Mean Streets (1973) **

1973's “Mean Streets” isn't director Martin Scorcese's first feature, but I would say it's his first well-known feature. It marks the first of many collaborations between him and Robert De Niro, and it stars another frequent Scorcese collaborator, Harvey Keitel.

Keitel plays Charlie, a well-dressed, young, Italian New Yorker who spends his days helping collect debts for the Mafia, and his nights partying with his friends, as any young man should. Charlie is a hard worker with good prospects, but he is held back by his best friend, Johnny Boy (De Niro). Johnny is irresponsible, self-destructive, and probably mentally ill. In the shady, violent world in which these boys move, Johnny's craziness doesn't automatically disqualify him as a player; his violent streak sometimes comes in handy. The problem is his habit of borrowing money he can't pay back. Charlie constantly has to beg his associates to give his friend one more chance. Charlie also has a secret lover, Johnny's cousin, Teresa. She's a pretty girl, but she has epilepsy. In Charlie's world, that marks Teresa as damaged goods, so he can't date her openly. As Charlie hustles to impress his loan-shark uncle, he ultimately has to chose between his career on one hand and Johnny and Teresa on the other.

“Mean Streets” has some vaguely interesting moments, in particular, Charlie's angst at the contrast between his Catholic faith and his street lifestyle, and his inner dialogue on the subject. (His quote about “The pain of hell. The burn from a lighted match increased a million times. Infinite.” is sampled in a version of the Shriekback song “Nemesis.”) Charlie is constantly holding his finger up to flames, testing himself against what he imagines is the pain of hell, seeing if he can scare himself into true belief. He is also conflicted in his relationship to Teresa. Like any good Catholic, he disrespects her because she sleeps with him. Underneath, though, he really loves her, and he needs to find the strength to stand up and say, “This is my girl.”

With Johnny, however, Charlie isn't conflicted. He is constantly loyal to his friend, no matter how many times Johnny screws up, and it's this loyalty that frankly gets tedious and makes “Mean Streets” a bit of a bore. Johnny is such a piece of crap that I was already rooting for somebody to put a bullet in his head halfway through the film, and it's just painful watching Charlie bail him out over and over.

The greatest weakness of this film , however, is its nihilism. As with another Scorcese film, “Taxi Driver,” there is this long, painfully-drawn-out buildup to violence, and then I was left wondering, “What was the point?” Nothing gets resolved, and this isn't really a complete story. It's more a sketch from which Scorcese built later, great gangster films like “Goodfellas.” I'm clearly in the minority on this one. Most film writers consider this one of the great films. I find that, like some of the French New Wave films, it may have been very groundbreaking and influential, but viewed on its own merits, “Mean Streets” is boring and pointless. Other than a chance to sample a great director and two great actors in their early years, I can't think of a reason to recommend it.

2 stars out of 5