Mean Streets

 Year of Release:  1973

Director:  Martin Scorsese

Screenplay:  Martin Scorsese and Mardik Martin, based on a story by Martin Scorsese

Starring:  Harvey Keitel, Robert De Niro, Amy Robinson, Richard Romanus, David Proval

Running Time:  112 minutes

Genre:  Crime drama

Four friends live in the Little Italy section of New York City:  Charlie (Keitel) is torn between his devout Catholicism and the jobs that he does for his mafioso uncle (Cesare Danova); Johnny Boy (De Niro) is a violent, mercurial wild man whose reckless ways are about to catch up with him; Michael (Romanus) is a small time gangster and money lender who wants to break into the big leagues of organised crime; and Tony (Proval) owns the bar and neighbourhood hangout where these guys all congregate.  Johnny Boy owes Michael a lot of money, and Michael is determined to collect one way or another.  Charlie is sucked in because he has vouched for Johnny, and he is liable to pay if Johnny can't make good on his debts.   To complicate matters further is Charlie's secret relationship with Johnny's epileptic cousin Teresa (Robinson).

Martin Scorsese and Harvey Keitel had previously worked together on Scorsese's debut feature Who's That Knocking at My Door? (1968) and Robert De Niro had already made several features for Brian De Palma, but this was the film that broke all three of them into the big time.  It's shot in an almost semi-documentary style, with a constantly moving, handheld camera (the production were unable to afford to lay down tracks for tracking shots).  Scorsese had intended the film to showcase the world that he had grown up in, and it showcases the trademark criss-crossing dialogue and a soundtrack mixing rock, Motown, pop and Italian opera.  The film is sprawling and loosely plotted, but there is a spiky, kinetic energy that keeps it moving along. It's anchored by two incredible performances by Keitel and De Niro.  Harvey Keitel as Charlie is someone who is trying to be good, but trapped in a violent world, and anchors the film.  Robert De Niro gives an incendiary performance as the unpredictable maniac.  However, in the film's insular and strongly male world, people of colour and women don't really get a look in.  The only female character who really has much to do is Amy Robinson's Teresa, who doesn't really appear until the second half of the film, but she does hold her own in the boy's club.  It's an exciting, dynamic film, where sudden violence is just around the corner.  

Harvey Keitel and Robert De Niro in Mean Streets

Clockers

Year of Release:  1995
Director:  Spike Lee
Screenplay:  Spike Lee and Richard Price, based on the novel Clockers by Richard Price
Starring:  Harvey Keitel, John Turturro, Delroy Lindo, Mekhi Phifer, Isaiah Washington, Keith David, Pee Wee Love
Running Time:  128 minutes
Genre:  Thriller, crime drama

Brooklyn, New York City:  Nineteen year old Strike (Phifer) is a "Clocker", a street level drug dealer, working for local drug dealer Rodney Little (Lindo).  When a rival dealer, who Little claims ripped him off, turns up dead, Strike's brother, Victor (Washington) confesses to the murder.  However, Victor is an honest, upstanding member of the community.  A hard-working family man who has never been in trouble with the law, and has no reason to commit murder.  Homicide detective Rocco Klein (Keitel) is convinced that Victor is innocent and taking the fall for Strike. 

Based on an acclaimed 1992 novel by Richard Price, which later served as inspiration for the TV series The Wire (2002-2008), this is an angry, stylish urban thriller.  It moves from gritty documentary-style realism, to stylish flamboyance, with Lee showcasing his trademark visual flair.  He also shows his skill with actors getting some great performances from a talented cast.  The characters are not just one dimensional, Klein is technically the hero, and does care about seeing justice done, but is also quite racist, at least in his language.  Strike is a dealer, but has moments of compassion and kindness.  Rodney Little is an avuncular father figure, and also a violent crime boss.  However the film is really about communities being ripped apart by drugs and violence, where casual murder is an everyday reality.  The film was not a success when it was first released, and seems to be an overlooked film in Lee's oeuvre, which is a real shame because it deserves a lot better and, sadly, is as relevant in  2020 as it was in 1995.

John Turturro, Mekhi Phifer and Harvey Keitel in Clockers   

The Duellists

Year of Release:  1977
Director:  Ridley Scott
Screenplay:  Gerald Vaughan-Hughes, based on the short story "The Duel" by Joseph Conrad
Starring:  Keith Carradine, Harvey Keitel, Albert Finney, Edward Fox, Cristina Rains, Tom Conti
Running Time:  100 minutes
Genre:  Historical drama

Strasbourg, 1800:  French soldiers Lieutenant Gabriel Feraud (Keitel) and Lieutenant Armand d'Hubert (Carradine) become embroiled in a quarrel, when Feraud feels insulted after d'Hubert interrupts his visit to a prominent local woman (Jenny Runacre) with an unpleasant message from their superiors.  A keen duellist, Feraud challenges d'Hubert to a duel, which leads to a succession of conflicts fought over years.

