Wednesday 22 August 2012

22/08/12 "Mean Streets"

 

Ben Reid recommended movie of the day! If you are a fan of the gangster genre, make sure you watch "Mean Streets," otherwise, you ARE a mook. "Mean Streets" is the film that broke Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro into the mainstream and into a career defining partnership. Seeing this film, it is hard to deny that the film has had just as much of an impact on the gangster genre as "The Godfather." De Niro is more eccentric than ever, leading the film with his manic behavior. His character reminds me a lot of John Turturro's in "Miller's Crossing." Is this film a bigger examination of the crime trap of New York poverty or of one man's faith? Though not his most refined effort, it easy to see how "Mean Streets" led Scorsese into his classics through his painting of conflicted characters and his grimy view of big city life. "It's all bullshit except the pain. The pain of hell. The burn from a lighted match increased a million times. Infinite. Now, ya don't fuck around with the infinite. There's no way you do that. 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 ya know... the worst of the two is the spiritual."

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