list http://www.spout.com/ Recent community activity around Mean Streets on Spout Copyright 2005-9 Spout, LLC Spout RSS http://www.spout.com/images/SpoutLogoRSS.jpg http://www.spout.com/ 136 30 http://www.spout.com/films/Mean_Streets/22237/default.aspx Title: Mean Streets
Year: 1973
Director: Martin Scorsese
Plot: "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--t, and you know it." Returning to the autobiographical milieu of his 1968 debut Who's That Knocking at My Door? for his third feature, Martin Scorsese examined the daily struggles of a wannabe hood to keep his morals straight on the streets of Little Italy. Driven equally by his wish to become a respectable gangster like his uncle (Cesare Danova) and his desire to live his life like St. Francis, Charlie (Harvey Keitel) takes on his energetically unhinged friend Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro) as his own personal penance, intervening to get Johnny Boy to pay off a debt to the local loan shark Michael (Richard Romanus). Despite his promises to his epileptic girlfriend Teresa (Amy Robinson) that they will move out of Little Italy once he strengthens his position in his uncle's world, Charlie's involvement with Johnny Boy further ensnares him in the neighborhood. When Johnny Boy decides to mouth off to Michael rather than pay him, Charlie, Johnny Boy, and Teresa try to flee Michael's murderous anger (and an assassin played by Scorsese), forcing Charlie to realize that the rules of the streets do not mesh with absolution. Whereas fellow "film school generation" director Francis Ford Coppola transformed the Hollywood gangster movie into metaphorical epics about the Mafia and capitalism in The Godfather (1972) and The Godfather Part II (1974), Scorsese revised the genre in the opposite direction, focusing on the gritty minutiae of daily life and drawing from personal memory. Combining documentary-style realism (even though most of the film was shot in L.A.); kinetic editing and camera movement; and expressionistic lighting, angles, and film speed, Scorsese presents an intimate picture of the trivial incidents and latent violence of Charlie's and Johnny Boy's world, naturalistically unfolding their experiences rather than simply explaining what motivates them. They lead a claustrophobic, petty existence that Scorsese and screenwriter Mardik Martin witnessed growing up in Little Italy, complete with a soundtrack of hit songs like "Be My Baby" and "Jumping Jack Flash" that had poured out of neighborhood radios. Mean Streets opened at the New York Film Festival to excellent notices and played strongly in New York but failed to duplicate that level of business elsewhere. Even so, Mean Streets established Scorsese and De Niro as formidable young talents and marked the beginning of a long-running and fertile collaboration that continued in such films as Taxi Driver (1976), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1983), and Goodfellas (1990). Scorsese's exceptional grasp of the texture of day-to-day life, the rhythm and cadences of street talk, and cinema's visual and aural possibilities makes Mean Streets one of the pivotal films of the 1970s, as well as of Scorsese's career, and an influence on such future filmmakers as Spike Lee and ]]>Tue, 06 Jan 2009 21:38:42 GMTMacabre_FilmNutMovie Polls1/6/2009 4:38:42 PM[quote user="Risselada"] Please reference this thread for the rules of this group. So it was announced a while ago that Martin Scorsese will again be directing Robert De Niro in an upcomming movie called I Heard You Paint Houses. While the potential release is still a long way off lets talk about your favorite of these filmmakers' previous collaborations. Please vote only once in each poll. Movies referenced in this poll:Cape FearCasinoGoodfellasThe King of ComedyMean StreetsNew York, New YorkRaging BullTaxi Driver [/quote] Wow, this is a tuff one for me.I am huge fan of Scorsese and De Niro.I remember seeing Cape Fear at the theaters when I was a kid and liked very much. Raging bull was another good one, but not a favorite. Huge fan of mob movie and books. Casino was good but it didnt do nothing for me. I remember reading a book entitled Murder Machine which was about a serial killing hit squad among the time Goodfellas was supposed to take place. This crew in the book was alot like Pesci's character, but more sinister. I loved Mean Streets and it was pretty much what Scorsese saw as a child grewing up in the mean streets of New york. I remember him saying in an interview that he had alot of associates tied into the mob and the only reason he didnt get involved was something to do with health issues, so this was tribuate so to say to his heritage and what he saw. All in all I would have to go with cult favorite, Taxi Driver. I really liked the grittyness of it. Alot of people say it was just an orgy of violence, but to alot of people it was one of the greatest films of our time. http://www.spout.com/groups/Movie_Polls/What_is_your_favorite_Martin_Scorsese_directing/657/39152/1/ShowPost.aspx Post By: Risselada
Post To: Movie Polls
Post Date: 1/6/2009 2:27:44 PM
Body: Please reference this thread for the rules of this group. So it was announced a while ago that Martin Scorsese will again be directing Robert De Niro in an upcomming movie called I Heard You Paint Houses. While the potential release is still a long way off lets talk about your favorite of these filmmakers' previous collaborations. Please vote only once in each poll. Movies referenced in this poll:Cape FearCasinoGoodfellasThe King of ComedyMean StreetsNew York, New YorkRaging BullTaxi Driver
]]>Tue, 06 Jan 2009 19:27:44 GMTRisseladaMovie Polls1/6/2009 2:27:44 PMPlease reference this thread for the rules of this group. So it was announced a while ago that Martin Scorsese will again be directing Robert De Niro in an upcomming movie called I Heard You Paint Houses. While the potential release is still a long way off lets talk about your favorite of these filmmakers' previous collaborations. Please vote only once in each poll. Movies referenced in this poll:Cape FearCasinoGoodfellasThe King of ComedyMean StreetsNew York, New YorkRaging BullTaxi Driver http://www.spout.com/blogs/cmonnahkid/archive/2007/5/6/8285.aspx Post By: cmonnahkid
Post To: cmonnahkid Blog
Post Date: 5/6/2007 4:55:00 AM
Body: i consider this movie a rough draft for goodfellas, even though if i delve into that statement the stories dont really bear that large of a resemblance besides being about crime. it is very raw, very gritty, and even has some boobs if those are your thing. a young bobby d. and harvey keitel portraying a badass are the main things that suck me in though. when i watch this movie, i feel like i grew up in little italy new york. i could tell you all about the plot and such but you can read that anywhere else. just know that its not really that huge of a cinematic breakthrough, but is (from what i can gather) a pretty honest portrayal of certain parts of the big apple directed by a man who grew up there, and if you are a fan of scorsese it is a def-see.
]]>Sun, 06 May 2007 08:55:00 GMTcmonnahkidcmonnahkid Blog5/6/2007 4:55:00 AMi consider this movie a rough draft for goodfellas, even though if i delve into that statement the stories dont really bear that large of a resemblance besides being about crime. it is very raw, very gritty, and even has some boobs if those are your thing. a young bobby d. and harvey keitel portraying a badass are the main things that suck me in though. when i watch this movie, i feel like i grew up in little italy new york. i could tell you all about the plot and such but you can read that anywhere else. just know that its not really that huge of a cinematic breakthrough, but is (from what i can gather) a pretty honest portrayal of certain parts of the big apple directed by a man who grew up there, and if you are a fan of scorsese it is a def-see. http://www.spout.com/members/0/tags/friendship/MemberTagFilms.aspxfriendship
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