Very disappointed

Go on....













"Reality is the new fiction they say, truth is truer these days, truth is man-made"

If they see other Scorsese films before seeing Mean Streets a lot of people might make the mistake of expecting it to be a Mob or Mafia movie. It isn’t.

So far as being criminals goes, the main characters in Mean Streets are very low on the totem pole. In fact, they’re not even allowed near the totem pole just yet. They’re basically inexperienced kids who aspire to be taken as serious hoods by their friends. Hopefully by the serious guys later but, for now, impressing their friends will do.

Nobody is going to send any of these guys to make hits in Miami or open a casino in Vegas. They’d be lucky to be asked to carry a bag of pennies across the street. They’re considered too unreliable. Not serious enough to handle any serious mob business. They might have some connection to big time hoods but they aren’t one of them yet. Not by a long shot.

Even Charlie’s uncle might best be understood as something like Vito Corleone near the start of his career. Giovanni is not the boss of all bosses. Just a local crime boss with connections to other local bosses in New York and other cities.

His nephew, Charlie, is a numbers runner and collects payments on a debt owed to his uncle by a small local restauranteur. Pretty much the lowest positions associated with organized crime — collecting numbers and money from people who make very small bets. It adds up, but usually just a few dollars per bet. Nothing like the nights take from a roomful of blackjack tables, roulette wheels and slot machines, or fencing treasury bonds stolen from airline cargo. Money, yes, but a pittance.

What you get in Mean Streets is the humdrum day-to-day lives of Little Italy wannabes. Their girlfriends (which few of them can afford to maintain) aren’t dressed in ermine and jewels. They fuss over trivialities. A guy breaks out a pistol in their rundown dive bar hangout and everybody scrambles for cover. Not like the other films where you have cold-blooded killers using everything from baseball bats to automatic rifles facing off against other cold-blooded killers. Where a man and his wife are left slaughtered in their custom built cadillac and full-length white mink coat. These guys can’t be trusted to handle such matters. They’re bumbling punks. By comparison to a Henry Hill or a Tommy DiVito, their lives are not so adventurous.

If you recognize them as more or less poor, small-time criminal wannabes you might find the film more entertaining.


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

I don't consider it a particularly good movie but I wasn't expecting much so I can't say I'm disappointed. This felt to me like a film school project that, because it has the Scorsese name on it, people go overboard about.

I love some Scorsese but also dislike some. For me he is simultaneously a favorite and most overrated figure in film. So I go in with no expectations.

This was a 5 out of 10 movie for me.