Amy Robinson, Cesare Danova, David Proval
A young hood in New York's Little Italy contends with saving the neck of his hotheaded best friend from the local loan shark and struggles with the religious guilt prompted by his lifestyle.
DVD Release Date: August 17, 2004
Stats: 1,763 reviews
Scorsese's first gangster film and a taste of what was to come. In many ways its better than his later efforts, the low budget complimenting the gritty reality of the streets.
Shot with a swagger, Scorsese's breakthrough film blazed with rock 'n' roll energy, rebooting the sound of cinema. For me, it is 'Be My Baby' that is one of the most important milestones in the history of cinema and it defines the background of the small-time mob. Harvey Keitel k...( read more)
Martin Scorsese's first film in a genre that he would define in the following decades is also his first pairing with Robert DeNiro in Mean Streets. The film is about a group of low men on the Mafia totem pole mainly focusing on Harvey Keitel's character Chralie who ends up being ...( read more)
Early really good Scorsese. Watch it to see some great actors before they devolved into a bunch of tics that they drag out for every performance.
considered the first great film by scorsese, i love scoesese and i really dont care for this film. as unexplained, unorganized, unimportant, and lifeless as a film can be. this film is juvenille and plain, unlike scorsese's later work. it deserves some score because of its pot...( read more)
Mean Sreets is one of the first full-length films Scorsese ever directed, and it is an extraordinary start. Although it had a good script, I felt like it was a mess at some points. However, the top-notch cast and the directing by Scorsese is pretty much amazing. His Italian influ...( read more)
Not his first film, but definitely the one that put Scorsese on the map. This film is overflowing with both style and substance and deep personal themes, all of which would make countless return appearances in Scorsese's later films, as well as in the works of those he inspired a...( read more)
Before this second viewing, the praise for Mean Streets had always alluded me. I viewed it as a good work by a great director (Scorsese) who still had his best films ahead of him. Indeed, Scorsese would go on to make great films later, such as GoodFellas and Raging Bull, but now ...( read more)
Not as good as what was to come from Scorsese, but a cracking little film made for about $25
My favorite scene is where Harvey Keitel walks into his regular bar, the Rolling Stones are blasting ("Tell Me"), and as he's saying hi to this and that person, go-go dancers in the background, he kind of two-steps his way to his seat. The camera right on his back following him.
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