This was the feature debut from director Ridley Scott, who would go on to become one of the world's foremost filmmakers.  This is a visually striking film, full of breathtaking images, with characters often posed in stately tableaux which make it look like a nineteenth century painting come to life.  It takes place over  a period of fifteen years in a number of different countries and is set against the backdrop of the Napoleonic wars.  The focus is always on the drama between these two men:  d'Hubert is a charming, gallant hero who just wants to settle the thing and stop Feraud haunting him all the time.  Feraud, on the other hand, is presented as a boorish, obsessive, violent pig who wants to kill d'Hubert really over nothing.  With it's elegantly composed images, the film does at times feel too stately.  The biggest problem in the movie, however, are Keith Carradine, and particularly Harvey Keitel, who just do not convince as nineteenth century French soldiers.  Carradine looks the part, but every time he and, especially, Keitel open their mouths, the carefully constructed illusion of the 1800s is shattered.  That being said, this is a good film.  The story is interesting, if never particularly affecting, it's stunning to look at and it does have a real epic sweep to it.

Harvey Keitel and Keith Carradine are The Duellists

Bad Lieutenant

Year of Release:  1992
Director:  Abel Ferrara
Screenplay:  Zoe Lund, Paul Calderon and Abel Ferrara
Starring:  Harvey Keitel, Victor Argo, Paul Calderon, Eddie Daniels, Bianca Hunter, Zoe Lund, Vincent Laresca, Frankie Thorn
Running Time:  96 minutes
Genre:  Crime drama

This film from prolific director Abel Ferrara follows an unnamed New York Police Lieutenant (Keitel) who takes cocaine and heroin, swigs from a bottle of vodka while driving, steals drugs from a crime scene, robs thieves and in one very disturbing sequence pulls over two teenage girls (Daniels and Hunter) who are driving illegally and forces them to mime sex acts.  The Lieutenant also has  a severe gambling problem and owes the Mob thousands of dollars which he is unable to pay.  He becomes involved in the investigation into a brutal assault on a young nun (Thorn) when he learns that the Catholic church are offering a large cash reward.  However the nun refuses to identify her attackers, saying that she forgives them.  The Lieutenant embarks on his own spiritual journey.

This is a very gritty and brutal film.  Abel Ferrara was kind of the enfant terrible of American independent cinema in the 90s and this features many of his hallmarks such as mixing violence with religious iconography.  It mostly has a raw, stripped-down semi-documentary feel, with much of the dialogue apparently improvised.  People who are familiar with Harvey Keitel from his recent insurance commercials on TV may forget that he was one of the great actors of his generation, and Bad Lieutenant is one of his greatest performances.  The Lieutenant himself is a toxic mix of anger and self-hatred, and in among the more showy aspects of Keitel's performance: the yelling, the sobbing, the anguished howling, and stumbling around in the nude, the film works in the quieter moments, where a flicker of an expression or a look in the eyes conveys his disgust at how far he has fallen.  The Lieutenant is an absolutely loathsome character, but Keitel manages to give him some shriveled shred of humanity buried deep, deep down. 
This is a tough watch, and I would definitely recommend caution if you are easily offended, but it is not just lurid exploitation.  It is a powerful and serious film.
   

Harvey Keitel is the Bad Lieutenant 

Reservoir Dogs

Year of Release:  1992
Director:  Quentin Tarantino
Screenplay:  Quentin Tarantino
Starring:  Harvey Keitel, Tim Roth, Steve Buscemi, Micheal Madsen, Chris Penn, Laurence Tierney, Quentin Tarantino, Eddie Bunker
Running Time:  94 minutes
Genre:  Thriller, Crime

When a jewelry store robbery goes badly wrong, the surviving robbers retreat to their warehouse rendezvous.  It soon becomes clear that one of them was an undercover cop.  As suspicions and accusations pile up, the survivors are soon violently out of control.

This was the film that introduced the world, for better or worse, to Quentin Tarantino.  While this was a moderate success upon it's initial US release, it was an absolute sensation in Britain, where it was very controversial due to it's violence.  Denied a home video release in Britain until 1995, the film played pretty much constantly in late-night screenings for almost three years. 
The film opens with a pre-credit sequence set in a diner where the characters banter and kvetch about Madonna and the ethics of tipping, and then you're pretty much thrown into the action.  It takes place almost entirely in the aftermath of this botched heist, and unfolds in real time in this derelict warehouse, with flashbacks delineating the backstories of various characters and the events leading up to and immediately following the robbery (which crucially we never actually see).  It's well-written with Tarantino's typically profane, pop-culture fueled dialogue, and well-performed by a talented cast of notable character actors.  It's a violent, bloody film but not quite as violent as it's reputation suggests, the famous ear-slicing scene is never actually shown in all it's gory details.
It's a gritty, funny and genuinely exciting thriller.  Tarantino has made better films, but none of them have the stripped-down, muscular grit of this one.

Micheal Madsen, Harvey Keitel and Steve Buscemi in Reservoir Dogs