Modes of Urban Alienation, pt 3: Mean Streets (1973)

Mean Streets (1973)

Urban Alienation permeates the gritty masterpiece Mean Streets like a recurring grace note. The previous sentence was not meant to be paradoxical but it is this theme of urban alienation that reinforces the value systems of the closed mob economy featured in this film. The recurring grace note of urban alienation here is the admirable, yet naïve, humanitarian efforts of Charlie (Harvey Keitel) to garner or maintain some semblance of unity within his group of friends that are being torn apart as a result of money or, to be more exact, cash money. This film is wonderful from a realistic perspective however there is subtlety in its artistic and thematic direction that serve to reinforce the view that the cinematography is exceptional. The streets come to life with a subtle force especially as the romantic pretensions are cast aside in favour of straightforward and terse, uncomplicated motifs. The mean streets are portrayed as a underground system that has allowed the mob economy to thrive away from the bubbling industrial and commercial centres of the city where the dominant bourgeoisie/capitalists of the city thrive as they exploit the working classes/ proletarians that sell their labour power to procure their means of subsistence thereby generating surplus value/unpaid labour time which is translated into profit on the basis of the capital advanced. This creates a cycle of exploitation which further impoverishes the proletariat as the increased productivity of their labour is absorbed into machinery/technology which becomes a dominant feature of the capital advanced in the form of the means of production. When machinery/technology is introduced several members f the proletariat are cast out of their employment and form the relative surplus population or the labour reserves in service of capital which keep competition amongst the workers intense thereby keeping wages at a low level or by forcing those that make high wages, when capital is accumulating rapidly, in service of capital, to work even harder because they know that someone is waiting in the unemployment booth to take their place. They are disposable once they slip up at their jobs. The creation of the relative surplus population eventually becomes a systemic recurrence within the capitalist society with many ramifications one of which is the mob economy that prides itself on the so called illegal behavior as it exploits the lumpenproletariat or the underclass that inherited the system of poverty that is a primary feature of those born within this group of outcasts from the capitalist system and who reside on the fringes of society as the generations before were cast into the shadows of the industrial reserve army and where only a few would be able to rise through the ranks as a result of physical posturing or education. I discussed in Midnight Cowboy (see my review) the many  features of the relative surplus population and will not dwell extensively here apart from a discussion of the mob economy which is the only element of this degrading system that requires any elaboration. 

There is no mistaking that the mob is not a glorious and triumphant element in such an instance for it does prey on the underclass or the lumpenproletariat in order to make a profit. There have been attempts to glamourize the mob and make them seem respectable. The means to make them seem respectable is through the themes and romantic elements that emphasize the grand formation of the mob enterprise in the harsh lands that characterize the shadows and fringes of industrial society or in some cases agricultural society. The mob as it will be seen in this review did form as a result of good intentions however eventually the movement becomes a farce as the leaders profit from the exploitation of the underclass particularly with the trade of illicit drugs and various contraband such as  so called illegal firearms so as to perpetuate the gang warfare within the fringes of society and with the encouragement of vice in the form of gambling, the growth of prostitution, swindling, high rates of extortion/taxation and loans bearing high interest rates. These elements all reinforce the destitution within the mob economy because money is such a scarcity within the community headed by the mob. The activities themselves are also a means to encourage the naked transactions associated with the cash economy for production is limited to petty commodity production or to small establishments such as, shops/stalls, diners or small insignificant restaurants and petty drug dealers which can only cater to the meager incomes being earned by those within the mob economy or the worst paid members of the proletariat. These naked cash transactions such as gambling also reinforce the money trade or how money changes hands without recourse to the production of commodities. In poor countries the government runs the country as if it were a mob economy. Vito Corleone in The Godfather 1 & 2 (1972 &1974) seems to be a pious mob figure when contrasted with the cut throat nature of the mob economy which represents another failure of the capitalist organization to correct the gross inequalities within its system.  This is the system we encounter in Mean Streets  and the individuals featured all seem to have inherited the concept of urban alienation where money is the sole determinant for existence or survival. If you do not have money in the great urban centres you are alienated particularly when money becomes the primary feature of relationships  or social interaction as it is in the cities of the world. People are prepared to kill you for money in such instances. In the mob economy of the great cities of the world we find not only the descendants of the relative surplus population but also descendants from the poor nations of the world, which are largely agrarian, that emigrated to great industrial centres of the world and found themselves as members of the mob economy as a result of being cast into the relative surplus population. In this film we have first generation members of New York’s Little Italy however the mob economy is a feature of most ethnic minorities such as the Hispanics, blacks descended or born in Africa, Arabs,  Asians and so on which were either born in America and descended from immigrants or  were members of the emigrating groups to America from which their descendants will spring such as we see with Vito Corleone in The Godfather. Mean Streets therefore documents this hazardous experience in America and can be applied analogously to the experience of other ethnic minorities. It so happens, however, that the Italians were able to establish a foothold in the gangland world which is why a lot of attention is placed on their enterprise as representative of the mob.

The story of Mean Streets is fairly straightforward and highlights in its own way how the way of living in the great urban centres is hazardous and impervious to social unity particularly as the capitalist society knows only the class system based on the division of labour which is most advanced under this mode of economic production. Charlie is a small timer associated with the mob that hopes to one day  climb up the ranks of the organization headed by his uncle Giovanni. His attempts to climb up through the ranks are hampered by his compassionate nature for his two friends that are considered less than respectable in the eyes of mob family. Firstly there is his lover Theresa who is prone to epileptic seizures and according to Charlie’s uncle is ‘sick in the head’. Secondly, his best friend is Johnny Boy (Robert De Niro) who can only be described as a hot head in deep with the loan sharks particularly with one who is also a friend of Charlie, Michael. Johnny Boy’s antics are oftentimes considered too wild even for a regular hot head as he knows no bounds. Robert De Niro as Johnny Boy gives one of his best performances and it is no wonder that it was a star turning role for him. These two individuals, Theresa and Johnny Boy, throughout the film threaten to derail Charlie’s efforts to rise through the ranks because it is not deemed honorable to associate with these two because they are both considered crazy in some way or form by various observers. Charlie as a Roman Catholic believes in exhibiting compassion for individuals despite lamenting the fact that it is almost futile as a result of the cutthroat nature of the society. You get a sense early on that this film is semi autobiographical on Scorsese’s part; one of the opening shots has a lively song playing as the roaming camera, after making us aware that it is a home video of sorts being projected,  thrusts itself into the light of a projector playing some home videos of the good old days featuring Charlie and his crew which include Johnny boy, Tony and Michael. This brings forth a feeling of the good old days or some romantic gesture on the part of the master filmmaker however when we become acquainted with the gritty atmosphere we realize that it is anything but in some instances. The character played by Charlie is also reminiscent of Scorsese who says himself, in a feature on The Departed (2006) special DVD edition, that he was never physically on par with most of the other neighbourhood kids simply because he was asthmatic and frail. He however used his smarts to his advantage and was able to interact on good terms with some of the social climbers within the mob economy. We see in Charlie a similar character who is more interested in climbing through his smarts because he is not physically capable as the enforcers that normally do the dirty deeds for the mob or those that run the rackets. Charlie tends to complain a lot about his right hand which is weak or impaired by some form of injury and this can be seen as a reference to Scorsese himself.  When Charlie and co. go to the movies it is no surprise to see them watching The Searchers (1956) which is one of Scorsese’s favourite films. 

