The film “Mean Streets” incorporates heavy themes of both redemption and religion. In many cases, the two are intertwined. An interpretation of this would be that the filmmaker is attempting to say that the only way to redemption is through religion. This idea is perfectly exemplified in the early scene in the film in which Robert De Niro's character enters the bar and is spotted by Harvey Keitel's character.
Earlier in the scene we see Harvey Keitel being questioned as to why he continuously stands by Robert De Niro, who has proven and will prove in the future to be unreliable, careless and distrustworthy. This initially sets up context for both characters, and we learn that Keitel chooses to back someone who may not be worth it. Keitel’s character is one who seeks redemption in the eyes of God, and therefore he is very religious. As De Niro’s character enters the bar, we push in on Keitels face and we hear his voice over state, “Thanks a lot lord for opening my eyes. You talk about penance and you send this through the door.” Directly after this the music kicks in and we see De Niro enter the bar in slow motion, as Keitel stares intently at him. This informs us as the viewer that Keitel's character is placing a great deal of thought and attention to De Niro’s character, and the previous voice over gives this context. Keitel's character sees it as his godly duty and path to redemption to watch over and protect De Niro’s character, regardless of how much of a burden he may be. It is clear that Keitel is not happy about this, but as he remarks to God, “we play by your rules.”
I could not simply choose just one 5 minute scene to discuss, so instead, I will be discussing 2 shorter scenes to the fullest extent. The first one is when we are introduced Johnny Boy and better introduced to Charlie. Before I discuss the explicit cinematic elements present in this scene, I think it is important to express the thematic continuities that are present in this film. America as an entity, religion, and the police are all lumped into one category- a higher power that people must appeal to. The colors of red, white, and blue are used to represent all three of these higher powers. Much of the discussion of these highers powers is shown through the juxtaposition of characterization between Johnny Boy and Charlie throughout the film. Charlie is shown as someone who appeals to these higher powers, while Johnny Boy is shown as someone who directly ignores these higher powers. This difference in how the characters treat the thematic elements that are present in the film both propels the plot, and gives better insight into these thematic elements. In the scene in which Johnny Boy is being introduced, the explicit content of the first shot is his destroying a mailbox. The analyze this shot cinematically, we must first look to color theory. The mailbox is red, white, and blue- and although these are usually the colors of mailboxes, Scorsese made a point to have Johnny Boy blow up the mailbox and not anything else. The mailbox represents both authority and America. It is not only a vital part of modern society, but is also a government agency- directly associated with the government. Even in film, first impressions are very important, and Johnny Boy’s first impression to the audience is his direct disregard for higher power. After he blows up the milbo, there is an unorthodox match cut to Charlie. As Johnny Boy runs away from the exploding mailbox, police sirens begin to wail. Immediately after this sound is played, the next shot is of Charlie in the church, with red, white, and blue candles all around. This juxtaposition of shots paired with the match cut show how both characters interact with a higher power, but both do so in different manners. Throughout the film, Charlie seems to abide by the confines and rules o the higher powers established, whereas Johnny Boy consistently disregards these higher powers- he doesn’t practice religion, he doesn’t care about the cops, and he doesn’t seem to care about the future of America. Throughout the entire film, the differences between Charlie and Johnny Boy are explimfied to show greater depth of the themes of religion and higher power.
The next scene I want to discuss is the scene in which they have a private party for the military personnel at their club. This is by far the most patriotic scene- they are celebrating a military man, there are red, white, and blue streamers everywhere, they are blasting american music, etc.. This is the scene in which Charlie is both confronted by the higher powers that abides to while also redeeming himself. After heavily drinking, Charlie tries to make his way around the party. The streamers on the ceiling begin to cast heavy shadow in a way similar to the venetian blinds in noir films. They cast shadows like jail bars across his face and body- connoting that he is trapped by the higher powers that surround him. Religion, the police, and America as a whole all output some type of rhetoric to help the public stay in line. Religion is based around a moral code, whereas laws are based around the legality of certain actions. Johnny Boy, someone who cheats the system, steals, commits arson, etc. seems to be thriving, while Charlie seems to be trapped by these higher powers. This is also the same scene in which Charlie is redeemed. Earlier in the film, Charlie is shown to force himself, to some extent, onto Theresa. After he wakes up from being incredibly drunk, the military man is trying to make advances on a woman. Charlie fights back the man, helps the woman out, and ends up slow dancing with her. In this action, he is rejecting the higher power (represented by the man from the military) and becoming a better person because of it. By having this in his film, I do not believe that Scorsese is trying to encourage anarchy, no. Rather I believe that he is trying to say that in the political climate of New York City during that time period, if you wanted to succeed, you couldn’t merely play by the rules.
