Mean Streets: Critic Reviews

No matter how bleak the milieu, no matter how heartbreaking the narrative, some films are so thoroughly, beautifully realized they have a kind of tonic effect that has no relation to the subject matter.

The movie's blazing energy is still astounding; the verite street-scenes are terrific and Scorsese's pioneering use of popular music is genuinely thrilling.

In countless ways, right down to the detail of modern TV crime shows, Mean Streets is one of the source points of modern movies.

The acting and editing have such an original, tumultuous force that the picture is completely gripping.

Scorsese is exceptionally good at guiding his largely unknown cast to near-flawless recreations of types. Outstanding in this regard is De Niro.

Its greatness lies in its leanness, with nary a word, a move, a gesture that's nonessential.

showcases Scorsese's artistic strengths and weaknesses as they stood at the outset of his career

"Mean Streets" is more than a rambunctious time capsule of Italian American experience, it is groundbreaking film that announces the career of a truly original voice in world cinema.

Passionate, energetic, stylistically inventive and personally driven, it is the first mature, full blooded "Martin Scorsese Film."

Martin Scorsese's first great American crime story

"Mean Streets" is more than a rambunctious time capsule of Italian American experience, it is groundbreaking film that announces the career of a truly original voice in world cinema.

A tight, intense masterpiece from Scorsese, writing collaborator Mardik Martin and the iconic stars.

[I] commend it without reservation.

Exploring male camaraderie and street violence in a humorous, spontaneous, and nonjudgmental way, Mean Streets (Scorsese's third film) is arguably the most influential film of the 1970s.

A modern masterpiece where the setting is the star, even among a cast that is highlighted by Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel.

The film feels authentic, the characters are true, the situation hopeless

One of the best American films of the decade.

This film showed the world that a major talent had arrived on the scene.

Doesn't do it for me, I'm afraid.

Terrific. Top shelf talent at the top of their game, working immediately before they would change Hollywood.

Scorsese's first masterpiece is still gripping.

One of cinema's finest moments....you'll never forget it

Perfected here are Scorsese's patented slow-motion cutaways, combination pan/tracking shots, musical tangents, and impromptu bloodbaths

The Godfather made the mob glamorous. Mean Streets made it real. Martin Scorsese's ferocious, grimy 1973 classic is just as good as Francis Ford Coppola's masterpiece, but it shows us criminal life lower down the food chain.