The gritty style of the film is not novel apart from the clever use of the camera to highlight a state of mind and the lighting which emphasizes the perspective of the underworld as if it is located in some dimly lit cave or the concept of hell from a metaphysical perspective. The French Connection (1971) also offered a similar gritty style and also featured some of the lighting featured in Mean Streets  particularly when it came to the club scene where a lot of the action in this Scorsese picture takes place. American Graffiti (1973) released in the same year of the Scorsese picture also had similar nostalgic themes. Mean Streets does feature a festival, the feast, that is taking place alongside the action of the protagonists and seems to highlight the duality of Italian culture in America for on one side you have a mass celebration of the culture however interactions on the mean streets offer a different perspective on how that culture is being diluted in some respects by the naked cash economy of the mob economy and capitalist society at large.

The film did not run away with the awards as so many classic films seem to do in some cases however it was acknowledged by the critics to be a seminal film particularly with its portrayal of street life from the perspective of those individuals on the fringes of bourgeois society. Robert De Niro won best supporting actor awards from the ‘New York and national society of Film critics.’ Robert De Niro would go on to win the best supporting actor Oscar for his role as a young Vito Corleone in The Godfather pt 2 (1974). This film under review film offered a suitable contrast with the romantic and dramatic portrayal of the mob in The Godfather films. It offered a more distinct visual perspective of the mob economy than the Coppola versions. This was to be refined in Scorsese’s other masterpiece Goodfellas (1990). Films such as Mean Streets offer a more complete perspective of the mob that focuses not only on the chiefs but on their subordinates or enforcers. Coppola never spent much time on these lower tier individuals.

In this review I will continue my premise associated with the concept of urban alienation however it is strictly from the perspective of the mob economy which is created as a result of the industrial reserve army associated with capital. The mob economy is a testament to the destitution generated by capital as only a few are enriched while the mass of proletarians flounder on the fringes of society and thus have to resort to antagonistic behavior in order to survive. This antagonistic behavior is prevented in several quarters from being truly revolutionary. I chose to evaluate this film as opposed to Goodfellas for instance because in Mean Streets it is acknowledged that within society the moral virtue associated with unity based on clan association is slowly evaporating as a result of the naked cash economy of the capital dominated urban centres, such as New York, which is strong enough to isolate individuals once thought to be friends.

The Mob Economy

The Mob economy is in reference to organized crime but also in reference to the relative surplus population created by capitalist production. The relative surplus population here is bound up with the increasing levels of productivity generated by the proletariat under the bourgeoisie/ capitalist class. The growth of the technological apparatus absorbs the high levels of productivity and cast out a large number of the working class. In this case therefore the constant element represented by machinery grows in proportion to that attributed to variable capital or wage labour. The only recourse for the workers cast out of employment is to either upgrade their skill levels through education and become highly paid wage earners relative to the average wage earner or in the establishment of small businesses which may or may not grow based on the dominance of the established capitalist order. There are also service providers such as doctors and lawyers that are either in service to the Government of the bourgeoisie, the high income earners of the petty bourgeois class and organized crime; the so called lower orders of society cannot afford the services of such professional classes and are forced to weather the storm either by themselves or with the aid of welfare. Others may rely on their physical talent or eccentric personalities in order to become noticeable and fall within the purview of the circulation of commodities within the market place. Those in the arts, religion and sports fall under this category.  They are primarily advertizers regardless of their superb talents. The groups just mentioned fall within the realm of the petty bourgeois class which rises and fall according to the spirit of the times. This class is hardly dominant and is bound up with the dominance exhibited by the advanced bourgeoisie. The final category of the surplus population is represented by the so called criminal element that preys on the incomes of those employed under capital. These individuals are the ones that are exposed to the naked cash element that is essential to survival. This group is more than likely exposed to the elements considered illegal by the bourgeoisie class such as drugs, stealing, prostitution and bootlegging. The mob under the umbrella of organized crime is attributed to this class of individuals in this category whereas the mob is representative of the larger society and the relative surplus population produced by capital. The government of the bourgeoisie, for instance,  is supposed to represent the mob in its bid to retain power  regardless of its various classifications. The members of the petty bourgeois class for instance, as it rises and falls, either climbs closer towards the  top as it fraternizes in typical sycophant fashion with the dominant bourgeoisie or it falls within the ranks of those depraved or made utterly destitute through the exploitation by capital. If it does not fall then it is forced to negotiate with these depraved elements. The vapid intellectuals like to refer to these people as the middle class or even to differentiate between lower and upper middle class as they claim that capital must pay heed to the fortunes of its middle class. It is by pandering to the middle class that there is a gold rush as they are treated as if they are members of the typical mob. They are given handouts like anybody else that is a member of the working class. These handouts caused the global recession of 2008 where the members of the middle class like others were  targeted for their incomes during the boom leading up to 2008. The declining fortunes of the middle class is due to their fortunes under capital where technology has made them redundant i.e. more work can  be done with less of the variable element which generates surplus value for capital. The members of the middle class are nothing but highly paid wage earners that exist higher up on the food chain as they represent the more skilled variable element but their fortunes can fail them just as it does the those lower down on the ladder once capital grows to overwhelming proportions. This is all dependent on the industry in which one resides of course. The mob in this case includes the petty bourgeois class and is not solely attributable to organized crime or those members of the lumpenproletariat or those depraved elements of the relative surplus population.

