Martin Scorsese: Back on the Block

Martin Scorsese: Back on the Block (1973)

*** (out of 4)

Pretty good promotional short was made to try and gather interest in Martin Scorsese's MEAN STREETS. What we have here is a narrator explaining that Scorsese is from the very streets that this movie takes place so he has a certain insight not everyone is going to have. The documentary discusses portions of his early career as well as the life of Robert DeNiro and Harvey Keitel. All three men were from the streets and we also get to see that DeNiro's mom made a cameo in the film. There's certainly nothing ground-breaking here but if you're a fan of the film then you're going to enjoy seeing this short, which gives you a couple nice stories but more important is just being able to see some of the behind the scenes stuff. I enjoyed hearing about Scorsese and even though his bio is something I was already familiar with it still didn't take away from the short. At under 10-minutes there's certainly not too much detail but it's mildly entertaining.