Mean Streets Movie Information

Your Rating

• This movie was an epic failure
• This movie was horrible
• This movie was not good
• This movie was average
• This movie was okay
• This movie was good
• This movie was great
• This movie was incredible

Movie Information

Overall Rank: 687

Average Rating: 3/4

# of Ratings: 187

Theatrical Release Date: 10/02/1973

Language: English

Genre: Drama, Crime

MPAA Rating: R

Director: Martin Scorsese

Actors: Robert De Niro, David Proval, Harvey Keitel, David Carradine, Richard Romanus, Amy Robinson

Plot: A young crook uses his anger to survive in NYC stealing and busting jaws.

Logan D. McCoy - wrote on 07/16/2019

A fast paced, rough and tough gangster film with all the themes Martin Scorsese would continue to use in his future films.

Matthew Brady - wrote on 08/04/2014

Not the best Scorsese film for me.

Daniel Corleone - wrote on 03/21/2012

The story that revolves around Charlie (Harvey Keitel) and Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro). Charlie works for his uncle Giovanni (Cesare Danova) and has an affair with Johnny Boy's cousin Teresa (Amy Robinson). A loan shark named Michael (Richard Romanus) searches for Johnny Boy since he is behind with his payments. The plot was thin and some of the scenes were not that interesting. Screenplay was solid with lines: Charlie - "You give your word you gotta keep it." and "Nobody tries anymore...to help people." Themes of police corruption, violence, manners, racism and friendship were in full display. Mean Streets was a good film for its time, though not one of the director's best..

Gabe
Producer

Cue Van Halen's Mean Streat...from '81

Gabe - wrote on 02/05/2015

In only his third full-length feature film (non-documentary), Martin Scorsese already is using the tropes that would come to define his work, NYC, the mob, De Niro. It's a film about small-time hustler Charlie (Keitel) who's just on the verge of making it big in the local mob-scene, but is tied-up with the exploits of the no-good Johnny (De Niro, with weird long hair).

The film drags at times, but the ending is quite powerful. Some questions I want answered: Was Charlie in on the whole thing? Did his uncle set them up? Does Johnny die?

Also, the soundtrack is killer, the opening credits with the Ronettes' Be My Baby is classic, I also love the use of early Rolling Stones. Another thing the Scorsese would come back to, the Stones.

It's an interesting film, especially when …

Yojimbo
Movie God

"Mean Streets" by Yojimbo

Yojimbo - wrote on 04/02/2012

Mean Streets concerns the comings and goings of a group of small time criminals operating in the seedy under belly of New York City. It's an early Scorsese, and you can certainly see him learning his craft as the story unfolds; there are some great scenes and you can see the prototype versions of many from his coming classics. But having said that, a lot of the film is rather aimless and lacking in focus, and many of the minor supporting characters are poorly acted caricatures. It seems more concerned with capturing the characters and essence of this side of New York and often wanders off onto tangents which left me rather restless, and dare I say it, bored? Sacrilege I know, and the ending of the film is very powerful, but the journey there is rather flawed. An interesting film for …