The mob in this case can simply refer to those individuals not in power and this element is made apparent from early on within the advanced civilizations of each epoch.  We hear a lot of references to the mob in tales about to the Roman Empire. It is the decadent Roman Empire that has had such a profound influence on western civilization in terms of administration and so why not make reference to this fallen empire. The Roman Empire was hardly wealthy in comparison to today’s standards but it did embrace the concept of mob politics and pandering to those individuals not in power. In Mean Streets it is only ironic that the members of the surplus population are from Italy once home to one of the greatest empires that ever existed in western civilization corresponding to their mode of production. The mob would be under the auspices of the roman senators that administered the maintenance of the realm through the law, the development of infrastructure such as roads and elaborate houses of worship and most importantly the use of the armed forces which were the only way that Rome could control the outlying provinces or nations under its rule. Every move of the senators and the emperor were supposedly done in accordance to the whims of the people.  This is how it supposedly was but one cannot account for the fact that Rome was a highly exploitative empire particularly with its slave labour force that generated its wealth. The idea that the mob is an element that must be pandered to is erroneous because when individuals share a social bond then how individuals interact is based on the mode of economic production or how goods are exchanged. The quantity of goods exchanged relate to the social necessary labour required for their production. Rome was primarily agricultural with slaves to work the fields, with its reliance on merchants in order to procure goods from other countries or the army that would plunder other nations for their goods as they would offer tribute. This was the might of the Roman Empire. The fickle mob could only refer to the pompous ceremony associated with the physical posturing of the rulers and their slaves that would perform extraordinary feats in the name of Rome thereby keeping the people satisfied from the perspective of their material security. If the rulers were unable to provide material security for their citizens then they would face the wrath of the so called mob. This is not about being fickle for a social group is determined based on its methods of procurement of goods and the exchange of goods which is regulated by labour time. It is no wonder there were many slave revolts with the most famous led by Spartacus (1960).

The idea of slaves was reinforced by the fact that Rome was relatively poor when compared with these times. Slaves were never compensated apart from the meagre food rations and scanty clothing.  In Rome we find the elements of the mob today. Firstly, the slaves of Rome, apart from those engaged in  productive labour, were mere domestic servants and entertainers: sportsmen and women, poets, musicians, warriors (gladiators, foot soldiers and the generals), dancers,  prostitutes and the dramatists. In these days under capital this same group of entertainers are still in service of the ruling class as these groups attract investment which involves the production of commodities related to the brand of the entertainer (such as shoes, shirts etc) and become industries in their own right with some aspect of slave labour still retained which occurs in the Olympics for instance or with those eccentric personalities that do not get rewarded for their physical posturing simply because they are not the best in the field such as in the arts. They become regulated according to hierarchical rule like any other organization although they will never be able to compete with the dominant industries of the world because that is reserved for the large scale producers of capital who use these individuals to encourage the commodity fetish among the populace by applying some measure of mysticism to the product. Apart from those that can gain endorsement deals from capital the majority engage in slave labour in order to survive and are mostly located on the fringes of society where organized crime thrives. Many of them remain beggars so as to procure the means subsistence. In Rome their professions were regulated by slave labour and it is the same here but through  nominal wage labour.

Another feature of the mob is the concept of the state reinforced by the law and the law corresponds to the mode of production of the day which in this case is the bourgeois mode of production. Within the sphere of Mean Streets, which is dominated by the mob economy, we understand that these elements are more obvious as opposed to regulation by standards of the bourgeois which is merely reinforced by a bloated bureaucracy that delights in being obscure. The state is here an objective element and according to idealists it is an ideal to be adhered to and this was inherited from classical empires such as Rome and Greece. What is the state however if it does not correspond to the material production of society however for this would explain the revolts against the idealist state conception. The state only functions as a mandate of those who control the means of production however the state is meant to be a system of order for those who control the means of production and so keep the so called mob in line especially as it is the mob that provides capital with its relative surplus population with regards to cheap labour. The mob state we see in Mean Streets for instance revolves around a group of individuals that form a collective known as organized crime which is supposed to regulate those members of the relative surplus population on the fringes of society. On the fringes of society production is hardly on the scale to rival the industrial districts and so apart from petty commodity production or sales, the members of organized crime orchestrate so called illegal activities such as drugs, high interest rates in the form of loan sharks, high rates of taxation in the form of extortion, gambling, stealing/plunder, prostitution and entertainment within these spheres of illegal activity in order to get money circulating within the poorer communities. They are all run as a slave organization and this is the great inheritance of Rome in today’s society hence why the mob economy is referred alongside that of organized crime. What once made Rome great has also made it small and inferior to the advanced bourgeois mode of economic production. This mob economy however is reflective of society as a whole particularly as the mob evolves from the large population numbers within the great world cities. In Mean Streets we do hear references of patriotism towards the homeland of Italy and so it was with the glorious abstract that was represented by the Roman Empire where at one point the emperor was said to be divine when in fact he had to exploit the slaves in order to advance his position and that of his followers and overtime the so called mob would buy into the mysticism of the emperor’s divine right to rule regardless of his plundering and voracious nature.

The mob represented by organized crime is essential to the bourgeois economy and hence why it cannot be separated from it. The primary reason is that the mob economy represented by organized crime is a significant accumulator of money which may or may not be invested in the bourgeois economy as capital. It may be illegitimate but significant sums of money are accumulated through the means of exchange within this sphere on the fringes of society. The mob represented by so called organized crime then appears no different from the bourgeois class as exploiters of the destitute.  It Is this accumulation of money which may or may not be utilized as productive capital which commands the respect or fear of the dominant bourgeois economy. What you render unto Caesar  becomes a means for Caesar to rule hence the collective rule under the umbrella of so called organized crime becomes a force in society. A relationship between the mob and the politicians that also govern for the dominant bourgeois economy is inevitable as a result and, similar to the means by which the dominant bourgeoisie will contribute financially to the politicians, the mob begins to court favours by contributing financially as well. This is seen as corruption by the moralists on the side of the petty bourgeois who embrace the ideal of the state however they have conveniently forgotten that it is similar in practice to the dominant bourgeoisie classes around the world especially when they come into prominence. The dominant bourgeoisie holds the government captive as it swallows the latter in debt and inevitably the populace as It holds them to ransom. When a crisis hits the government is forced to liquidate its holdings in order to prop up a depressed economy and if need be to rescue the dominant bourgeoisie from collapse; they are simply repaying the capital loaned to them in the first place. It was sad to see Americans wondering anxiously as to why these large corrupt corporations received bailouts. Initially it is their loans to government that keeps the government machinery going. Keynesian economics is no marvel here.  The corruption is inherent in the system. Money generated through productive capital is power or the ability to accumulate money is power. The dominant bourgeois class also finds means to confiscate the earnings of the mob through the police force that is on its payroll or the military when it is related to the plunder of poorer states governed by the principles of the mob economy or those that represent the international relative surplus population. When the idealists speak of corruption they refer to the petty bourgeois politicians that are supposedly in power.

