Doomsday's Andrei Tarkovsky Love Fest

The Graduate is pretty awesome.

This is the one Scorsese film I have yet to see. I've seen Boxcar Bertha, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, fucking Kundun, but somehow, this one has escaped me.

It's been a while, but I remember my thoughts being essentially the same as Doomsday's.

I haven't seen After Hours but I'm a big fan of The King of Comedy.  I'll be getting to that soon.....

To understand Boxcar Bertha you must understand Roger Corman history. At the time, Corman had made movies based on 1930's gangsters (Al Capone, Ma Barker, etc) and wanted to do some more. This isn't a period piece or a political film about unions, it's a gangster movie about railroad robbers.

And now the continuation of....

Doomsday's Exploration of the Scorsese Filmography

Mean Streets (1973)

View count: Second time



I watched Mean Streets for the first time when I was about 21 or 22. It's scary to think about on a personal level that 10 years have passed since then. It was a summer where I was living at home and working at Best Buy. When I wasn't working I was burning through as many Netflix DVDs as I could. I would watch 2, sometimes 3 in a night, drop them back in the mail the next day then get another batch 2 days later. I watched a lot of movies that summer, Mean Streets being one of them, but looking back I realize that I didn't really appreciate them at the time. It was an instance of watching something and plugging it into your short term memory. In fact it was several instances of that. So when I watched Mean Streets again this past week it really was like watching it for the first time. The first viewing I had watched it, enjoyed it, but didn't really digest it. I was a different person then, someone who had not really wholly embraced film the way I do now. Even though I was watching a ton of movies I felt were mandatory I hadn't quite realized that film was a passion, I still considered it a hobby. When I got back to Mean Streets I remembered general bits here and there, almost like I remembered certain frames rather than actual scenes, but for the most part I couldn't have told you anything about it other than the cast. A lot has happened since my initial viewing. I've watched hundreds of movies, read several books about filmmakers, and Scorsese himself released a number of films and finally won that Academy Award. This time I was able to watch it through a different lens. That isn't to say that Mean Streets is a movie that takes a degree of maturity or age to appreciate it, I just didn't take away as much as I could have at the time I watched it. This go around however I was able to take away much, much more.

Typically a story has to hook you in some way. Whether it's a big event, reveal or a specific action there must be a hook so they audience can invest themselves. Mean Streets managed to do that by having the popular oldie Be My Baby play over the credits. We're introduced to the main players in the movie, headed by Charlie (Harvey Keitel). Charlie is a young, wannabe hood who spends time with his secret lover Teresa when he isn't working for his mob boss uncle. He also attempts to take Teresa's cousin Johnny Boy (Robert DeNiro before he was Robert DeNiro) under his wing but Johnny Boy makes that a tough job to do. Both Keitel and DeNiro give us a good glimpse into what they would give us over the course of their careers. I always found Keitel to be rather one note which isn't necessarily a bad thing but I've never bought it when he tries to veer off course like in The Piano for example. Movies like Mean Streets are his bread and butter, playing tough, stoic types that aren't terribly common nowadays. It's interesting to watch DeNiro in one of his earliest roles playing against the type that we're now used to but of course hadn't been established yet. We first see DeNiro as he walks into a bar and Jumpin' Jack Flash plays over his entrance. It's not a terribly creative song to use however it's a great song for the introduction of Johnny Boy and is a perfect example of a contemporary song that really energizes a scene. Again, one of Scorsese's hallmarks.

In a lot of ways Mean Streets isn't terribly different than Guess Who's Knocking At My Door? Neither movie has a carefully crafted plot with a beginning-middle-end narrative. If you were to boil down the synopsis of Mean Streets you could argue that it's about Charlie's attempts to make his way through the streets of New York and his interactions with those around him. For the movie itself that's only a brief description. Rather Mean Streets highlights the actions and conflicts between a handful of characters over a short period of time. The ending is a pretty good example in that it's really the end of an event and not the conclusion of the story as a whole. I suppose it's labeled a 'gangster' movie but it just doesn't feel like one. Sure Charlie is trying to make his way in the New York underworld run by his uncle but it's not a gangster movie in the sense that we're used to. Where Mean Streets and Guess Who's Knocking At My Door? diverge is that Mean Streets is a much more polished (although not entirely) product. Where Guess Who's Knocking At My Door? is a movie by a passionate filmmaker who had much to learn, Mean Streets is a movie by the same passionate filmmaker who's honing his craft as quickly as he's finding his voice.

I see Mean Streets as more of a continuation of Scorsese's development rather than a major milestone. You could argue the latter in that it's probably the first movie that completely captures Scorsese's style and it's also the first DeNiro/Scorsese pairing however I know that the likes of Taxi Driver and Raging Bull are right around the corner. Still, Mean Streets is a movie that stands on its own and is still a great watch more than 40 years on.

And now the continuation of....

Doomsday's Exploration of the Scorsese Filmography

Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)

View count: Second time



Martin Scorsese's follow-up to Mean Streets is a character-driven, part road trip/part self-discovery movie. Like his previous efforts it's a movie that's grounded in its characters whose journeys make up the real narrative. Unlike his previous films that dealt with hoods, criminals and their dealings, Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore profiles a widow and her irritating son as they drive from New Mexico to California. It's certainly a departure from just about any movie Scorsese had made before or would subsequently direct. It's for the most part light-hearted, it's funny at times and has pretty likable characters.

Ellen Burstyn received an Oscar for her portrayal of Alice Hyatt, a mid-thirties woman with an eleven year old son as she leaves her home in New Mexico in search of a better life in Monterey. After her uncaring and indifferent husband is killed in a car accident she sells her stuff, takes what little money she has and hits the road with son Tommy with hopes of rekindling her career as a singer. She finds employment where she can and meets men who she thinks might be able to give her what she wants until she reaches her final destination and learns that happiness and contentment doesn't always mean reaching the end goal.

At first glance Alice herself seems like someone who's doing what she needs to do to get by and fulfill her responsibility to her son. That isn't wrong however Alice is a deeper character than a woman who's just the mom of the year. She's reaching toward a goal, a lifestyle that seems within reach but never really is. She dreams of being a singer like she was 'in the old days' when she was happy and now wants to go back to that lifestyle. Most of us can think back to years past and remember some great times knowing that it would be impossible to try to reconstruct. Alice isn't the young singer she thought she was, she's thirty five with a young, bratty son she needs to support. Alice suffers from the horrible curse of wanting to go back to where she came from but never can no matter how hard she tries.

As I stated above Ellen Burnstyn won an Oscar for this film, the first acting Oscar given to a performer in a Scorsese movie. Diane Ladd also received an Oscar nomination for being a sassy waitress who helps introduce Alice to David (Kris Kristofferson), a rancher who frequents their cafe. David sees kindness in Alice and Alice sees security in David who also becomes a strong male figure for Tommy. David personifies the dilemma that Alice has to face, security vs. chasing a future that might never come. After thinking about Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore and that small theme that could be glossed over it started to become more than just a road trip, finding yourself kind of movie. It's a movie about a woman being forced to make life changing and selfless decisions when she wants everything figured out. It's a pretty strong and equally relatable message.

That's because they turned it into a TV show that lasted 9 years and 200 episodes. It's like M*A*S*H. We all know there's a movie but everyone remembers the TV show.

Yeah... it was like Mama's Family. A show that survived cause rednecks watched it.

Scorsese used to be the poor man's Brian de Palma.

Great review of what I've long considered my favourite film. I like that you pointed out the creativity and general strangeness of the story. The plot plays out so simply and is so rooted in Travis' character that the story doesn't really feel all that wild even though it is.