Scorsese's Mean Streets

 The Independent Path to Scorsese’s Mean Streets:

A Scene Analysis of the Opening Sequence

Martin Scorsese’s 1973 film Mean Streets is a semi-autobiographical story of Scorsese’s life in New York’s Little Italy. It was released by Warner Bros and was produced by Taplin-Perry-Scorsese Productions. Mean Streets is an independent film, and the opening sequence is visually representative of not only the low budget they had to work with, but also Scorsese’s commitment to this personal project and his persistent drive to create the film he had envisioned, without the assistance of bigger producers looking to make profit driven changes to his story. The opening scenes reflect that the film is an independent production in both style and content. It was important for Scorsese to maintain creative control of the project since the story is closely aligned with his past experiences and set in the neighborhood he grew up in. Therefore he declined offers from other producers, namely Roger Corman, who sought to manipulate Scorsese’s vision, employing alternative motives for making this film. We will also consider the use of a handheld camera and natural lighting, as well as the self-reflexivity present in the opening sequence. Furthermore, the ambiguity exhibited in the film further distances it from Classical Hollywood Style. The opening sequence is presented as though these events have taken place in chronological order, and therefore occur before the events of the film are presented. However, once the film ends, it becomes questionable as to whether or not the opening home movie sequence does in fact take place prior to the film narrative, or afterward.

In many ways the film resembles an art film. As an alternative to Classical Hollywood Style, art cinema produced films pursuing a sense of realism in terms of real locations, social realism, psychological realism and complexities, and episodic narrative without any clear resolution. The cause and effect model is loosened. The freedoms of personal expression in the late 1960s into the 1970s are evident in Scorsese’s Mean Streets. These violations of Classical Hollywood Style are declared in the opening words of the film, spoken by Martin Scorsese himself. The ridicule of religion had been previously strictly prohibited, and before the film even begins the main character’s voiceover makes a cold statement questioning traditional religious practices. 

The film opens with a voiceover, “You don’t make up for your sins in church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. Everything else is bullshit and you know it”. Charlie (Harvey Keitel) abruptly sits up in bed. Natural lighting is used, as well as real location shooting and handheld camera. Handheld cameras were used instead of a track and dolly system because they could not afford to pay for tracks.

Sirens and horns can be heard from the busy city streets down below. Bright lights shine through the window, casting long horizontal shadows across Charlie’s face, fragmenting his character. He gets up and looks in the mirror, offering a reflection of the character, symbolizing how the film reflects Scorsese’s past experiences growing up in Little Italy. Charlie gets back in to bed, and as his head hits the pillow, the music begins.

Scorsese chose to spend half of the film’s budget on the soundtrack rights, rather than striving to achieve steady shots and the tracks needed for tracking shots. Choices like this really distinguish this film from other studio productions and Classical Hollywood Style in general.

The scene cuts to a shot of a film projector. The camera travels around the projector until it is in line with the front of the machine. A quick cut reveals what is presumably being projected, reflected by the smaller size of the frame, and by the old film effects fragmenting the images. The projection that continues to play throughout the opening credits resembles home video footage.

The home movie footage offers glimpses of various characters that will shortly be introduced in the film, including the protagonist, Charlie. At one point in the credit sequence, there is a still of Harvey Keitel and Martin Scorsese together. This self-reflexive moment is very interesting as it presents the director with the lead actor, and also draws attention to the autobiographical aspect of the film as Scorsese must bring to life the story he knows all too well.

The style of filming deployed throughout the opening credit sequence makes the images look like home movie footage. This adds an element of realism to the film, and is also very self-reflexive.

Another aspect of the home movie footage that is significant to note is the follow cam, which follows closely behind Keitel during the credit sequence. This technique makes the film we are watching appear to be documentary footage. This too adds to the film’s realism, or at least to the notion of realism as it is meant to cinematically depict Scorsese’s past experiences. It is a documentation of a particular part of his life.

The opening lines in the film that are presumably presented by Harvey Keitel as the film suggests, are actually spoken by Martin Scorsese. He borrowed this technique from Federico Fellini. Apparently Scorsese thought it was necessary and important to have a separate voice to distinguish between Charlie’s thoughts and actions.

The home movie sequence could be of events happening prior to the film’s narrative events, but could also arguably be depicting events that would occur after the film’s narrative is complete. There are moments of ambiguity throughout the film, but once it has concluded it is possible that the home movie opening sequence does chronologically continue after the filmed narrative. Whether or not this is true is ambiguous.

In summation, the opening scenes of Scorsese’s Mean Streets declare that the film is independent and proud of it. The use of handheld cameras, documentary-style follow cam shots, location shooting, natural lighting, director cameos, self-reflexivity, realism, authorial expressivity, and ambiguous sequencing of events together introduce the semi-autobiographical film in such a way that it declares its independence early on. By distancing itself from other studio productions and genre tropes, Mean Streets draws attention to the new freedoms available to filmmakers associated with the Hollywood Renaissance, art cinema, and the innovative independent film movement.