Mean Streets

Roughshod hard-hitting filmmaking with an edge didn’t get much better than this startling effort from Scorsese in which Keitel plays Charlie, a contradictive gangster who with a sense of respectability is looking to be accepted but living in a world that he feels he almost needs to apologise for. He gets embarrassed for example by the likes of debt-ridden unreliable pal Johnny boy (De Niro), and on the mean streets of New York, this buddy relationship is forever going to be imbued by the women, street drugs and crazily violent world that these guys live in.

A welcome re-issue for a film that many regard as a true streetwise classic from the rough but sharp musical soundtrack to the authentic view of lowlife New York. A treat if you’ve never seen it before and worth it for others merely wanting to see Keitel and De Niro arguably at their menacing best (and thankfully long before De Niro opted to sign up for bland comedies like Meet the Fockers !)

Matt Arnoldi