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MOVIES / ON DVD / MEAN STREETS
Mean Streets

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Mean Streets (1973)

98%
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98 %
Reviews Counted: 42 Fresh: 41  Rotten:1 Average Rating: 8.9/10
Runtime: 1 hr 52 mins
Synopsis:
Martin Scorsese's electrifying drama tells the story of Charlie (Harvey Keitel), a charming 27-year-old who is supported by his devoutly Catholic mother. He spends his days wandering the streets of New York City and nights hanging out drinking with his good friend Johnny Boy (the... [More]
Martin Scorsese's electrifying drama tells the story of Charlie (Harvey Keitel), a charming 27-year-old who is supported by his devoutly Catholic mother. He spends his days wandering the streets of New York City and nights hanging out drinking with his good friend Johnny Boy (the terrifyingly brilliant Robert De Niro), a loose cannon that can't seem to escape trouble. Charlie's extreme affability makes him the middle man between his mob-tied uncle Giovanni (Cesare Danova) and various clients, as well as between Johnny Boy and Michael (Richard Romanus), a bookie who has become fed up with Johnny Boy's constant debt dodging. As the city's San Gennaro Festival takes over the streets of Little Italy, Michael seeks revenge on Johnny Boy once and for all. MEAN STREETS is the film in which Scorsese blossomed into one of the world's most ferociously distinct visionaries, a vision which has, for better or worse, become one of the most mimicked in the history of modern cinema. While his usage of a nostalgic pop music soundtrack, long one-takes and handheld cameras, and brutally realistic performances, spawned a generation of imitators, MEAN STREETS proves that while others may try to imitate, there is only one original. MEAN STREETS is a work of sheer cinematic bravado. [Less]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Robert DeNiro, Harvey Keitel, David Proval, Amy Robinson, Richard Romanus

Director: Martin Scorsese
Producer: Jonathan Taplin
Screenwriter: Martin Scorsese, Mardik Martin

DVD Info

Release:

Aug 17, 2004

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Region 1
  • Snap Case
  • Widescreen - 1.85

Audio:

  • Mono - English

Additional Release Material:

  • Audio Commentary - 1. Martin Scorsese
  • Featurettes - 1. "Back on the Block"
  • Trailers - 1. Theatrical Trailer

Buy It On DVD

Reviews

 
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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
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[I] commend it without reservation.

Full Review | Comment
03/31/08 01:18 PM
Philip French
Observer [UK]
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The movie's blazing energy is still astounding; the vérité street-scenes are terrific and Scorsese's pioneering use of popular music is genuinely thrilling.

Full Review | Comment
03/31/08 01:17 PM
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
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A tight, intense masterpiece from Scorsese, writing collaborator Mardik Martin and the iconic stars.

Full Review | Comment
03/31/08 01:17 PM
Channel 4 Film
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The acting and editing have such an original, tumultuous force that the picture is completely gripping.

Full Review | Comment
03/31/08 01:16 PM
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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Scorsese is exceptionally good at guiding his largely unknown cast to near-flawless recreations of types. Outstanding in this regard is De Niro.

Full Review | Comment
03/31/08 01:15 PM
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
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Emphasizing charcaterization over plot, and exploring male camaraderie and street violence in a humorous, spontaneous, and nonjudgmental way, Scorsese's Mean Streets (his third feature) is arguably the most influential film of the 1970s.

Full Review | Comment
02/21/08 05:42 PM
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
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showcases Scorsese's artistic strengths and weaknesses as they stood at the outset of his career

Full Review | Comment
08/27/06 03:40 PM
Jay Antani
Perihelion Journal
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A modern masterpiece where the setting is the star, even among a cast that is highlighted by Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel.

Full Review | Comment
08/08/06 07:47 PM
Ryan Cracknell
Movie Views
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The film feels authentic, the characters are true, the situation hopeless

Full Review | Comment
06/09/06 08:45 PM
Dan Jardine
Cinemania
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One of the best American films of the decade.

Full Review | Comment
02/09/06 03:16 AM
Time Out
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This film showed the world that a major talent had arrived on the scene.

Full Review | Comment
01/25/06 06:22 PM
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews
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Doesn't do it for me, I'm afraid.

| Comment
11/10/05 02:10 AM
Luke Y. Thompson
New Times
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Terrific. Top shelf talent at the top of their game, working immediately before they would change Hollywood.

Full Review | Comment
11/03/05 03:15 AM
Simon Braund
Empire Magazine
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Scorsese's first masterpiece is still gripping.

| Comment
08/19/05 05:34 AM
Dan Lybarger
Nitrate Online
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No review available.

| Comment
06/30/05 12:03 PM
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com
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One of cinema's finest moments....you'll never forget it

| Comment
03/11/05 04:07 AM
Clint Morris
Moviehole
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Perfected here are Scorsese's patented slow-motion cutaways, combination pan/tracking shots, musical tangents, and impromptu bloodbaths

Full Review | Comment
02/14/05 02:04 AM
Bill Chambers
Film Freak Central
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The Godfather made the mob glamorous. Mean Streets made it real. Martin Scorsese's ferocious, grimy 1973 classic is just as good as Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece, but it shows us criminal life lower down the food chain.

Full Review | Comment
01/25/05 10:15 PM
Nev Pierce
BBC
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No review available.

| Comment
09/03/04 03:59 PM
Thomas Delapa
Boulder Weekly
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...a gritty, one-of-a-kind, unromantic, down-and-dirty look at the streets of New York like no film had portrayed those streets and their people before.

Full Review | Comment
09/03/04 10:28 AM
John J. Puccio
DVDTown.com
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