"Yeah"
"Ey?'"
"Eyy"
Generally regarded as Martin Scorsese’s first great film and
the third in my Scorsese in Sequence feature,
Mean Streets is perhaps Scorsese’s
most personal film to date. Centred in Manhattan ’s
Little Italy neighbourhood that Scorsese grew up, in the film charts the day to
day lives of a group of young Italian American men. Charlie (Harvey Keitel) is
a semi connected guy who works for his uncle, a local mafia boss but dreams of
running a restaurant. He feels responsible for his no good friend Johnny Boy
(Robert DeNiro) who owes everyone in the neighbourhood money and has no
intention of paying it back. Michael (Richard Romanus) is a loan shark who
Johnny Boy owes a huge debt to. Johnny Boy tries to avoid the people he owes
but this becomes difficult as both he and Michael frequent Tony’s (David
Proval) bar.