The petty bourgeois politicians are only a face for the dominant bourgeoisie class that preferably stays hidden from the public eye. When capital reaches a stage of crisis it is the petty bourgeois politicians that the blame is heaped on however like I said this class is powerless unless, as is done in the poorer countries mob rule by physical force is enforced within the tradition of the Roman Empire and other classical empires under the sun and slave labour becomes evident. In poorer countries the petty bourgeois class can only impoverish the small petty commodity producers and even those wealthy individuals within the mob state rely on the dominant bourgeois economies in the advanced nations as they are more in line with commercial capital that absorbs the products from the dominant bourgeois industrialists in the advanced nations to sell to the poor individuals within the mob economy. In poorer states even so called high wage earners would be considered poor in the advanced economies of the world. In the poorer states they are referred to as the middle class for that territory. The petty bourgeois therefore has more leeway to rule unless Uncle Sam comes knocking on his door. The state is more prominent in these countries and naturally so is the mob economy and so the state becomes a force of oppression as they foolishly try to act in line with bourgeois principles although they fail to realize that the mode of production does not correspond with their oppressive taxation policies. The oppressive taxation policies of the state make us realize that the government is the dominant accumulator within this sphere of poverty and degradation.  The levels of productivity within these states are incredibly low and so it becomes a haven for idealism to be triumphant. Idealism thrives when poverty is entrenched. These poorer states are run as if it is the typical mob economy. The relative surplus populations of these territories are forced to migrate to the dominant bourgeois economies so as to earn wages and so drive down the wage bill. 

As an accumulator the mob serves it purpose however because in some cases these accumulated funds can be used to fund new enterprises within the bourgeois society by becoming so called legitimate enterprises. By legitimizing their enterprises the mob escapes the clutches of the police force and the military in service of the dominant bourgeoisie. The mob represented by organized crime becomes a target for the dominant bourgeois class because it generates  wealth through plunder and so takes advantage of the money circulating through the  bourgeois production sphere. This is why they are targeted because the funds that they accumulate are circulated throughout the market place of the bourgeois economy. The more the mob encourages people to spend on illicit goods such as drugs (at one point liquor was prohibited in America) or services such as sex and the rest the less that will be spent on bourgeois produced goods and so the less that the bourgeois can accumulate. Admittedly the mob represented by organized crime does not accumulate as extensively as the dominant bourgeoisie but it is significant nonetheless.  Drugs deserve special mention, if only briefly, because they represent the primary products of poverty which are called raw materials. Materials such as cocaine and marijuana for instance are simply raw materials and only potentially represent new industrial products unless capital can encourage its scientists to discover the means by which these drugs can be utilized either medicinally and so packaged or in the production of industrial products i.e. in being refined then for the dominant bourgeois the production of drugs within the mob economy is wasteful because it is not being utilized effectively from an industrial perspective although the consumers see drugs as an elevating experience and this ties into the warped idealism normally associated with religion. Drugs are used extensively in religious rituals or when one wants to be enraptured by false idealism. So as the mob squanders the use of these raw materials a lot of money goes out of the hands of the dominant bourgeois. If the mob economy becomes more assertive and pushes the production of these goods to overwhelming proportions then it will have to be ratified by law inevitably. Once ratified by law it becomes absorbed by the dominant bourgeoisie. When the bourgeoisie encroaches on the mob economy through investment which implies the development of infrastructure then people are once again displaced until the point will come when they will have no choice but to fight back when their backs are against the wall as the urban area reaches the limit of expansion within a particular space. When the revolution is led by the proletariat the mob economy and the bourgeois economy will be smashed.

 It is this situation where we find the mob economy in Mean Streets and I will elaborate further on the mob economy in a commentary later on in the year.

The Mob Economy in Mean Streets

Mean Streets captures most of the elements of the mob economy and we are presented with the dilemma facing the members of industrial reserve army that are placed on the fringes of bourgeois society as they scramble for survival. The naked cash economy is ever prevalent as well as the overwhelming destitution and depraved social behavior. In steps a character like Charlie (Harvey Keitel) who embraces an idealistic outlook despite the materialist trappings. He is sympathetic to the sufferings of Jesus Christ on the cross in accordance with the teachings of the corrupt Roman catholic church which is the last remaining bastion of the decadent Roman Empire. The story of Jesus Christ inspires him in some form to aspire for some salvation from the destitution and rigid hierarchy of the mob represented by organized crime; in this case organized crime with an Italian face. In such a case myopic racial and national sentiments come to the fore and this is essential to a poverty ridden environment so as to inspire confidence in the decadence of the environment. Charlie tries to shatter these superficial barriers with his compassionate nature although the material trappings associated with his advancement through the ranks of the mob, headed by his Uncle Giovanni (Cesare Danova), make it difficult. The film opens with a poignant opening statement from Charlie himself which goes like this: ‘You don’t make up for your sins in the church. You do it in the streets. You do it at home. The rest is bullshit and you know it.’ After this statement  Charlie awakes tremulously to discover his material surroundings again in living colour as the sirens of the cop cars are blaring at midnight as the police are constantly on the hunt for the victims of exploitation that are on the fringes of society engaged in so called criminal behavior..  When Charlie says you make up for it in the streets or at home he means you try and apply your compassionate nature to your depraved surroundings and hope that it can make a difference. This is idealistic and corresponds to the poverty of the milieu in question when recourse to one’s faith is the only source of remedial therapy. The film does offer a romantic and nostalgic perspective with the next shot as it cuts to highlight a projector that showcases footage of various home videos that recalls the good old days when the crew would mingle and enjoy each other’s company. After this shot there is a feature of a Italian festival, the feast, that is taking place in the neighbourhood and highlights the duality of city life where parochial cultural expressions seeks to restore faded glory within the context of  a depraved mob economy in the city where the cash economy is king. Johnny Boy says in one scene that he hates the feast with a passion. The camera shot that comes shortly after the highlight of the festival reinforces this duality as we see someone dope addict shooting up in the bathroom of Tony’s bar. Tony’s bar is the centre for most of the action within this film as it is dimly lit by a red light. Tony (David Proval) throws out the dope pusher and it Is clear that he seeks to keep his bar clean in some respect and dirty in others for where he will throw out a dope pusher he invites them in droves nonetheless for this these people are your customers. Like most bars it encourages prostitution, violence, gambling, heavy consumption of alcohol,  swindling etc. and in this case drug pushing. He berates his bouncer for not keeping out the drug dealers that deal in his place but he must know that it is right outside his door. Removing one drug pusher will not encourage respectability. We are introduced to Michael (Richard Romanus) in the next scene where he deals in the emporium trade for we see goods being loaded onto a truck. It seems that he is stealing from a dominant bourgeois company because as he hears the sirens he tells the men to hurry it up. This illegality is one means of accumulation within the mob economy. He speaks to one of his customers telling him that he has top of the line German lenses ‘the telescopic ones’ however he is informed that it is Jap adaptors and not German lenses. This is to highlight his ineptitude in trade or in making profitable deals through swindling. It is clear that it was stolen in some shape or form because if you place an order for German lenses how does it come to be Jap adaptors. The person who he contracted to steal the proceeds must have made a mistake or he was duped; it seems that he has a habit of being duped. We next see Johnny Boy played famously by Robert De Niro. He embodies the consumer within the mob economy as opposed to Michael, Tony and Charlie who wish to make some form of profit out of it. When we are introduced to Johnny Boy for the first time he throws a bomb into a US mailbox which attracts the siren of the police and it is not sure whether he did it on behalf of someone for the purpose of intimidation or simply as some childish antic. Later shots seem to suggest the latter. He is wild and kinetic or simply childish. He knows the allure of money and what it can bring but he does not know how to work for it apart from plunder and gambling and accumulating debt. Lastly we see Charlie in church who opened the film with his famous statement who holds his hands above a candle lit flame seeking to test its heat especially as he has absorbed the superstition that hell is eternal fire. He removes his hand right away of course. He transforms it to suit his own material concept.

