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Mean Streets (1973)

NOTE: This commentary is only available on the "Special Edition" DVD release of "Mean Streets."

Commentaries on this disc:

Commentary 1: Director Martin Scorsese Rating:6.4/10 (8 votes) [graph]Login to vote or review
Reviewed by pat00139 on March 5th, 2007:Find all reviews by pat00139
This track meanders here and there, with the director being fairly personal about his experiences in life regarding the movie. He talks about his motivations for making the movie and what certain scenes mean. Mr. Scorsese also talks about his cinematic influences and how they find themselves in the movie. Mrs. Robinson talks about her experiences in her first acting role, about her nude scenes, working with Mr. Scorsese and working with the other actors. It’s a nice track, and well worth listening too if you’re a fan of the film. One thing is that all the silent parts have been cut out, so the movie jumps a scene if there’s no one talking. In all, it lasts 1 hour, 21 minutes and 7 seconds.
Reviewed by sedna on December 5th, 2013:Find all reviews by sedna
Not an extremely interesting track. I definitely agree that it meanders. I think the most interesting part of it comes in the very beginning - the big chunk of Scorsese talking about influences for him as a filmmaker and the film. From then on I don't remember much of Scorsese, most of it is an actress and I guess I just didn't particularly find anything of interest from her comments. A disappointment.
Reviewed by Magneat-o on May 1st, 2015:Find all reviews by Magneat-o
This commentary is terrible. In fact Martin Scorsese is equally as bad at commentary as he is good at directing. Strange that. He rambles and goes off on tangents that you can barely keep up with. He likes to give you the origin story. Where his idea for the film came from. Then he gives you his perspective from today. There are a minute or two of interesting recollections but it doesn't make interesting commentary.
I like commentary that somewhat follows what you're seeing and explains the scenes and the shots and what happened behind the scenes. It doesn't have to be a constant, it just helps. So if you like that sort of thing, this isn't it. You usually don't learn much from Scorsese's commentary. Maybe just what movies to watch that he liked.
Amy Robinson's bit isn't much better. They keep switching between the two.
Watch 'Mean streets' for sure but steer clear of this commentary.
Reviewed by grimjack on July 17th, 2021:Find all reviews by grimjack
Oh man. I would call this a bad commentary even if it was not made by Martin Scorsese, but the fact that it is, makes it seem terrible. Listen to his track of Taxi Driver, or just talk about someone elses film, and you will understand why this one is rather disappointing.

In fairness, rather than talk about the film, he talks about what his life was at the time, what his childhood time was like, and how this movie tries to capture that. So he ends up talking about the source of the film, more than the film itself. Which is understandable, but still disappointing.

There are good moments, and some insightful comments, but this will be an awful introduction to Scorsese talking about movies.