Film

Mean Streets

Before the big operatic gangster epics, Scorsese shot this scrappy, live-wire portrait of small-time hoods in Little Italy, jukebox rock crashing into confession-booth guilt. It's loose, nervy, almost documentary in its restlessness, following Charlie's split loyalties between the church, the mob, and his unstable friend Johnny Boy. Essential if you want to see where Scorsese's whole career actually begins.

TMDb rating7.0

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GoodFellas1990

Scorsese returns to the same world seventeen years later with more money, more control, and the same moral rot underneath the glamour. It's the bigger, faster, funnier cousin of this film's anxious energy.

But It's slicker and more seductive than Mean Streets, which some find at odds with its supposed critique of that lifestyle.

GoodFellas poster

Raging Bull1980

De Niro and Scorsese again, this time turning the camera on a man destroying himself from the inside. Same interest in guilt and self-punishment, filtered through boxing instead of the mob.

But It's bleaker and more punishing, with a genuinely unlikeable protagonist and none of Mean Streets' scrappy humor.

Raging Bull poster

Taxi Driver1976

Another De Niro/Scorsese collaboration stalking the same grimy New York streets, but pushed into full psychological unraveling. You can feel Mean Streets' nervous camera growing more paranoid and isolated here.

But Travis Bickle is a much darker, lonelier figure than Charlie — this one sits with you uncomfortably.

Taxi Driver poster

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

I Vitelloni1953no page yet

Scorsese has cited this film as a formative influence — the same restless young men stuck in place, torn between duty, friendship, and their own failures to become someone.

Fellini's early, semi-autobiographical film about a pack of aimless young men in a small Italian town, drifting between bravado and quiet shame, unable to grow up or leave. It's the direct ancestor of Mean Streets' loitering, guilty energy.

But It's Italian neorealist-adjacent, slower and more melancholic, with none of the crime plot or violence.

More like this (8)

The Godfather1972

Released a year earlier, it's the operatic, mythic version of the same world Mean Streets renders as grubby and lived-in. Watching them together shows two totally different truths about the same subject.

But It's stately and classical where Mean Streets is jittery and street-level — a very different rhythm and scale.

The Godfather poster

Donnie Brasco1997

A quieter, more procedural look at loyalty and betrayal among low-level wiseguys, with Pacino doing some of his most restrained work. Same sense of men trapped by codes they can't escape.

But It's more polished and plot-driven, missing the loose, almost improvised texture of Scorsese's early style.

Donnie Brasco poster

A Bronx Tale1993

De Niro's directorial debut, about a kid torn between his honest father and the neighborhood gangster he idolizes — the same push and pull between duty and street glamour that defines Charlie's dilemma.

But It's warmer and more sentimental, with a clearer moral throughline than Mean Streets ever offers.

A Bronx Tale poster

Casino1995

Scorsese and De Niro go bigger and gaudier, trading street corners for Vegas neon, but the bones are the same: friendship curdling under greed and violence.

But It's nearly three hours of excess and narration-heavy plotting, a very different pace than Mean Streets' tight scrappiness.

Casino poster

The Departed2006

Scorsese's slickest, most mainstream crime thriller, but still obsessed with loyalty, identity, and men who can't tell which side they're really on.

But It's a genre thriller first and a character study second — much more plot machinery than Mean Streets ever had.

The Departed poster

Once Upon a Time in America1984

Sergio Leone's sprawling, elegiac take on the same Jewish-Italian gangster milieu, following childhood friends across decades. It's the epic, mournful version of the small, anxious world Mean Streets captures in miniature.

But It's nearly four hours long and moves at a dreamlike, nonlinear pace that demands real patience.

Once Upon a Time in America poster

Italianamerican1974no page yet

Same director, same streets, same Catholic-Italian household dynamics that shaped Charlie's world — this is the nonfiction source material made visible.

Scorsese's own documentary, just his parents in their kitchen talking about immigrant life, faith, and family. It's the real texture underneath Mean Streets' fiction — the same neighborhood, the same guilt, without the plot.

But It's only 48 minutes of two people talking around a table — no drama, no crime, just conversation.

Mikey and Nicky1976no page yet

A female director working in the same gritty, improvisational key as early Scorsese, applying it to the exact same theme — friendship curdling into betrayal among low-level criminals.

Elaine May's raw, underseen crime drama about two small-time hoods, one of whom may be set up to be killed by the other. Same jittery, semi-improvised feel and moral rot between supposed friends.

But It's rougher and less polished than anything Scorsese made, with a punishing, paranoid tone and famously difficult production history.

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Recommended by

GoodFellas, A Bronx Tale, Rumble Fish, Saturday Night Fever