Films of the 1970s, No. 40
Charlie: Okay, okay, I just come out of confession, right? Right. And the priest gives me the usual penance, right? Ten hail Marys, ten Our Fathers, ten whatever. Now, you know the next week I'm going to come back and he just going to give me another ten Hail Marys and another ten Our Fathers, and... And I mean you know how I feel about that shit. Those things, they don't mean anything to me, they're just words. Now that may be okay for the others, but it just doesn't work for me. I mean, if I do something wrong I just want to pay for it my way. So I do my own penance for my own sins.
Mean Streets (1973)
Starring: Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro, David Proval, and Amy Robinson
Director: Martin Scorsese
About: The 1970s were a robust time for a lot of young filmmakers that were first getting their start. One of those is Scorsese. This isn't his only film on the list, and it's not the best of his work, but we see a lot of what has defined his career here with Mean Streets. It's a gangster film, something he's done many times in his career. It's a partnership with De Niro, who is prominently featured in many Scorsese films. Keitel, for that matter, has also worked with Scorsese more than once. And, as the quote indicates, it's also a film that shows his struggle with religion. That's been a hallmark of his career, with his approach changing over the decades. In fact, Scorsese has made some beautiful films of faith in more recent years but that wasn't where he was when he launched in the 1970s. I enjoyed Mean Streets and the construction here. You can see him developing into the filmmaker he'll become.
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