MEANWHILE, ACROSS THE POND... : "MEAN STREETS"

Now we skip a few years. And an ocean – but I digress. What I like about Mean Steets – in conjunction to this weeks’ entries that is, I like a lot of things about the film but more of that in a sec – is that it is actually almost contemporary with Call the Midwife. At a push they are just about 10 years apart. But they both are, basically, a slice of life from impoverished, dangerous areas in two countries literally across the pond from each other. If you think about it, Johnny Boy or Charlie (ok, perhaps not Johnny Boy, but definitely Charlie) could well be one of the husbands of Jenny Lee’s patients. What we have here, you might say, is a simple reversal of perspective. Here however, there is no benign convent and nuns watching over people. Here, it’s a dog eat dog world and it’s really and truly every man for himself…

Charlie (Harvey Keitel) only knows this too well. Of course this is America, you can always build and live your dream, but in Little Italy, it can be a bit harder to do that than your average neighbourhood. Luckily Charlie knows how to use his head. And he has the right connections in the shape of his uncle Giovanni, an influential man in the neighbourhood, a businessman and unofficial moneylender. Giovanni likes Charlie a lot and is even considering making him manager of one of his restaurants, a job that Charlie dreams of and that would secure him for life. However, Charlie is a man torn between his head and his heart. Although his head shows him clearly what path to follow to become a “big man” of the neighbourhood like Giovanni, Charlie’s heart leads him directly to his distant cousin Teresa of whom Giovanni does not approve (on the grounds that she is “sick in the head” i.e. has epilepsy). That could be sidestepped, albeit with difficulty, if they manage to keep the relationship under the radar, which Charlie is doing despite loud protests from Teresa. But then there’s Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro). Charlie’s young, irresponsible and slightly mad cousin is nothing but trouble. Johnny Boy owes money to the entire neighbourhood and has neither a glimmer of hope of paying it back nor an ounce of respect for anyone. He is, as you can imagine, constantly in and out of trouble and heading straight for a very sticky end.  If he wants to achieve his own dreams Charlie may well have to stop bailing him out and concentrate on his own life. But that’s the problem with these head – heart conflicts you see…

This film is, of course, one of Martin Scorsese’s first films. But even so early on we can see the themes the cast and the style that will preoccupy Martin Scorsese for most of his career. This particular film is not for the most part quite as “hard hitting” as his later films. But in a funny kind of way, I like that. Yes, there is a very clear storyline, but the style of the film is a clever mix; that of a fly on the wall documentary mixed with a commercial film. So events unfurl a lot more slowly and less predictably then they would in your “average” Hollywood flic. This also matches Johnny Boy’s character very well, I guess the character in his early twenties (De Niro is 30 at the time but as you know that means very little in the world of film) and in any case Johnny Boy has the level of responsibility of a particularly air-headed 12 year old. He lives with utter disregard for the consequences of his actions and that means things can “erupt” at pretty much any moment. In short, be prepared for surprises.

This is, in fact, the classic story of a main character caught between his heart and his logic. Here the pull of the heart is twofold, because not only does Charlie desperately want to help Johnny Boy out, there is the matter of the woman he loves, Teresa. The dynamic there is also interesting because all Teresa wants is to get out of Little Italy, get a nice little flat and have a quiet life. Charlie however, is determined he will become a man of the neighbourhood. And leaving Little Italy is categorically out of the question. So already we see the strong feel of “neighbourhood” present in a lot of Scorsese films. Here, perversely it almost acts as the ultimate curse that brings Charlie down. To be fair, he would have had a calmer life if he had gone along with Teresa’s plan. Ah, but would their story then be worth making a film about? That, my dears, is a totally different story all together…