Mean Streets (1973)

Right, I'll be upfront about something before we get into this: I watched Mean Streets with the worst toothache I've ever had in my life. I mean genuinely brutal, face-throbbing, can't-think-straight toothache. I put the film on because I needed something to drag my brain elsewhere, and I'm honestly not certain how much that coloured the whole experience. So take what follows with that caveat firmly in mind.

What I can say with confidence is that the bones of the thing are simple. De Niro's character owes somebody money, spends the whole film dodging that fact, and eventually the bill comes due. That's roughly it, stripped back. Now, plenty of great films run on a premise that thin. The question is whether everything hanging off that premise is compelling enough to carry you through, and for me, sitting there with half my jaw screaming, I found myself thinking: not quite.

The soundtrack, though. That's not in question. There's a real confidence to how the music is used, the way it drops in and colours a scene without feeling like it's underlining the mood for you. It doesn't feel like scoring in the traditional sense, it feels like the film has its own pulse, its own heartbeat thumping away underneath the dialogue and the grime of those New York streets. That much landed even through the fog of pain I was in.

And the acting is genuinely good. De Niro in particular is electric in a way that you can see was something new at the time. There's an unpredictability to him, a looseness, that makes you watch him closely even when the script isn't giving him much to work with. You believe every bit of the charm and every bit of the recklessness. Having covered Scorsese and De Niro's later work elsewhere, including Cape Fear and Gangs of New York, I can see Mean Streets as a kind of rough-edged prototype for what they'd both go on to do together. The DNA is all there.

But here's my honest problem with it: the story doesn't hold together well enough for me to call this a great film. I kept waiting for something to shift, for the tension to build into something that felt genuinely dangerous or surprising, and it never quite got there. Or maybe it did and I missed it because I was pressing my palm against my cheek and wondering whether I should just go to bed. That's the uncomfortable truth I have to sit with.

I'd genuinely like to revisit this one under better conditions, because I think it's the kind of film that rewards attention and patience, and I had neither that night. There's clearly something here that serious film people respond to, and I don't think they're all wrong. Scorsese's love for his own heritage and for this particular corner of New York feels real and lived-in, and if you want to see that examined more directly, Italianamerican is a fascinating companion piece.

As it stands, I enjoyed chunks of it. The performances kept me there. The music kept me there. But the story, at least on this particular miserable viewing, didn't give me enough to grab onto. Three stars, with the strong possibility that I'm being slightly unfair to it through absolutely no fault of the film's own.

Apologies, Scorsese. I'll come back when I've got the dental work sorted.

Rating: ★★★  | Year: 1973  | Watched: 2025-05-10

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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Martin Scorsese: Italianamerican (1974) · The King of Comedy (1982) · Gangs of New York (2002) · Cape Fear (1991)
More with Robert De Niro: The Untouchables (1987) · The King of Comedy (1982) · Shark Tale (2004) · Little Fockers (2010)
More from the 1970s: Fantastic Planet (1973) · Here and Elsewhere (1976) · Italianamerican (1974) · Punishment Park (1971)
More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)
More crime: A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Angst (1983) · Stolen Face (1952) · Cairo Station (1958)