Scorsese has something very personal to say, but he's not a great storyteller yet, it would take some more years until he finally made it, with Mean Streets. But in this "college" film, the director shows an avant-garde sensibility, borrowed from the Nouvelle Vague, of course, and presents his favourite themes (guilt, rejection and male camaderie). As Ebert has said, it manages to connect two ages of american filmmaking -- and you can notice that with Scorsese's obsession with John Wayne.

Scorsese's first feature covers the same territory as _Mean Streets_, with a more experimental outlook.

A good early effort by Scorsese, but can be skipped by anybody who is not a real fan. Good Keitel performance.

Good first film by Scorsese, good performance by Keitel, too. However, the plot was not gripping, although it got better at times. It's easy to see that this an early showing what he has learned so far.

65.750

This is one of the most average movies I've ever seen, which is something I never thought I'd say about a Scorsese movie. There's nothing bad about it per se, but everything that happened kept disappearing from my mind mere minutes later. To be fair, I was rather tired when I watched it. But I was paying attention; the movie just didn't make any impression on me whatsoever.

Scorsese's rough draft for _Mean Streets_

First feature film of Scorsese, still in his student years, is bold and different from his later films. Technically, there are far more experimentation. He drew clear influences from new-wave auteurs both from France and America. Plot is very loose, just a bunch of almost unconnected scenes. While some scenes are very impressing, overall it feels like a bold student film, as it is.

The obvious comparison is to John Cassavetes' Shadows; the use of handheld black-and-white cameras, the NY setting, the lack of any real plot and the series of essentially pointless conversations and small events between characters. It's more experimental than Shadows, and as well-made, but not much better - both are more interesting as historical artifacts than engaging films.

Considerado o primeiro longa de Scorsese. Keitel está excelente, a cena com trilha do The Doors é magnífica!