Martin Scorsese’s first film was Who’s That Knocking at My Door?, and it was released in 1967. It began as a student short film, grew to feature length, and after a sex scene was shoehorned in for commercial purposes, the final product was born. Not many people have seen it, but many who have claim it shows a director of incredible promise, and it focuses on a protagonist named J.R. (played by Harvey Keitel) who wrestles with his Catholic guilt. Scorsese’s career was finally launched, and he went on to make the exploitation film Boxcar Bertha for producer Roger Corman.
After that excursion he delved back to his roots and updated the themes of Who’s That Knocking at My Door? and came out with Mean Streets, and suddenly one of America’s greatest filmmakers was born. The J.R. character from Who’s That Knocking becomes Charlie, a young man in Little Italy who aspires to rise up in the Mafia, all while carrying on a relationship with an epileptic girl Teresa, struggling with Catholicism, and looking after Teresa’s cousin Johnny Boy.
Charlie is played by Harvey Keitel, then a complete unknown, and he performs incredibly well here. The character faces a laundry list of internal conflicts throughout the film, and it is clear that these are many conflicts Scorsese himself faced in his young life. The opening narration is by Scorsese himself:
“You don't make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bulls**t and you know it.”
The four main characters are introduced off the bat, and their first moments onscreen are brilliant in that they tell us most of what we need to know within seconds. Tony (David Proval) owns a bar, and he knows most of the people that come in, the good and the bad. Michael (Richard Romanus) provides various goods (such as cigarettes) to his friends so long as he is paid back. Johnny Boy (Robert DeNiro) is hot-tempered and owes money to just about everyone including Michael. Our first shot of Johnny Boy shows him blowing up a mailbox.
Last but not least, our hero Charlie, played by Harvey Keitel. He is in a church. A candle burns nearby. He takes his finger and attempts to hold it above the flame, but is unable. This is a feat he will attempt throughout the film. To his friends he claims it is just a magic trick he’s trying. To Charlie it cuts to his very core. Charlie is afraid of going to hell, but he knows he is not a righteous person. He imagines hell as that feeling of the flame against the flesh, only “a million times” more intense. Early on he explains:
“The pain in hell has two sides. The kind you can touch with your hand; the kind you can feel in your heart... your soul, the spiritual side. And you know... the worst of the two is the spiritual.”
Within minutes Charlie leaves the church and goes to his friend Tony’s bar. There is a red glow throughout. Topless women dance onstage. Herein lies the hypocrisy of Charlie’s being. He wants to be a devout Catholic, tells people he is, but he routinely goes to this hotbed of alcohol and sin. He carries on a sexual relationship with Teresa, Jonny Boy’s cousin, but has no intention of marrying her. She tells him he loves him, but he refuses to respond. He tells her he doesn’t, and at one point simply responds “Don’t say that”. Charlie’s common response to everyone is “What’s the matter with you?” in a lovely Italian-American accent. He never once realizes that the problem might be himself.
This film marks the beginning of Robert DeNiro’s string of masterful performances. When Mean Streets was released he was nobody, but his dazzling performance as Johnny Boy gained everyone’s attention quickly. He won an Oscar for his next role as a young Vito Corleone in The Godfather: Part Two. After that was Taxi Driver. Robert DeNiro did not act in these days, he transformed. In no two consecutive films did he even look like the same man. Compare this to the DeNiro we see today, who at times appears to be acting between naps. I don’t think we’ve seen a truly inspired Robert DeNiro performance since Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown, unless you count The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle.
It is clear the dilemmas faced by Charlie in Mean Streets reflect certain situations Scorsese himself face back in his younger days. Charlie is attracted to a dancer at Tony’s bar, but she’s black. He eventually attempts to take her on a date, but he chickens out. What if he’s seen?
Scorsese has had a gift for capturing realistic violence onscreen throughout his entire career, and here is where it all begins. Scorsese does not linger on violent acts. They happen quickly, we’re all surprised, but life goes on. The fights here are not clean and pretty, but clumsy. A crucial bar fight is shot with various longer shots, and the characters are not fighting with any real precision. In many cases the characters are trying to run away. The violence here is not as brutal as it would become in later Scorsese films, but the basic idea is here to be seen.
In the end nothing Charlie does is good enough for anybody. He wants to open his own restaurant under the protection of the mafia, but they tell him not to associate with Jonny Boy or Teresa. To Michael he acts as the middle man for Jonny Boy, trying to reassure that all debts will be paid. Nothing he does can please himself or those above him, including the mob, his friends, his girlfriend, or the big guy, God. After the car crash at the end Charlie looks at the sky, as if he is asking “What can I do?”. Mean Streets came on to the film scene with a bang in 1973 and everyone took notice. This kid Scorsese means business.
Summer of Scorsese
Original Post
Goodfellas
Taxi Driver
After Hours
Gangs of New York
Mean Streets
The Departed (My Favorite Movies)
Shutter Island (Review)
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