‘Lord I am not worthy to eat your flesh,’ he prays ‘Not worthy to drink your blood (why would you want to drink his blood?)’ he stops and then continues as if now speaking to his peers ‘Okay, I just came out of confession, right? Right.  And the priest gives me the usual penance: Ten “Hail Marys” , ten “Our fathers”, ten whatever.  You know that next I’m going to come back and he’ll give me another ten “Hail Marys” and another ten “Our Fathers” and I mean, you know how I feel about that shit. Those things don’t mean anything to me. They’re just words. Now that may be okay for the others but it just doesn’t work for me.  I mean, if I do something wrong, I just want to pay for it my way. So I do my own penance for my own sins. What’d ya say uh? It’s all bullshit except the pain right? The pain of hell. The burn from a lighted match increased a million times. Infinite. Ya don’t fuck around with the infinite. There’s no way you do that. The pain in hell has two sides: the kind you can touch with your hands (material circumstances). The kind you can feel in your heart (metaphysical which is attributable to a damaged conscience generated from a hazardous material circumstance.). Your soul, the spiritual side (the context changes here from the church where he is doing his penance to the dimly lit bar that belongs to Tony so as to reinforce the underground element and how it fits the tone of his words). And ya know the worst of the two is the spiritual.’

He is mistaken here from a materialist perspective for to be tormented from the spiritual side the dastardly deed would have to be done in actuality so as to be manifest in the conscience. It would normally be a shocking event for it to make a significant impression on ones conscience. When it is clear that the “Ten hail Marys”  does not hold much significance it is because he wishes to experience salvation in its actuality. The movie cuts from the meditative Charlie which implies silence to the bustling environment of the bar where we see the friends collide amidst the hustle and bustle of bar activity. It is here that things come to a head particularly with Johnny Boy and Michael and we start to see the rifts in the friendship begin to grow. They start to get alienated. Another interesting element presented by the introduction is Charlie’s application of Christ like virtue to a decadent way of living. The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ has still failed to release billions from entrenched poverty and has still failed to prevent mass exploitation by the ruling classes. Jesus Christ has only encouraged welfare as opposed to divine salvation and Charlie will come to realize that welfare is not sufficient to assuage the guilt of the exploiters. This early scene of Charlie also treats us to a classic Scorsese technique of using songs already released in order to enhance the feeling of nostalgia. He does it well so that whenever a song is being played on a jukebox or being transmitted through a radio then it is amplified in our ears in order to capture the mood of the period or the moment and to make clear to the viewer what  were the hits current for that time. This technique was also used in American Graffiti. It is a great compilation of classic hits from Scorsese for the soundtrack where he even includes some elements of the Italian opera.

Much of the tension in Mean Streets surrounds Johnny Boy and we understand that he is a rabid consumer within the context of the mob economy and it is his salvation that Charlie seeks. Johnny boy becomes his pity project. It is established early on that he owes Michael $3,000. The interest is nearly 50% because Johnny Boy initially borrowed $1,800. This is reflective of the poverty of the environment particularly when interest rates are so high. These types of interest rates were more acceptable in the middle ages before the advent of industrial capital but it is clear that but it is now more reflective of destitution or a massively inflated dollar where extreme amounts of money are pumped into the economy without the security of commodity capital and money has little or no value in such case. In Johnny Boy’s case it is more reflective of the former where not much money is circulating within the impoverished district and so it is scarce. In this case if not much money is circulating how is Johnny Boy going to pay back such a hefty sum as Charlie rightly says for those types of interest rates only impoverish people or force them to do drastic things. Charlie talks sense into Michael and convinces him to take  $2, 000. When we see Johnny boy again he has two girls accompanying him side by side into Tony. It is clear that he is a high roller and mob glamour has bedazzled him sufficiently mainly because it promises easy money through gambling and loans. If you can’t pay a loan you borrow from someone to pay back your original loan or you gamble to pay it off. Charlie is not amused that Johnny Boy is parading these girls around particularly as he is buying drinks on his credit at the bar. This man is an excessive consumer. When Charlie takes him in the back and upbraids him for missing his payments Johnny Boy tries to give the impression that he makes regular payments but when Michael offers to straighten it out with Michael the Johnny Boy, caught in a lie, says he did not make payments. Listen to  the story he tells when he claims that he intended to pay but while gambling, another loan shark to whom he owed money was hounding him to make payments. The loan shark was paying attention to his winnings at the table. It shows that these loan sharks are lost as well when they expect a man to win at gambling in order pay back his debt simply because it promises a big pay out which does not necessarily come to pass.  The loan sharks do not necessarily make loans for productive reasons because they realize that payment because there is not much people that are looking to invest. There is not much to invest in and so most of the loans goes towards encouraging consumption on the part of characters like Johnny Boy or those simply looking to make ends meet.  They only impoverish the consumers in such a manner particularly as some will never be able to pay back the loan and will be forced to either pawn their possessions, stealing, hiding out or simply giving up and have their lives taken.  This is so because most of the loans encourage consumption and not necessarily productive labour. When it does encourage productive labour it is just as devastating for the borrower as we see in the case of Charlie and the restaurant where he is ordered to collect payments from Oscar. It is amazing that loan sharks expect people to pay such exorbitant interest rates.  His attitude suggests that he believes in easy money as he does not feel he has to make payments and this is reflective of the low levels of productivity where growth is not measured by productive labour but by the exchange of money for money. Johnny boy’s situation gets so bad that Charlie has to arrange a job for Johnny loading crates which he  accepts but does not show up for work especially as that life is not for him because he is not prepared to do productive work to generate value. Johnny believes in the easy life of gambling and loans where money is frequently exchanged for winning at a game or on good faith. We will return to Johnny Boy and how he becomes increasingly alienated soon enough but let us focus on Charlie and his experience when the mob encourages productive labour in the form of providing financing for a restaurant owned by Oscar and his friend Groppi.

