When you think of director Martin Scorsese, you think of films like Goodfellas or Casino or maybe The Departed. But, before all those, he made a movie called Mean Streets. Would it be as good as his best, or was this before his creative juices really started flowing?
Harvey Keitel may lead the cast in Mean Streets, but Robert De Niro very nearly steals the show from him. Harvey’s tough yet humble mafia man tries to keep a lid on De Niro’s crazy mafia wannabe, and the two work really well together in roles they have come back to time and again (under different names). The rest of the cast is good too, playing off of these two to deliver solid performances all around.
Unlike Goodfellas or other films by Scorsese, Mean Streets is nowhere near as polished. Instead, it feels like a much grittier tale of low level mob guys, without the big bosses really ever getting involved in their troubles. It’s more of a street view of the mafia, without really highlighting any of the glamor or glitz later movies seemed to point to. It’s just a couple of guys with hot tempers trying to make a living on the shady side of the street. That gritty street feel makes the viewer relate easier to thee mob guys. They aren’t the famous or wealthy rich guys portrayed in other mob flicks. They seem to not have it together at all, and it’s no wonder guys like these got picked up frequently.
Rather than displaying the lifestyles of the rich and famous vibe that his later films seemed to center on, this early Scorsese pic doesn’t give that same vibe, and seems more a look at the lower echelons of the mob with a more realistic eye. It doesn’t try to glamorize the life at all. While it doesn’t say it was based on a true story, it easily could have been. It’s just a story of a couple of guys trying to make it on the Mean Streets. Sure, they aren’t on the right side of the law, they can’t contain their tempers at all, and they do dumb things – but it’s more entertaining to watch because of all that.
