Mean Streets Collector’s Edition
Filed Under: Film, Reviews | Article Tags : DVD review
By: The Dweeb
August 2004
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Mean Streets, is a slow moving early drama from acclaimed master director Martin Scorsese. This film, along with several other of his signature titles has been released in a commemorative box set, The Martin Scorsese Collection. Wisely, Warners has also packaged each title individually giving some choice to the consumer as well, so they aren’t forced to buy the whole thing if they don’t want to. This title is actually a reissue, with a brand new transfer and director commentary.
As I said before, this semi autobiographical early attempt in his career, is a slow mover. There doesn’t seem to be much of a story arc for all these characters that live in New York’s Little Italy neighborhood. I thought that some of the plot points were not taken far enough, but this is more of a study in character interaction than action. I was under the impression this was a mob movie. There were mob like elements present, but they never materialized fully. Plus, I thought this film never really ended. We never see what happens to everyone when it just abruptly ends.
Oddly enough, this film mirrored events in The God Father Part II, even though that film didn’t come out until 1974. Many scenes were very similar, pretty much the same thing happened in two different time periods in the same location. Many scenes took place on the rooftops, events all happened around this crowded street festival, and even Robert Dinero ran around with a gun on the roof for a bit. Odd coincidence I’d say.
Mean Streets features a few actors who were new to scene over thirty years ago. This film marks the first time Robert Dinero worked with Martin Scorsese, and this movie helped to start him down his long career. Even back then, as the young fresh faced Johnny Boy character, his acting skills are apparent even then.
Opposite Johnny is Charlie, played by legendary veteran actor Harvey Keitel in a very early role for him as well. Its pretty funny seeing these two guys with such young faces in here. For somebody living on the “Mean Streets” he’s just way to nice of a guy. Charlie is trying to get his life together, and help others as well, but everyone just seems to step all over him. I was just waiting for him to take out Johnny because he was an idiot for most of the film, but unfortunately he gets screwed by him as well. Because of Harvey’s reputation that he carries with him now playing lots of gangster type roles (like Reservior Dogs and Pulp Fiction), I had a hard time watching him play somebody who is anything but that. Regardless, he did a fine job anyway.
Although it has an all new digital transfer, it is still very poor quality. The film, being dark as it is, is very grainy. The mono soundtrack is pretty much untouched and still isn’t as clean as it could be either. My home theatre system just used the center channel most of the time, not much was distributed to the other speakers. At one point I wasn’t sure if Dolby was even turned on my system! There are also not too many extra features included either, only a short documentary and the trailer are included. This disc is pretty much made for the commentary track fans only. Since this is a catalog release, the DVD is geared more for the Scorsese collector, and not for the casual fan.
Reviewer’s Opinion: BUY IT!!
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