| | | You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it on the streets.
Features: DVD
Mean Streets heralded Martin Scorsese's arrival as a new filmmaking force--and marked his first historic teaming with Robert De Niro. It's a story Scorsese lived, a semi-autobiographical tale of the first-generation sons and daughters of New York's Little Italy. Harvey Keitel plays Charlie, working his way up the ranks of a local mob. Amy Robinson is Teresa, the girlfriend his family deems unsuitable because of her epilepsy. And in the starmaking role that won Best Supporting Actor Awards from the New York and National Society of Film Critics, De Niro is Johnny Boy, a small-time gambler in big-time debt to loan sharks.
"...put Scorsese on the map and deservedly so." Leonard Maltin's Movie & Video Guide
Editor's Note
Martin Scorsese's electrifying drama tells the story of Charlie (Harvey Keitel), a charming 27-year-old who is supported by his devoutly Catholic mother. He spends his days wandering the streets of New York City and nights hanging out drinking with his good friend Johnny Boy (the terrifyingly brilliant Robert De Niro), a loose cannon that can't seem to escape trouble. Charlie's extreme affability makes him the middle man between his mob-tied uncle Giovanni (Cesare Danova) and various clients, as well as between Johnny Boy and Michael (Richard Romanus), a bookie who has become fed up with Johnny Boy's constant debt dodging. As the city's San Gennaro Festival takes over the streets of Little Italy, Michael seeks revenge on Johnny Boy once and for all.MEAN STREETS is the film in which Scorsese blossomed into one of the world's most ferociously distinct visionaries, a vision which has, for better or worse, become one of the most mimicked in the history of modern cinema. While his usage of a nostalgic pop music soundtrack, long one-takes and handheld cameras, and brutally realistic performances, spawned a generation of imitators, MEAN STREETS proves that while others may try to imitate, there is only one original. MEAN STREETS is a work of sheer cinematic bravado.
Plot Summary
This classic of modern cinema tells the brutally realistic story of a small-time hood who gets in over his head with a vicious loan shark. In an attempt to free himself from both the obligations and dangers of the debt he incurred, he enlists the aid of a friend who is also involved in criminal activities.
| Features | "Back On The Block" Featurette | | Audio: English Dolby Digital Mono | | Director Commentary | | Interactive Menus | | Production Notes | | Scene Access | | Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Theatrical Trailer |
| Technical Info
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Release Information
| | Studio: HBO |
| Release Date: 2/14/2006 |
| Running Time: 112 minutes |
| Original Release Date: 1973 | | Catalog ID: 19127 | | UPC: 00085391912729 | | Number of Discs: 1 |
Audio & Video
| | Original Language: English | | Available Audio Tracks: English [CC], English | | Available Subtitles: English, French, Spanish | | Video: Color |
Aspect Ratio | | Anamorphic Widescreen 1.85:1 |
| Cast & Crew
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| | Professional Reviews | Los Angeles Times
"...MEAN STREETS is a jazzy riff of a movie, zigging and zagging as if to the beat of snapping fingers....A modern American screen classic..." 03/13/1998 p.C8Chicago Sun-Times
"...It has an elemental power, a sense of spiraling doom, that a more polished film might have lacked....MEAN STREETS is one of the source points of modern movies..." 03/15/1998 p.5 Premiere
"...By turns thoughtful, disturbingly violent, and uproariously funny..." 06/01/2003 p.100 Uncut
"[With] inventive camerawork...[and] inspired use of music....Essential." 02/01/2005 p.100 Sight and Sound
"Scorsese's breakthrough feature fizzes with energy....The director brilliantly unleashes a host of techniques and cinematic references..." 07/01/2005 p.85 Los Angeles Times 10 of 10
...a jazzy riff of a movie, zigging and zagging as if to the beat of snapping fingers. Its greatness - Kevin Thomas
Chicago Sun-Times 10 of 10
...an early film by a director who was still learning... It was made on a tiny budget with actors st - Roger Ebert
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