in this film, and it came as a shock to me to learn that most of it was filmed in Los Angeles. I suppose it is not too much to say that this movie presaged the rock video, in that there is a seemingly constant stream of doo-wap and Italian music on the soundtrack that is inextricably woven with the on-screen action. Like a low-budget, urban Sergio Leone, Scorsese choreographs the music and the action into something like an opera. There is an intense energy that flows through its frames and occasionally overflows in outbursts of violence that erupt and subside with their own unique rhythm. Even across all these decades, it is clear why film critics at the time (especially New York ones) got excited.
8/10.
Rating:
- A little taste of near perfectionI can understand why some people would dislike mean streets due to it's lack of plot and structure should they have watched the movie only once. It is, however, the same as passing comment on good music after only listening to it once. Impossible to judge, in my opinion.
Scorsese plays heavily on his childhood in content, introducing the audience to his world through the eyes of four local hoods. There is none of the morals of it's contemporary mafia based film, The Godfather... and none of the thrills and wealth portrayed later by Scorsese in 'Goodfellas'. It is a real world where gun crime is unusual and shocking and violence is sporadic and adrenalin fueled.
The cogs that keep the film moving forward are that of Charlie's questionable faith and his desire to prove himself by helping Johnny Boy free himself from a mountain of debt he has built up with Michael, a small time shark. The centre point for the scenario is a bar owned by Tony, and the four players weave in and out of each others lives with tensions getting more serious and a downfall becoming more inevitable as the film progresses.
Mean Streets is also improvisational comedy at it's best in parts. The relationship between Charlie and Johnny Boy (and the sheer talent of the two leads) allow much unscripted conversation to flow and it leaves you grinning widely, if not full out laughing.
I believe that taste is accountable for most things, and quality comes to a slightly lesser extent. To me, this film has something that I cannot put my finger on that makes it shine brightly. As mentioned before, it demands multiple viewings, but give it a chance... and watch it on the big screen if you're lucky enough to have it shown locally, and you might well discover a film that takes pride of place as your favourite, just as I did.
Rating:
- Forget it's Scorsese; it's rubbishI am a big fan of Goodfellas, and some of his other films are OK at best. But this is so terrible I couldn't bring myself to finish watching this amateurish piece.
It is "raw" alright. If "raw" means "not very good", then it is.
Avoid!
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