Charlie goes to collect payments from a restaurant owned by  Oscar and Groppi  on behalf of his Uncle Giovanni . The first thing he is told by Oscar is: ‘Charlie you’re a good boy. Will you tell your uncle I have nothing? I can’t make this week’s payment.’ It is no surprise that he has nothing for one survey of the area will show that business is slow because the restaurant looks practically empty with only one or two customers. Things are made worse because knowing the tradition of the mob represented by organized crime they demand payments of their loans at the exorbitant interest rates whether or not business is bad.  Charlie says to Oscar ‘Listen you tell that to Giovanni, not me.’ Oscar responds, ‘I should hand this place over to him, you know that? I don’t need this aggravation.’ ‘He’d rather have the loan paid. You know that Oscar.’ ‘Your uncle’s a good man. I’m not gonna stick him. He either gets the money or he gets the place. Right now it looks like he’s getting the place. You tell me why I should care. I got a partner is a bum. He disappears !’ The partner referred to is Groppi. This is the extent of productive business within the mob economy where either a bar or a restaurant is set up because those are the easiest to establish. These institutions depend on the whims of customers who have such a variety of options. It is made worse that this restaurant exists in an impoverished neighbourhood where not many people will have the incomes to drive business. The restaurant is so poorly equipped that Oscar prior to talking to Charlie just came from fixing the freezer. One can imagine how much other things he has to maintain or which other appliances are crumbling as we speak. While the two are talking the poorly trained waitress Natalie sent some dishes crashing to the ground. It is reflective of the destitution of the environment.  Charlie reports to his uncle that he believes it is all an act that is being put on so as to defer payments but a brief survey could tell anyone that the business is floundering and his uncle advises him to be patient and at the same time asking him if he likes restaurants suggesting that the restaurant might collapse and the voracious creditors with their usury type loans will swoop in for the feast.

Another feature of the mob economy in this film is the trade in contraband which in this case is  firecrackers. Two petty bourgeois white individuals come downtown and approach Tony ad Michael on the corner asking for firecrackers. The fact they are down in such a destitute neighbourhood suggests that it is accepted that contraband is traded under the purview of organized crime that represents the mob economy on the fringes of society. The petty bourgeois individuals also state that they went to Chinatown but were unsuccessful. This is important for the point made earlier on about the factions of immigrants that represent the international reserve labour force for capital that have gathered in various districts in the dominant industrial centres of the world. The Italian faction is only one representative of the industrial reserve army on the fringes of society. When they enter the car Michael makes the important point that they don’t take checks but only cash which is a clear reference to the naked cash economy on the fringes of society where everything has to be immediate because survival is essential and requires a marked and necessary element to keep lives functioning. In this case it is money. They get stiffed by the kids that only give them $20 instead of the $40 that they intended to spend. It is not sure if they received the firecrackers because Michael let them off t a rendezvous point where he would meet them again in half an hour with the ‘stuff’. He lets them off because he can’t let them see where they got the stuff because it would be bad for business. Now even though the middle class punks give Micheal $20 they don’t receive anything return. Michael, Tony and Charlie go to the movies with the money. This is strange business and can only go down as a swindle on both parts. Money is exchanged without recourse to a commodity and it is not interest on a particular enterprise and this only serves to reinforce the basis of the mob economy where money switches hands without any recourse to production but only as a result of speculation.

Another aspect of the mob economy is one trying to rise through the ranks of organized crime and so perpetuate the mass exploitation of the impoverished and destitute residents on the fringes of society or who have been alienated by bourgeois society. This is not only attributable to Charlie because we know his story with his uncle Giovanni and his efforts to please him so that he can climb through the ranks. The relationship with the restaurant and how he handles it is central to how he advances  because he has to demonstrate how he can ensure that someone makes payments for loans advanced. There are others however that seek to rise through the ranks of the mob represented by organized crime and there is one particular scene where ho tyoung  blood (Robert Carradine) decides to gun down a noted figure of the underworld in Tony’s bar. The scene is famous for a drunk (David Carradine) who plays the noted mob figure hurling himself at the shooter despite being riddled with bullets. This violence is the alternative to Charlie’s sycophant style approach although it is more risky. We see his uncle try to resolve the issue by having the boy sent to Florida to lay low for 6 months to a year. This violence represents honour and a more obvious way to remove your competitor. In the advanced bourgeois economy competing companies normally resort to theft and murder in some cases but competition is normally represented by price cutting once the two companies sell the same products. In the mob economy violence is a more direct approach where a competitor is normally removed by being killed. It is much easier to control the mob in this way because there are no competing industries on the fringes of society only petty commodity producers and so plunder is the last resort for aggrandizement. This is a testament to the poverty of the region where plunder is the last resort in order to control whatever meager business interests there are. In the mob economy it becomes more naked simply because of the illegal means used to attain the wealth. In order for it to be regulated then violence must be resorted to in order to bring the others in line and so establish a hierarchy. The advanced international bourgeois class has already done it which is why they have been able to consolidate their power. The mob economy on the fringes of society is a constant reminder of what it takes to consolidate power in this world. War and peace. When Charlie meets with his uncle to discuss the restaurant he mentions a shooting that he witnessed and his uncle reminds him to keep in mind that he, Charlie, was not there which implies that the uncle had something to do with it.

