Mean Streets (1973) review

Director Martin Scorsese, a newcomer at the time of its release, must be credited for his direction taken with this crime film considering the year earlier brought to us the greatest crime film ever created, which is portrayed as a big and epic mafia film. However, Mean Streets is the complete opposite of Mean Streets. It has a low budget, has a small scoped story and takes crime films back a few years. Even with all the changes, Mean Streets is a rather enjoyable film by master filmmaker Martin Scorsese, who would later go on to make far greater films.

This is where Mean Streets is separated from other crime masterpieces such as The Godfather Parts I & II, Pulp Fiction, Goodfellas and even other crime films such as the absurd Scarface. The story is such a shorter part of the story that the essential focus isn’t always around the story but more so the characters. Here is where I have one of my issues. Whilst the story is told early on about Johnny Boy (Robert de Niro) owing money to many people in the streets and how he is basically a con, the story come to a point in the middle of the film with Harvey Keitel’s Charlie and Teresa, Johnny’s cousin which is all about romance which completely threw me away from the story. Not that romance is a bad thing, in fact it works perfectly in The Godfather but here, it felt as if the entire focus suddenly shifted which made my attention shift. From here, the story becomes less relevant until towards which is a rather pity considering that by the end of the film, the story folds up beautifully. It is truly a pity that a little more focus wasn’t spent on the basic story.

In one of his earliest films, Robert de Niro truly delivers a great performance as a semi psychotic teenaged man with a tendency to go off towards others and a tendency towards violence. De Niro completely embodies the character of Johnny Boy and is a rather pity that he didn’t receive the role of Sonny in The Godfather in the previous year. The following year, De Niro keeps up his fantastic acting as Vito in The Godfather Part II and then as Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver. From Mean Streets, De Niro became an acting legend. Twenty years before Reservoir Dogs, Harvey Keitel starred in Scorsese’s Mean Streets as an uncertain and much more friendly and thought provoking man by the name of Charlie, who throughout the film sticks up for Johnny and for others. Keitel too, delivers a fantastic performance. The rest of the cast all give good performances each being able to act to Scorsese’s writing. De Niro shows strength, power, greed, violence and even corruption from an innocent boy to a thief. Keitel perfectly brings to the table what crime life can do to people and is used to separate others from him being able to illustrate what life is like for those who are involved in everyday crime.

By now, Martin Scorsese is a masterful director but back then, he wasn’t a name. In Mean Streets, whilst definitely providing a good premise and some fantastic actors, as well as an engaging script (just like all his other films), Mean Streets is easily his weakest film I’ve seen (I have not seen Hugo and his more recent work) Whilst a very interesting first act, the second act of this film falls underwater with the third act having to rise from the water which it eventually does. However, when viewed as one piece, Mean Streets can be a little tiring, a little messy and a little tough to relate to, especially when a love story is rather suddenly introduced and is eventually one of the central focuses. Whilst a definite good film with great performances, Mean Streets didn’t meet my expectations but is nevertheless, a film that I enjoyed even though it can be a little messy as one film.

Grade- 7.5/10

#2- The Godfather (1972) review

Hailed by many as the greatest film to ever grace the big screen, it can usually be hard to agree with such statement when hundreds of ground breaking films have also been released but in this case, when the Godfather Part I is considered the greatest of all time, I without hesitation, will agree!

Focusing around the Corleone Family, the story’s essential focus is that of their youngest son, Michael Corleone, a World War II patriotic veteran who has returned home just in time for his sister’s wedding. The film depicts the fall and rise to power of Michael Corleone as well as various other family businesses movements.

The greatest strength of the film, which is extremely tough to pick one when everything about this movie is flawless and perfection, but the greatest aspect of the film is the acting. Marlon Brando’s performance of Vito Corleone is what I believe one of the all time greatest performances ever. It is chilling, calming, intense but completely believable. If I were to ever have a godfather, I would imagine him as Brando’s Vito. He embodies that, he is the Godfather! You remember the poster to Forrest Gump that says “TOM HANKS….IS FORREST GUMP”, in this case it should most certainly say ‘MARLON BRANDO IS THE GODFATHER” He is the scene stealer of the film, he owns the film, he motivates the film and he is simply the driving force of the film. 

However, the supporting cast is unbelievable. Robert Duvall as Tom Hagen, adopted son of the family and lawyer, Duvall is fantastic in his role and is welcome! His character is also superbly done. James Caan as the oldest brother, Sonny, is unbelievable and believe me, right up there with Al Pacino’s performance in this film. It’s a truly remarkable performance, that everything I see him, I’m left with the biggest of smiles on my face! Caan and Brando are the ones that are sorely missed in The Godfather Part II. Diane Keaton is great in her role, despite heavy criticism towards her performance. It  isn’t most definitely the greatest she could give but it is a believable performance. However, what would acting be without a strong performance by our lead star: Al Pacino. Despite not being the scene stealer, it is mainly Michael’s story and Al Pacino is the only man to possibly play Michael. He is innocent when he needs to be, caring and lovable and simply, the one character you wouldn’t want to fall into the family business but when he does, it is one of the greatest performances ever. Like Brando, it is extremely relaxed yet extremely intimidating.

The acting is flawless, the direction taken by Francis Ford Coppola is only described by the word ‘flawless’ and that’s what every aspect of the film is. The writing is superb and obviously helps from incredibly strong source material by Mario Puzo and the amazing cinematography is just gorgeous to look at. Every scene is filmed in the most gorgeous of ways even though it does not seem like they try to do so. That’s what good filming does! Gorgeously filmed and executed, along with strong writing, The Godfather is still flawless.

When you have a three hour epic like The Godfather, the pacing to the film must be strong and that’s exactly what this film is. It is paced unbelievably well. For a three hour film, a lot of important events happen such as the death of a character. Francis Ford Coppola shows his mastery here by leaving a clear indication to how it affects Michael but has the brain to not have any further discussions about this, therefore not wasting any time unnecessarily. Whilst this may be considered too packed, believe it or not, it isn’t. There isn’t one moment that feels too slow nor too packed. The dialogue is downright amazing, the music is legendary. One of the most iconic soundtracks ever to grace the screen, everything it plays throughout this film, I fall in love with it. Whereas Part II uses it, it doesn’t have the effect that the score has on this film.

The Godfather is packed with many iconic scenes and dialogue. Dialogue from ‘I’m gonna make him an offer he can’t refuse’ to ‘Look how they massacred my boy!’ to ‘It’s a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes!” are the definition of iconic dialogue. Then, the iconic scenes in this movie do not stop. Unlike Part II, which despite being a masterpiece, offers very little iconic sequences or if they are iconic, aren’t anywhere to the extent of the power in this film. The film is packed with iconic sequences to the horse head, to Luca Brasi, to the Sollozo/McCluskey incident, to Vito being shot, to the baptism, Vito’s talk with Michael, the agreement with the Five Families to the tollbooth sequence. The word iconic graces every minute of the film and that’s no joke!

And that is no joke too! That being said, The Godfather is the definition of a masterpiece and quite possibly, the greatest film ever made. A gorgeously shot movie with masterful directing and writing, to legendary acting and story-telling alongside one of the greatest film scores of all time, The Godfather is the definition of an iconic movie. It’s a legend…Everyone needs to see The Godfather…Or else…Vito Corleone will catch you!  

Grade- 10/10