Mean Streets

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Mean Streets

R

1973

1h 52m

Crime

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

92%

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78 Reviews

84%

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50,000+ Ratings

A slice of street life in Little Italy among lower echelon Mafiosos, unbalanced punks, and petty criminals. A small-time hood gets in over his head with a vicious loan shark. In an attempt to free himself from the dangers of his debt, he gets help from a friend who is also involved in criminal activities.

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Critics Consensus

Mean Streets is a powerful tale of urban sin and guilt that marks Scorsese's arrival as an important cinematic voice and features electrifying performances from Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro.

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Colin Bennett

The Age (Australia)

09/24/2024

Despite vivid playing by Robert De Niro as the wildest and most self-destructive of them, relationships are not developed very far. Violence finally swamps them -- a brutal slaying which tries to elevate banal characters to some kind of heroic status.

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Kevin Maher

The Times (UK)

02/01/2024

Freeze frames, casual violence and conversation are there in service of a story about two apprentice hoodlums...

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Kristin M. Jones

Wall Street Journal

12/05/2023

For all its raw, exhilarating energy, it’s a film that can always break your heart.

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Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Nov 29

3.5/4

It was this picture that allowed Martin Scorsese to position himself as one of the most notable of the exciting new directors making their mark on Hollywood during the explosive ’70s.

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Wael Khairy

The Cinephile Fix

03/10/2025

Mean Streets opens a window to the indoor activities of gangsters. Scorsese uses pool halls, restaurants, bars, and clubs as the backdrop and as with most of his films, the external environment has an internal effect on our protagonist.

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Katie Hogan

FILMHOUNDS Magazine

01/22/2024

3/5

The violence is frequent and inconsistent, just like the plot direction, but there are decent performances within the film. Scorsese had a decent start to his career, this being his third film, and he only continued to develop his work for the better.

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tommy d

Feb 3

Absolutely beautiful in a theater. I can only imagine seeing it when it originally released.

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keven Q

@kevenquinlan Mar 31

Ok, I get that it's Scorsese's first movie- but besides some ok dialogue= it's just a bunch of disconnected scenes and NO STORY and every 1970's NYC trope you can think of. Even by the standard of the time- it's not very good. I have most of his stuff but can't keep this one for my collection.

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Christian M

@chriss17eu Feb 5

'Mean Streets' doesn’t spark immediate enthusiasm in me. I feel an early distance from both its story and characters. Harvey Keitel feels familiar and compelling, once again embodying the same guilt-driven, Catholic soul. Watching him wrestle with faith and desire is engaging. De Niro takes longer to click, but once he does, he becomes the film’s gravitational center, carrying scenes with pure charisma while the rest mainly serve their dynamic. The story is almost dull at times, drifting between romance, sex, and violence in a masculine world ruled by honor and pride. Yet halfway through, something shifts: the tone sharpens, the pieces fall into place, and my interest grows. The final moments stay with me. They don’t fix everything, but they give it meaning.

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Trevor D

@Bozack2000 Jan 31

You can tell that Scorsese was figuring out how to tell a story. This movie is a wonderful mess that has so many direction changes the audience gets whiplash. Lucky for the rest of us he figured it out and learned how to tell amazing stories. Plus it was really cool seeing this on the big screen as I wasn't alive when it was originally released.

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peter

Jan 30

I went to see this film because I had never seen it. The film was not a pretty depiction of my fellow Italians from the seventies which is when I was coming of age in NYC. The characters were all so empty and prone to such violence. There was a lot of talking but no one really connected in the film except through that violence, I am a big admirer of DeNero but I was thrilled when he finally got what was coming to his ugly character.

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Fred F.

@Fred1 Jan 29

Unforgivable overacting by De Niro.

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Martin Scorsese

Director

Robert De Niro

Johnny Boy Cervello

Harvey Keitel

Charlie

Richard Romanus

Michael

Amy Robinson

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David Proval

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Synopsis

A slice of street life in Little Italy among lower echelon Mafiosos, unbalanced punks, and petty criminals. A small-time hood gets in over his head with a vicious loan shark. In an attempt to free himself from the dangers of his debt, he gets help from a friend who is also involved in criminal activities.

Director: Martin Scorsese
Producer: Jonathan T. Taplin
Screenwriter: Martin Scorsese, Martin Scorsese, Mardik Martin
Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures
Production Co: Taplin - Perry - Scorsese Productions
Rating: R
Genre: Crime, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jan 1, 1973, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Dec 1, 2010
Box Office (Gross USA): $32.6K
Runtime: 1h 52m
Sound Mix: Mono