Gambling and how it leads to violence is made very clear in a important scene where Charlie and his gang of friends go to collect some outstanding debt owed by a numbers runner on behalf on one of their own, Jimmy. He has a large pool hall which is typical of the underground gambling environment. On their way to collect they encounter a street wiper for the front glass of the car. This is reflective of the destitution in the environment. The members in the car insult him and chase him away so on but this does not remove the fact that the environment they are living is on the fringes of the affluent centres of commerce. They exist in destitution while at the same time they aspire towards the noble ideals of dignity and honour by not associating with scum such as this depraved car glass street wiper. These ideals of nobility are merely associated with the fact that there are those with an income that allows them to brave the squalor and those that do not have an income are forced into beggarly positions within the context of depravity on the fringes of society. They go to collect from Joey Gattuci who runs the pool hall. They encounter Jimmy and when we first meet him he says he bet on the number 235 because he had a dream of his grandfather. This is the kind of warped idealism that gambling encourages where people do not make any recourse to labour which is an actual manifestation of wealth but to dreams and fantasies associated, in this case, with number combinations which are always wrong in what they represent. With joking aside the important thing is that when Jimmy with the aid of Charlie and co. goes to collect the money he is owed by Joey we see the fractiousness that is created by the need for cash. Firstly jimmy says he made a bet with Sally, who supposed to work in Joey’s establishment, but what does Joey do- he denies the bet was placed merely because it was a successful bet. The pleading Charlie reminds him that they are friends and he should not deny the bet was placed on those grounds and pay up what is owed when honour is at stake here. Joey seemingly concedes then decides he wont pay because Jimmy is mook and then a fight ensues in the pool room. It is broken up by the corrupt police, agents of the bourgeois state, that are paid off by Joey. The important point is that Joey’s reluctance to pay leads to a scuffle, which is humorous at times, but underscores the fact on how people can be alienated through selfishness even among groups where individuals are thought to be friends. Violence is the only recourse here particularly where there is no court of law to hear your petty case unless it is the head of organized crime that controls the mob economy. If you defeat your opponent physically then there is no dispute afterwards since he has to flee. Charlie tries to act as mediator in his typical noble way however when the fight breaks out he is almost powerless to allow this nobility to be manifested. It is humorous to hear Charlie complain about his hand during the scuffle as he tried to pull a gun with the hope that tempers would cool. When he is disarmed he wails about his inability to engage in the bitter physical struggle by complaining about his hand.

Other elements of the mob economy are on display if only briefly. There are the strippers, particularly a black one which Charlie is interested in, prostitutes and male homosexuals. In one humorous scene we encounter two homosexual men who are forced into a position where they can sell their bodies in a relationship or for money and so be offered security. This is typical in a mob economy where the physically frail men resort to either idealism or physical prostitution. Homosexuality is not exclusive to the mob economy but it can be essential to survival on the fringes of society and in some cases the men are forced. I here regard biological determinations of homosexuality ‘Born this way’ to an extent.  Material circumstances are crucial here then. If you are born physically frail as a man then you either become a homosexual or a rambling idealist with recourse to faith in your mental powers which does not normally correspond with the harsh physical environment on the fringes of society . In most cases you are regarded as weak and are susceptible to being targeted. Scorsese with his frail physical constitution was able to escape this bullying.

Charlie (Harvey Keitel) seeks to invoke Christ like compassion in the Mean Streets of New York

Compassion fails to prevent alienation in the Mean Streets: The good old days are no more

The idea that Christ like passion has failed to consolidate friendship and to preserve the good old days in the face of the naked cash economy is the essential premise of the film. Along with his compassion for Johnny Boy who is his best friend Charlie has a sexual relationship with Teresa (Amy Robinson), an epileptic with a temper who is made fun in her community of due to her condition. She makes up for this with a fiery tongue and with an acute sense of aggravation at the slightest reprimand or antagonistic action. This sexual relationship is not healthy for Charlie’s career in the mob because his uncle has forbidden his association with her and Johnny Boy. This is because of their volatile natures: Theresa is considered by Giovanni as ‘sick in the head’ and Johnny Boy is considered to be volatile. ‘Honorable men go with Honorable men,’ says Giovanni with reference to Charlie’s relationship with Johnny. He also warns Charlie not to get involved with Teresa although he may observe simply because she is a blood relation of Johnny Boy  whose whole family seemingly is problematic.  This puts Charlie in a quandary because he has compassion of these individuals that are to be ostracized by the mob represented by organized crime.  It becomes a very frustrating enterprise ad this is revealed towards the end when the volatile nature of both characters comes to the fore in one explosive moment. When Johnny Boy asks Charlie to settle the dispute with Michael through his uncle Charlie knows that it is out of the question.  Charlie describes his compassionate nature for Johnny Boy in a conversation with Teresa in a stroll between the two on a beach after Teresa accuses Johnny boy of being crazy which means that he is headed down a destructive path. Charlie says to her ‘Who’s going to help him if I don’t? It’s supposed to matter. Nobody tries anymore.’ ‘Tries what?’ asks Teresa. ‘ Just tries to help people , that’s all. To help people.’  ‘You help yourself first.’ ‘Bullshit Teresa. That’s where you’re all wrong! Francis of Assisi had it all down. He knew.’  ‘What are you talking about? Saint Francis didn’t run numbers.’ ‘Me neither I don’t run numbers.’ He may not run numbers but he is endeavouring to become a significant figure in the organization that supports those that run numbers. It is not about him but the mode of production that exists on the fringes of bourgeois society. Charlie exposes his idealist sentiments here and exposes his naiveté when he hopes that he can encourage compassion for his fellow man when in these times it is everymen for himself in line with the bourgeois dominated economy that encourages the naked cash economy as the means for survival for those on the fringes of society.   

Teresa wants to remove herself from the fringes and enter bourgeois heaven in Manhattan but not without him. She sees escape as the way out whereas Charlie naively claims he want to stay since the streets are all he has yet at the same time claiming that he can make a difference through his compassionate nature. After the conversation with his uncle regarding him staying away from Teresa and Johnny Boy Charlie is frustrated and has to tell Teresa that he cannot associate with her because it will affect his career. He seems naïve in his outbursts  towards her which only reflect how powerless he is to effect change through his compassion. His compassion for Johnny Boy becomes eroded when we see Johnny Boy on a destructive path; firstly we see him on top of the roof top unloading his revolver into the air and even at one point almost fatally as a shot from his gun goes through a woman’s window. He claims that he is trying to shoot at the Empire state building/Chrysler  ( or the Chrysler building. I am not really sure but both are testament to the indulgence of the bourgeois class) which is the pinnacle of bourgeois success in New York City. There is another affecting scene where we see Johnny roaming the streets like a loose cannon as if he is being constantly hounded.  We are seeing him become increasingly alienated especially as he has to look over his shoulder as people are in search of him for claims for money owned. It is among the tombstones that Johnny makes it clear that he wont take the job he was offered because it is for the suckers and is only convinced to take it as Charlie tries to drive home the point that he owes a lot of money particularly to Michael. It is Johnny boy’s increasingly erratic nature that makes it difficult for Charlie to make his philosophy of compassion work for him.

