“You don’t make up for your sins in church.
You do it in the streets,” says Martin Scorsese in the opening narration of his formative gangster picture, Mean Streets.
This line defined the overarching thematic ideology of Scorsese’s remarkable career, one that powers on with the upcoming release of Killers of the Flower Moon.
On its 50th anniversary, Mean Streets preceded the director’s visceral and intoxicating depictions of the criminal underworld, particularly Goodfellas, Casino, and The Wolf of Wall Street.
What makes Scorsese’s 1973 breakout film an essential text of his is its entrenched personal connection to the director’s upbringing and provocative convergence of faith and crime.
Scorsese is often unfairly maligned for solely relying on crime films to tell his stories, but this universe is where he seamlessly integrates his complex worldviews.
In retrospect, Mean Streets, which was recently added to the Criterion Collection, stands as Scorsese’s artistic Rosetta Stone.
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