Scorsese: Mean Streets
February 25, 2026
Martin Scorsese: Maestro of Cinema
Feel a dazzling rush of cinematic vitality and dark humor as a young man (Harvey Keitel), split between the rough world around him and his spiritual nature, tries to keep his loose cannon friend (Robert De Niro) and his girlfriend (Amy Robinson) safe from street toughs and Mob bosses. Inspired by Scorsese’s Little Italy background.
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Wednesday, February 25, 2026
In voiceover Martin Scorsese says, “You don’t make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home.” Independent cinema pioneer John Cassavetes had told Scorsese to “make a film that you really feel." Mean Streets' story and setting are on the writer-director’s home ground: “How we lived, what it was like in Little Italy; it’s a declaration, a statement of who I am.” Creatively shaping happenings involving Scorsese’s youthful friends brought him new, hugely gifted filmmaking friends, Robert De Niro and Harvey Keitel. The devout Charlie (Keitel) worships St. Francis of Assisi, who prayed, “Lord, make me an instrument of your peace.” Burdened by undefined past transgressions, Charlie feels better when he tries to keep provocative loose cannon Johnny Boy (De Niro) on a survivable path; this task is Charlie’s “penance." Johnny’s a crazed prankster, but brutal street toughs aren’t laughing. Charlie has a love for Johnny and Johnny’s cousin Teresa (Amy Robinson) that puts him at odds with Charlie’s uncle Mafia boss Giovanni (Cesare Da Nova): it’s a transgression against the family, a dishonor. Scorsese’s dazzling cinematic vitality and dark humor frame an eternal question: how does one be a good person in a rough world? We have to keep on going, where we live.
- Director: Martin Scorsese
- Principal Cast: Robert De Niro, Harvery Keitel, David Proval, Amy Robinson
- Country: USA
- Year: 1973
- Running Time: 112 min.
- Producer: Jonathan T. Taplin
- Screenplay: Martin Scorsese, Mardik Martin
- Cinematographers: Kent L. Wakeford
- Editors: Sidney Levin
- US Distributor: Warner Brothers