Mean Streets by Martin Scorsese is a film that draws a lot to the theme of religion almost to the point where the film revolves around religion, personally I believe it would not be right to only focus on one 5 minute scene, when plenty of scenes have such strong symbols of religion. A reoccuring location in the movie is the church that Charlie visits, throughout the film he visits the church a few times and when it happens it is to cleanse himself of what needs to be cleansed, the scenes when hes in the church are always very dark, as to show isolation then after the fact we are greeted with a very bright scene as to show that he is once holy again. The film as a whole also revolves around redemption as a very important theme. While, Charlie does want to be in the mob he does not truly put his heart into it and he regrets some of the decisions he makes which causes him to want to take his life back into his own hands which is why he decides to go to the church.
The themes of redemption and religion in Mean Streets are closely linked. The scene I will be examining is near the beginning of the movie when Charlie goes to the church seeking forgiveness for his criminal activity. In this scene, even though it’s evident Charlie wants to look to God for forgiveness, he expresses his disappointment and disillusionment with his faith because it’s like a routine. He commits a crime, he goes to church to redeem himself, and it all repeats. In the very beginning of this scene, we still hear the sirens from the last scene of Johnny Boy blowing things up. The sound of the sirens over the shot of the church suggests that Charlie cannot escape his life of crime, even if he tries to when he goes to church. His anxiety of someday being caught by the police is always looming over him. The shot of Charlie kneeling that shows his face starts at a high angle, representing God looking down on him, but the camera moves to a high angle, indicating that maybe Charlie doesn’t want God’s judgement and rejects religion. The next shot of the Jesus statue uses a jump cut to a closer view of it and this cut is jarring, and conveys the suffocating pressure Charlie feels from religion. Overall, in the film Charlie seeks redemption through God, but questions his faith in the process because of his guilt.
Mean Streets’ main character, Charlie, is somewhat preoccupied with the complications of being a good person and the relevance of religion in this concept, meaning that the film itself contains many themes on redemption and religion. This is exceptionally overt in the opening scene, setting the tone for the whole movie. The film opens with a black screen, with Charlie sharing his philosophy about church not being a real method of redemption in a voice-over. The black screen provides a sense of finality to Charlie’s words, showing that this is a concrete and uncomplicated belief of his. There is then a cut to him waking up early in the morning, and a tracking medium shot shows him getting up, looking in the mirror, and lying back down, covered in shadows either entirely or partly at all points. The shadows indicate to the audience, who currently knows nothing about him, that there is something overt in his life that he feels he needs redemption for, and his fixation on needing redemption represented by the mirror. After he lies down, jump cut to a close-up of his face shows him rubbing his eyes and turning to go back to sleep - which results in him turning away from the light entering his room. Following this, a clipshow of photos and videos from Charlie’s life, which were shown as small and rounded in frame, with a black background surrounding them, ends with a video of a church from a high angle. This clip grows larger until it takes up the whole frame, establishing the significance of the church in Charlie’s life. Additionally, the other clips being surrounded by darkness indicates that something about Charlie’s life and business is morally ambiguous, or at least he considers it to be so. There appears to be a festival, and the church is covered in lights - meaning that, while Charlie may believe that the church is irrelevant in personal redemption, it still serves as a light in the darkness for him. Additionally, the initial high angle reflects the concept of a god figure watching over Charlie. The opening scene successfully introduces a number of questions about Charlie’s lifestyle and beliefs, as well as indicates the personal conflict with religion and redemption that he feels, a conflict that will follow him for the remainder of the film.