Before we head to the climax of the film there are other incidences of compassion that are altogether minor yet significant. Firstly Charlie is attracted to a black stripper  Diane and asks to speak over a proposal for her employment as a hostess at his new restaurant or soon to be new restaurant. He offers treat her to Chinese food but the reality hits him when he sees her standing outside the restaurant waiting for him. He realizes that the myopic cultural sentiments of the Italian immigrant forbid this on patriotic grounds. He must leave her standing and alienated . It is made clear in another scene where Michael instantly loses interest in a woman when he is told that she was seeing kissing a black man under a bridge. These myopic cultural sentiments reinforce the nationalist principles taken with the impoverished immigrants from their respective territories. It also speaks to the specific isolation of blacks in a racist American society where blacks at the time were considered the poorest group of  individuals on average per capita in America. As Teresa and Charlie are leaving a hotel room, Teresa after an upbraiding by Charlie takes out her frustration on a black maid ‘We’re finished now,’ says Teresa. ‘ I only got two hands,’ the maid responds. ‘I can’t stand shit like that,’ says Teresa.  Charlie tries to smooth things over with a compassionate gesture as if to say he apologizes. These many scenes seem to point to blacks as marginalized group within urban America and in most scenes of this film they are presented as such; the wretched of the earth in America.  There is another scene where we see Tony caring for a young lion in the back room of his bar. This compassion that he exhibits stirs Charlie somewhat. There is also another scene where Michael Tony and Charlie go to watch movies and this is reminiscent of the god old days. They watched The Searchers which is one of Scorsese’s favourite films. There is also an interesting scene in party for a Vietnam veteran or a soldier that recently  returned from Vietnam. There is a kinetic moment where he sees his drunk or high on drugs girlfriend dancing with another man. He pulls her hair and throws her about while she seems to be oblivious to the whole episode. They separate the two and Charlie takes her in and dances with her thereby demonstrating his understanding and compassion. Even prior to this we see the head on lifestyle take a toll on Charlie for while he is entertaining himself in the party there is an interesting shot where the camera seems to be centred squarely on his face as he absorbs all the excitement that comes from listening to music and drinking liquor. We see the excitement and then the expiration of this excitement as he slowly lays his head down apparently overwhelmed while the camera is focused on him the whole time. The excitement seems to be empty and illusory much like the glamour of the mob economy.

Now we turn to the climax of the film. The good old days must come to an end and friendships must be torn asunder by the naked cash economy that exists on the fringes of bourgeois society. Johnny has failed to make his payments week after week and after Michael beseeches Charlie for a resolution to the crisis. Charlie arranges a date on a Tuesday where they will finally resolve their differences. Michael becomes increasingly impatient because he begins to make threats against Johnny by saying what he will do to him physically by tying him to a car and so on. Michael warned Charlie that he shouldn’t have gotten involved and let things take its course but Charlie’s compassion for Johnny would not allow him to do that. Charlie makes Johnny aware of the situation but when the date comes Johnny is nowhere to be found and it is on that day we see Johnny roaming the streets in a very apprehensive manner and even assaults someone that brushes his shoulder as he passes by. This kinetic moment shows that Johnny is becoming increasingly alienated. He is being targeted by his loan shark creditors and is now always looking over his shoulder and can no longer live the life of glamour that we saw him embrace at the beginning when he strolled into Tony’s club with two girls on each side. He can no longer live the lifestyle because no one will advance any more loans to him so that he can live the high life. He now becomes a degenerate as a result because his only recourse was to gambling or these loans which give the appearance of easy money. His only other recourse would be to steal because the job that was arranged for him was not his cup of tea. He is simply not prepared to work. He only knows how to plunder and is therefore the embodiment of the mob economy. We see that he becomes a degenerate because he resorts to antics such as, previously mentioned, shooting wildly from the rooftops and so on. This is his compensation for existing within the void that manifests on the fringes of society where money is not present in abundance. The behavior seems antisocial as a result simply because he cannot integrate as big time money spender. Based on how he acquired the money however he was always rotting on the inside.

The date to meet Michael has arrived and now Charlie is apprehensive because no one has seen Johnny boy not even his cousin Teresa. Charlie goes into his regular immature outburst towards Teresa  because his compassion is of no consequence and is clearly not appreciated. He should not have gotten involved. The immature outburst forces him to console Teresa and in a warm embrace the two are discovered by Johnny Boy. A series of threats of blackmail and insults occur and a fight ensues particularly as Charlie  feels he can calm Johnny Boy with a slap or two to the face but this only creates a negative reaction from Johnny Boy. Johnny even makes an insult regarding Teresa’s epileptic condition and her sexual prowess. This drives Charlie mad and when the two are engaged in the physical altercation Teresa goes into a epileptic fit and the two take outside and then we see Johnny Boy break down and cry and we know that his spirit is broken or his aspirations to ward mob glamour have broken his spirit because he can no longer rely on simply borrowing and gambling without some recourse to his labour power. Charlie once again caught is forced to help Johnny boy to pay up $30 since Johnny Boy has no money to his name but again the loose cannon that is Johnny Boy throws another curve into the mix. When they do meet Michael who has been waiting for a while Johnny boy decides to give him only $10 of the $30 as payment on the $2000 debt. Michael says he was prepared to accept the $30 on behalf of Charlie but $10 is more than an insult. Johnny taunts him by asking whether the $10 is too good for him particularly as Michael crumples the $10 dollar note and throws it back at Johnny. Johnny sums up his crass behavior and in his last insult to Michael and afterwards it become clear that honour is at stake which can only end in violence because Charlie has failed as a mediator through association with Johnny. Here is what Johnny says: ‘I borrow money all over this neighbourhood left and right, from everybody, and never paid ‘em back. So I can’t borrow no money from nobody no more, right? Who does that leave me to borrow from but you? I borrow money from you because you’re the only jerk off around here that I could borrow from without payin’ back, right? Cause that’s what you are, that’s what I think of you, (as) a jerk off. He’s smilin’ because you’re a jerk off. A fuckin’ jerk off. Mikey I fucked you right where you breathe cause I don’t give two shits about you or nobody else.’ He burns the $10 Michael assaults him and Johnny Boy draws a gun ‘Come on motherfucker. I’m a big shot.’ A bigshot who does not have a dime but in the mob economy physical violence represents more power than money. The gun  isn’t loaded. Michael has to repay the favour although he doesn’t know that the gun cartridge was empty.

Charlie goes on a rescue mission for his compassion won’t allow him to let go. He Johnny and Teresa go for a drive with the intention of going out of town after watching a movie. It is supposed to be a means of escape but Michael catches up with them and his henchman shoots at the car and catches Johnny Boy in the neck. The pandemonium forces Charlie to crash the car in a hydrant and the effervescent Johnny rolls out of the car with blood squirting from his neck obviously on the path to death. His time has finally expired and it is not clear whether he will survive. When we see him floundering in the streets we see urban alienation in all its glory as some people wind up to die by the wayside in the great urban centres of the world.

The Christ like compassion of Charlie was unable to resolve the tensions associated with the naked cash economy that exists on the fringes of society which is enough to tear friendships asunder. This is a classic example of the urban alienation that exists in the great cities of the world.