Mean Streets (1973)
Country: US
Technical: col 110m
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro, David Proval, Richard Romanus, Amy Robinson
Synopsis:
In New York's Little Italy, four young men make a living in or around a pervading ambience of crime. One of them, Charlie, covets a failing restaurant as a favour from his uncle, the local 'godfather', but his loyalty to ne'er-do-well childhood friend, Johnny, and relationship with the latter's epileptic cousin, risk endangering his prospects.
Review:
Scorsese's second feature is a tender paean to the world of his youth, its festive atmosphere as well as its seamy substructure, all cut to a soundtrack of sixties pop tracks. Charlie is the Marty surrogate, conflicted by the remnants of a Catholic upbringing, vainly striving to live by a personal ethic of compassion towards those in his orbit, while forging a path of graft and protectionism. In this, Keitel is outstanding, and Romanus and Proval offer sterling naturalistic support as the loan shark and bar owner respectively; De Niro is the loose cannon, and delivers what would become a staple of incipiently violent tics and gestures. The film ends inconclusively, as if the director had not yet done with this particular terrain (fast-forward twenty years or so, and Goodfellas proved that estimation true).
Country: US
Technical: col 110m
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro, David Proval, Richard Romanus, Amy Robinson
Synopsis:
In New York's Little Italy, four young men make a living in or around a pervading ambience of crime. One of them, Charlie, covets a failing restaurant as a favour from his uncle, the local 'godfather', but his loyalty to ne'er-do-well childhood friend, Johnny, and relationship with the latter's epileptic cousin, risk endangering his prospects.
Review:
Scorsese's second feature is a tender paean to the world of his youth, its festive atmosphere as well as its seamy substructure, all cut to a soundtrack of sixties pop tracks. Charlie is the Marty surrogate, conflicted by the remnants of a Catholic upbringing, vainly striving to live by a personal ethic of compassion towards those in his orbit, while forging a path of graft and protectionism. In this, Keitel is outstanding, and Romanus and Proval offer sterling naturalistic support as the loan shark and bar owner respectively; De Niro is the loose cannon, and delivers what would become a staple of incipiently violent tics and gestures. The film ends inconclusively, as if the director had not yet done with this particular terrain (fast-forward twenty years or so, and Goodfellas proved that estimation true).
Country: US
Technical: col 110m
Director: Martin Scorsese
Cast: Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro, David Proval, Richard Romanus, Amy Robinson
Synopsis:
In New York's Little Italy, four young men make a living in or around a pervading ambience of crime. One of them, Charlie, covets a failing restaurant as a favour from his uncle, the local 'godfather', but his loyalty to ne'er-do-well childhood friend, Johnny, and relationship with the latter's epileptic cousin, risk endangering his prospects.
Review:
Scorsese's second feature is a tender paean to the world of his youth, its festive atmosphere as well as its seamy substructure, all cut to a soundtrack of sixties pop tracks. Charlie is the Marty surrogate, conflicted by the remnants of a Catholic upbringing, vainly striving to live by a personal ethic of compassion towards those in his orbit, while forging a path of graft and protectionism. In this, Keitel is outstanding, and Romanus and Proval offer sterling naturalistic support as the loan shark and bar owner respectively; De Niro is the loose cannon, and delivers what would become a staple of incipiently violent tics and gestures. The film ends inconclusively, as if the director had not yet done with this particular terrain (fast-forward twenty years or so, and Goodfellas proved that estimation true).