Mean Streets is a film which deals heavily with the concepts of religion and redemption, as well as the idea of redemption through religious faith. The main character of the film, Charlie, is an Italian-American man in New York City, a city which features a heavy presence of Italian-Americans throughout its history. Charlie is a low level criminal who collects debts for his loan shark uncle Giovanni, and as such is heavily entrenched within his neighborhood, as well as within the values of the people around him. He is a man burdened by his decisions, who feels an obligation to protect his young friend Johnny Boy. As such, he feels trapped, unable to escape the life forced upon him by his ancestry and neighborhood. He is forced to commit violent crimes, and as such seeks redemption through religious faith. This is shown early in the film, with Charlie frequenting a church in which he often prays. However, it becomes readily apparent that Charlie is discontent with the cyclic nature of his life, as he sees that church is not enough to justify his brutal existence. The important scene in question follows Johnny Boy blowing up a mailbox, with the juxtaposition of these scenes showing the inescapability of violence within the area. Furthermore, the scene is scored with the sounds of sirens related to the previous scene, showing that even when Charlie is attempting to redeem himself, he is unable to separate himself from the crimes he and those around him have committed.
With Charlie’s rejection of religious faith, he soon seeks redemption in another outlet. This outlet is Johnny Boy, a man he feels obligated to protect in an attempt to right his wrongs. Johnny Boy is characterized as a rash, codependent person, who Charlie constantly has to bail out. This is emphasized in the confrontation scene in the bar, as Johnny Boy is accosted by a low level loan shark. Johnny threatens the man with a gun, and as a result puts himself in harm's way. Charlie takes it upon himself to save him, attempting to leave town with both him and his cousin Teresa. The scene in question shows the powerlessness Charlie has to redeem himself, as nothing he does gets through to Johnny. This is shown with the juxtaposition of high and low angle shots, with high angle shots being used to show Charlie’s reactions to Johnny’s actions, and low angle shots to show Johnny’s inflated ego. Furthermore, the use of a bar between Charlie and Johnny further emphasize Charlie’s inability to fix the situation, as he has a literal and physical barrier between he and Johnny. As a result, Charlie is unable to redeem his friend, and in turn can not redeem himself.
Throughout Mean Streets Charlie struggles to choose between living religiously and doing illegal work for his uncle. A scene that showcases this struggle is when Charlie is in a restaurant and some men are discussing the boy involved in the bar fight that took place earlier in the movie. As they discuss how they will cover up the crime, Charlie eavesdrops in the bathroom. He washes his hands, which reflects religious purification rituals such as baptism. The juxtaposition between this religious imagery and the criminal activity Charlie is witnessing illustrates his inner conflict between the two worlds. Also, the song playing during this scene is “Addio, Sogni Di Gloria” or “Goodbye, Dreams of Glory.” It’s a song about growing up and giving up your imagination in exchange for the path that is set out for you. This message mirrors how Charlie feels in this scene as he is torn between religion and crime.
Mean Streets follows the world of wannabe gangster Charlie who drowns in his own contradiction of what is acceptable in the streets and at church. He scams people and goes into business with his mob-uncle, yet wishes nothing more than to repent the sins he is responsible for and exist within a peaceful environment. He is honest about his belief in a higher power, to the eye-rolling-amusement of his friends, and can even be seen praying in church for extended periods of time. One scene that correlates with his confusion is towards the beginning of the film when Charlie is praying with his internal thoughts heard through voiceover. We watch him interact with the religious decor in the church before the scene shifts to an image of the friend’s bar populated with sinners and objects of sin, while we can still hear his prayer. The bar is drenched in red lighting, symbolizing it’s equivalence to hell; the world Charlie is entering is also the one he tries his best to avoid.
Although Charlie never loses his connection to faith throughout the film, he finds his own way of redemption in the character of Johnny Boy. Johnny Boy is a lying, scamming kid that Charlie has known forever, Charlie taking it upon himself to keep him responsible and alive. None of the other characters have any patience for Johnny Boy which is why Charlie finds it a necessity to stick up for him. This friendship showcases Charlie’s empathy and how Johnny Boy can be misunderstood, although he probably doesn’t deserve Charlie’s help anyway. In Charlie’s mind, his attempt to straighten-out Johnny Boy, as well as keep him alive, makes up for those lives he is harming.
