MEAN STREETS (4+ outta 5 stars)
Maybe the film doesn't look like so much these days... since most of the story techniques, film stylings and intense performances have been re-done and over-done to the point of cliche... but when I first saw this movie... WHAM! I was blown away! And, now having seen it some half a dozen or more times, I still find it riveting... the dialogue, the camerawork, the way music is utilized... just brilliant! Martin Scorsese directs the first big, big film for Harvey Keitel and Robert DeNiro... they all did great work here... and, incredibly, got even BETTER as years went by. Keitel plays the good Catholic who feels the need to look out for crazy psycho punk Johnny Boy (DeNiro) who is in debt to every loan shark in town... and shows no signs of paying any of them back. Fabulous quotes galore... most of them laden with profanity: "I f*** you right where you breathe!" "What's a mook?" "You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bulls*** and you know it."
Maybe the film doesn't look like so much these days... since most of the story techniques, film stylings and intense performances have been re-done and over-done to the point of cliche... but when I first saw this movie... WHAM! I was blown away! And, now having seen it some half a dozen or more times, I still find it riveting... the dialogue, the camerawork, the way music is utilized... just brilliant! Martin Scorsese directs the first big, big film for Harvey Keitel and Robert DeNiro... they all did great work here... and, incredibly, got even BETTER as years went by. Keitel plays the good Catholic who feels the need to look out for crazy psycho punk Johnny Boy (DeNiro) who is in debt to every loan shark in town... and shows no signs of paying any of them back. Fabulous quotes galore... most of them laden with profanity: "I f*** you right where you breathe!" "What's a mook?" "You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bulls*** and you know it."