MovieChat Forums > Mean Streets (1973) Discussion > What was the deal with the fireworks seg...

What was the deal with the fireworks segment?

posted 14 years ago by This_is_an_outrage
5 replies | jump to latest

Do you think the screenplay was saying that while they had ambitions in New York's underworld, at the end of the day they were just a group of punks who would rip off teenagers to go to the movies out of spite?

[–] x_chem 14 years ago

Pretty much, well that's what I thought anyway.

"You brought two too many"-Harmonica

[–] jigalini 13 years ago

It's way of goofing around. Also, the bar owner was not really underworld character, neither was Johhny Boy. The one who was loanshark-hustler, Michael, does the firework rip off with friend as more of joke than way to make money

[–] idcook 12 years ago

at the end of the day they were just a group of punks who would rip off teenagers…

because none of them really had very much money.

Though these guys aspire to be serious hoods they’re still too green to avoid making mistakes. Even the one who seems most serious, Michael (the loan shark), is shown messing up a fence deal at the very beginning of the film. So, he amounts to a thief who steals the wrong things and a loan shark who can be cheated by his clients. A problem for a guy who wants to be taken seriously. Such an inept hood might be inclined to pull off a small-time scam every now and then to get some extra pocket money.

Michael might not have needed to rip off those kids, but it was an easy twenty bucks. You may recall that it was supposed to be for forty bucks. They don’t know how to pull off a simple con effectively.

"Your thinking is untidy, like most so-called thinking today." (Murder, My Sweet)

[–] TheHungryAndAngryShow 10 years ago

I can't say it didn't add to the feeling that I was watching the most unsympathetic characters in movie history. Nothing more dishonest than a dishonest hustler. Scorcese succeeded at creating characters that were the kinds of people I would avoid like the plague.

[–] mdonln 9 years ago

This_is_an_outrage says > Do you think the screenplay was saying that while they had ambitions in New York's underworld, at the end of the day they were just a group of punks who would rip off teenagers to go to the movies out of spite?

I don't see the difference really. Obviously the answer is yes, they're both. They are criminals so it doesn't matter who their victims are. The idea of an 'honorable' criminal who only victimizes certain people or groups is, for me, absurd.

Woman, man! That's the way it should be Tarzan. [Tarzan and his mate]