The film “Mean Streets” incorporates heavy themes of both redemption and religion. In many cases, the two are intertwined. An interpretation of this would be that the filmmaker is attempting to say that the only way to redemption is through religion. This idea is perfectly exemplified in the early scene in the film in which Robert De Niro's character enters the bar and is spotted by Harvey Keitel's character.
ReplyDeleteEarlier in the scene we see Harvey Keitel being questioned as to why he continuously stands by Robert De Niro, who has proven and will prove in the future to be unreliable, careless and distrustworthy. This initially sets up context for both characters, and we learn that Keitel chooses to back someone who may not be worth it. Keitel’s character is one who seeks redemption in the eyes of God, and therefore he is very religious. As De Niro’s character enters the bar, we push in on Keitels face and we hear his voice over state, “Thanks a lot lord for opening my eyes. You talk about penance and you send this through the door.” Directly after this the music kicks in and we see De Niro enter the bar in slow motion, as Keitel stares intently at him. This informs us as the viewer that Keitel's character is placing a great deal of thought and attention to De Niro’s character, and the previous voice over gives this context. Keitel's character sees it as his godly duty and path to redemption to watch over and protect De Niro’s character, regardless of how much of a burden he may be. It is clear that Keitel is not happy about this, but as he remarks to God, “we play by your rules.”
I could not simply choose just one 5 minute scene to discuss, so instead, I will be discussing 2 shorter scenes to the fullest extent. The first one is when we are introduced Johnny Boy and better introduced to Charlie. Before I discuss the explicit cinematic elements present in this scene, I think it is important to express the thematic continuities that are present in this film. America as an entity, religion, and the police are all lumped into one category- a higher power that people must appeal to. The colors of red, white, and blue are used to represent all three of these higher powers. Much of the discussion of these highers powers is shown through the juxtaposition of characterization between Johnny Boy and Charlie throughout the film. Charlie is shown as someone who appeals to these higher powers, while Johnny Boy is shown as someone who directly ignores these higher powers. This difference in how the characters treat the thematic elements that are present in the film both propels the plot, and gives better insight into these thematic elements.
ReplyDeleteIn the scene in which Johnny Boy is being introduced, the explicit content of the first shot is his destroying a mailbox. The analyze this shot cinematically, we must first look to color theory. The mailbox is red, white, and blue- and although these are usually the colors of mailboxes, Scorsese made a point to have Johnny Boy blow up the mailbox and not anything else. The mailbox represents both authority and America. It is not only a vital part of modern society, but is also a government agency- directly associated with the government. Even in film, first impressions are very important, and Johnny Boy’s first impression to the audience is his direct disregard for higher power. After he blows up the milbo, there is an unorthodox match cut to Charlie. As Johnny Boy runs away from the exploding mailbox, police sirens begin to wail. Immediately after this sound is played, the next shot is of Charlie in the church, with red, white, and blue candles all around. This juxtaposition of shots paired with the match cut show how both characters interact with a higher power, but both do so in different manners. Throughout the film, Charlie seems to abide by the confines and rules o the higher powers established, whereas Johnny Boy consistently disregards these higher powers- he doesn’t practice religion, he doesn’t care about the cops, and he doesn’t seem to care about the future of America. Throughout the entire film, the differences between Charlie and Johnny Boy are explimfied to show greater depth of the themes of religion and higher power.
The next scene I want to discuss is the scene in which they have a private party for the military personnel at their club. This is by far the most patriotic scene- they are celebrating a military man, there are red, white, and blue streamers everywhere, they are blasting american music, etc.. This is the scene in which Charlie is both confronted by the higher powers that abides to while also redeeming himself. After heavily drinking, Charlie tries to make his way around the party. The streamers on the ceiling begin to cast heavy shadow in a way similar to the venetian blinds in noir films. They cast shadows like jail bars across his face and body- connoting that he is trapped by the higher powers that surround him. Religion, the police, and America as a whole all output some type of rhetoric to help the public stay in line. Religion is based around a moral code, whereas laws are based around the legality of certain actions. Johnny Boy, someone who cheats the system, steals, commits arson, etc. seems to be thriving, while Charlie seems to be trapped by these higher powers. This is also the same scene in which Charlie is redeemed. Earlier in the film, Charlie is shown to force himself, to some extent, onto Theresa. After he wakes up from being incredibly drunk, the military man is trying to make advances on a woman. Charlie fights back the man, helps the woman out, and ends up slow dancing with her. In this action, he is rejecting the higher power (represented by the man from the military) and becoming a better person because of it. By having this in his film, I do not believe that Scorsese is trying to encourage anarchy, no. Rather I believe that he is trying to say that in the political climate of New York City during that time period, if you wanted to succeed, you couldn’t merely play by the rules.
