It's noteworthy that this was very early in Martin Scorsese's career, before he had especially made a name for himself or curated a style. It seems to me that this inexperience does rather come across in how the film was made, not necessarily in a manner of being bad but surely reflecting undeveloped skills and aesthetics. The crime drama template, mafioso exploration, and Tough Guy posturing, trademarks for the filmmaker, are present in spades, but in other ways this feels quite different from what Scorsese would go on to make even a few years later. The narrative structure is surprisingly loose, and a preponderance of the runtime consists of general vibes, basic establishment of characters and relationships, and flavorful scene writing rather than discrete plot. There is a story here, centered on stock cinematic Italian-American Charlie and the varied directions in which he is pulled, but plot progression is quite light and minimal for the most part. The editing seems extra curt at points, and there are times when Scorsese's direction and Kent L. Wakeford's cinematography come across as somewhat unpolished - be it deliberately or not - or possibly stylized in a manner that's a tad overzealous, as if in compensation for those skills that had not yet fully crystallized. Kind of emphasizing the point: the music is terrific at large, both the pop songs on the soundtrack and diegetic selections, not least in wryly contrasting with the violence in the tale and the slowly deepening spiral of events; nonetheless, the music sometimes stands out in a fashion that clashes with the proceedings, or at least overshadows all else.
There is nothing inherently wrong with any of this, and how much one appreciates 'Mean streets' is really a matter of personal preference. With that said, for my part I'm not concretely impressed, and I'm maybe even a little disappointed. Granted, that might speak to my own expectations more than anything else. In most every regard there are choices made at one time or another that I don't think were ideal ones, and while I can't fault those involved for just starting to really find their legs, the result has really rough edges that don't say "gritty, messy life on the streets" so much as "storytelling and film-making that had not yet matured to a point of expressly deserving praise." Yes, we do get tastes of the former in addition to the latter, and overall this is well made more than not. Those stunts and effects that are employed are great; though some skills are inchoate and some choices not specifically to my liking, the cast give capable performances (some actors or singular moments standing out to me more than others), and much the same verbiage could be applied to the cinematography, and Scorsese's direction. Other crew members operating behind the scenes turned in fine work, and there are fantastic ideas in the screenplay. And still, what I see in this picture above all is major slack in the storytelling, if not outright disorder, with the direction bearing facets of brazen self-indulgence in addition to echoing those traits. It's not that the sum total isn't enjoyable, but whether one is considering 'Mean streets' on its own merits or in comparison to Scorsese's later credits, it comes off to me as muddled and chaotic beyond what was intended, not fully convincing, and less than fully satisfying.
I'm glad for those who get more out of this movie than I do. It's just that I was anticipating a solid, hefty brick, and what I got was a malleable, nearly weightless sponge. In my eyes those beats that should have an impact simply don't on account of how this was put together, and the ending seems decidedly abrupt. I do like 'Mean streets,' and I want to like it more than I do; may you watch and find it a more rewarding experience.
There is nothing inherently wrong with any of this, and how much one appreciates 'Mean streets' is really a matter of personal preference. With that said, for my part I'm not concretely impressed, and I'm maybe even a little disappointed. Granted, that might speak to my own expectations more than anything else. In most every regard there are choices made at one time or another that I don't think were ideal ones, and while I can't fault those involved for just starting to really find their legs, the result has really rough edges that don't say "gritty, messy life on the streets" so much as "storytelling and film-making that had not yet matured to a point of expressly deserving praise." Yes, we do get tastes of the former in addition to the latter, and overall this is well made more than not. Those stunts and effects that are employed are great; though some skills are inchoate and some choices not specifically to my liking, the cast give capable performances (some actors or singular moments standing out to me more than others), and much the same verbiage could be applied to the cinematography, and Scorsese's direction. Other crew members operating behind the scenes turned in fine work, and there are fantastic ideas in the screenplay. And still, what I see in this picture above all is major slack in the storytelling, if not outright disorder, with the direction bearing facets of brazen self-indulgence in addition to echoing those traits. It's not that the sum total isn't enjoyable, but whether one is considering 'Mean streets' on its own merits or in comparison to Scorsese's later credits, it comes off to me as muddled and chaotic beyond what was intended, not fully convincing, and less than fully satisfying.
I'm glad for those who get more out of this movie than I do. It's just that I was anticipating a solid, hefty brick, and what I got was a malleable, nearly weightless sponge. In my eyes those beats that should have an impact simply don't on account of how this was put together, and the ending seems decidedly abrupt. I do like 'Mean streets,' and I want to like it more than I do; may you watch and find it a more rewarding experience.