Mean Streets

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Year:	1973
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	Martin Scorsese
Genre:	Gangland New York drama
Starring:	Robert De Niro, Harvey Keitel, David Proval
Rating:	5/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070379/
Tagline:	You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets...
Favourite line:	"Heh, watch this. I'm gonna shoot the light off the Empire State Building."

Intensity is the name of the game here.

Following the life of Charlie (Keitel) a small time hood collecting protection payments for the bigger fish in Little Italy, NYC, we see his life slowly unravel due to the actions of an associate, Johnny Boy, played with some relish by a welp-like Robert De Niro. Johnny is a sponger, borrowing money off anyone who will lend it, never intending to pay it back.
Inevitably, as Johnny is forced to borrow money from more and more influential people, his exploits land himself, his friend Charlie, as well as Charlies's epileptic girlfriend in the kind of trouble they have no way of extracating themselves from.
Their destiny is set from the outset: misery will rule over all.

Stunningly shot, capturing the chaos and frenzy of an alien world, Little Italy in New York circa 1972/73, this is tense and disturbing throughout
. Johnny Boy's bad boy antics are both entertaining and troubling; you know that if you were on the receiving end of his attitude, you too may be pretty pissed off, this portrays a life steeped in debt collection led violence. One of the movies strengths is the realism of the fighting. This is no Hollywoodised version of thuggery, this is down and dirty fighting, the way it really occurs. I know, I've been to The Cottage in Stourbridge on a Friday night and watched the blood flow.....
Provocative, adrenaline fuelled and very, very masculine, this is a belter of a movie.
Wonderful.