DeleteMean Streets by Martin Scorsese is a film that draws a lot to the theme of religion almost to the point where the film revolves around religion, personally I believe it would not be right to only focus on one 5 minute scene, when plenty of scenes have such strong symbols of religion. A reoccuring location in the movie is the church that Charlie visits, throughout the film he visits the church a few times and when it happens it is to cleanse himself of what needs to be cleansed, the scenes when hes in the church are always very dark, as to show isolation then after the fact we are greeted with a very bright scene as to show that he is once holy again. The film as a whole also revolves around redemption as a very important theme. While, Charlie does want to be in the mob he does not truly put his heart into it and he regrets some of the decisions he makes which causes him to want to take his life back into his own hands which is why he decides to go to the church.
ReplyDeleteThe themes of redemption and religion in Mean Streets are closely linked. The scene I will be examining is near the beginning of the movie when Charlie goes to the church seeking forgiveness for his criminal activity. In this scene, even though it’s evident Charlie wants to look to God for forgiveness, he expresses his disappointment and disillusionment with his faith because it’s like a routine. He commits a crime, he goes to church to redeem himself, and it all repeats. In the very beginning of this scene, we still hear the sirens from the last scene of Johnny Boy blowing things up. The sound of the sirens over the shot of the church suggests that Charlie cannot escape his life of crime, even if he tries to when he goes to church. His anxiety of someday being caught by the police is always looming over him. The shot of Charlie kneeling that shows his face starts at a high angle, representing God looking down on him, but the camera moves to a high angle, indicating that maybe Charlie doesn’t want God’s judgement and rejects religion. The next shot of the Jesus statue uses a jump cut to a closer view of it and this cut is jarring, and conveys the suffocating pressure Charlie feels from religion. Overall, in the film Charlie seeks redemption through God, but questions his faith in the process because of his guilt.
ReplyDeleteMean Streets’ main character, Charlie, is somewhat preoccupied with the complications of being a good person and the relevance of religion in this concept, meaning that the film itself contains many themes on redemption and religion. This is exceptionally overt in the opening scene, setting the tone for the whole movie. The film opens with a black screen, with Charlie sharing his philosophy about church not being a real method of redemption in a voice-over. The black screen provides a sense of finality to Charlie’s words, showing that this is a concrete and uncomplicated belief of his. There is then a cut to him waking up early in the morning, and a tracking medium shot shows him getting up, looking in the mirror, and lying back down, covered in shadows either entirely or partly at all points. The shadows indicate to the audience, who currently knows nothing about him, that there is something overt in his life that he feels he needs redemption for, and his fixation on needing redemption represented by the mirror. After he lies down, jump cut to a close-up of his face shows him rubbing his eyes and turning to go back to sleep - which results in him turning away from the light entering his room. Following this, a clipshow of photos and videos from Charlie’s life, which were shown as small and rounded in frame, with a black background surrounding them, ends with a video of a church from a high angle. This clip grows larger until it takes up the whole frame, establishing the significance of the church in Charlie’s life. Additionally, the other clips being surrounded by darkness indicates that something about Charlie’s life and business is morally ambiguous, or at least he considers it to be so. There appears to be a festival, and the church is covered in lights - meaning that, while Charlie may believe that the church is irrelevant in personal redemption, it still serves as a light in the darkness for him. Additionally, the initial high angle reflects the concept of a god figure watching over Charlie. The opening scene successfully introduces a number of questions about Charlie’s lifestyle and beliefs, as well as indicates the personal conflict with religion and redemption that he feels, a conflict that will follow him for the remainder of the film.
ReplyDeleteMean Streets is a film which deals heavily with the concepts of religion and redemption, as well as the idea of redemption through religious faith. The main character of the film, Charlie, is an Italian-American man in New York City, a city which features a heavy presence of Italian-Americans throughout its history. Charlie is a low level criminal who collects debts for his loan shark uncle Giovanni, and as such is heavily entrenched within his neighborhood, as well as within the values of the people around him. He is a man burdened by his decisions, who feels an obligation to protect his young friend Johnny Boy. As such, he feels trapped, unable to escape the life forced upon him by his ancestry and neighborhood. He is forced to commit violent crimes, and as such seeks redemption through religious faith. This is shown early in the film, with Charlie frequenting a church in which he often prays. However, it becomes readily apparent that Charlie is discontent with the cyclic nature of his life, as he sees that church is not enough to justify his brutal existence. The important scene in question follows Johnny Boy blowing up a mailbox, with the juxtaposition of these scenes showing the inescapability of violence within the area. Furthermore, the scene is scored with the sounds of sirens related to the previous scene, showing that even when Charlie is attempting to redeem himself, he is unable to separate himself from the crimes he and those around him have committed.
ReplyDeleteWith Charlie’s rejection of religious faith, he soon seeks redemption in another outlet. This outlet is Johnny Boy, a man he feels obligated to protect in an attempt to right his wrongs. Johnny Boy is characterized as a rash, codependent person, who Charlie constantly has to bail out. This is emphasized in the confrontation scene in the bar, as Johnny Boy is accosted by a low level loan shark. Johnny threatens the man with a gun, and as a result puts himself in harm's way. Charlie takes it upon himself to save him, attempting to leave town with both him and his cousin Teresa. The scene in question shows the powerlessness Charlie has to redeem himself, as nothing he does gets through to Johnny. This is shown with the juxtaposition of high and low angle shots, with high angle shots being used to show Charlie’s reactions to Johnny’s actions, and low angle shots to show Johnny’s inflated ego. Furthermore, the use of a bar between Charlie and Johnny further emphasize Charlie’s inability to fix the situation, as he has a literal and physical barrier between he and Johnny. As a result, Charlie is unable to redeem his friend, and in turn can not redeem himself.
Throughout Mean Streets Charlie struggles to choose between living religiously and doing illegal work for his uncle. A scene that showcases this struggle is when Charlie is in a restaurant and some men are discussing the boy involved in the bar fight that took place earlier in the movie. As they discuss how they will cover up the crime, Charlie eavesdrops in the bathroom. He washes his hands, which reflects religious purification rituals such as baptism. The juxtaposition between this religious imagery and the criminal activity Charlie is witnessing illustrates his inner conflict between the two worlds. Also, the song playing during this scene is “Addio, Sogni Di Gloria” or “Goodbye, Dreams of Glory.” It’s a song about growing up and giving up your imagination in exchange for the path that is set out for you. This message mirrors how Charlie feels in this scene as he is torn between religion and crime.
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ReplyDeleteMean Streets follows the world of wannabe gangster Charlie who drowns in his own contradiction of what is acceptable in the streets and at church. He scams people and goes into business with his mob-uncle, yet wishes nothing more than to repent the sins he is responsible for and exist within a peaceful environment. He is honest about his belief in a higher power, to the eye-rolling-amusement of his friends, and can even be seen praying in church for extended periods of time. One scene that correlates with his confusion is towards the beginning of the film when Charlie is praying with his internal thoughts heard through voiceover. We watch him interact with the religious decor in the church before the scene shifts to an image of the friend’s bar populated with sinners and objects of sin, while we can still hear his prayer. The bar is drenched in red lighting, symbolizing it’s equivalence to hell; the world Charlie is entering is also the one he tries his best to avoid.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Charlie never loses his connection to faith throughout the film, he finds his own way of redemption in the character of Johnny Boy. Johnny Boy is a lying, scamming kid that Charlie has known forever, Charlie taking it upon himself to keep him responsible and alive. None of the other characters have any patience for Johnny Boy which is why Charlie finds it a necessity to stick up for him. This friendship showcases Charlie’s empathy and how Johnny Boy can be misunderstood, although he probably doesn’t deserve Charlie’s help anyway. In Charlie’s mind, his attempt to straighten-out Johnny Boy, as well as keep him alive, makes up for those lives he is harming.