Criterion’s “Mean Streets” Blu-ray booklet review

Written by Matt Long

This booklet is included as part of Criterion’s 2023 4K UHD and Blu-ray release of Mean Streets (1973).

Professionalism and production quality

This is a twelve-page fold-out brochure (six panels on each side). The pages are have a soft gloss to them. The page stock is hardy enough but not very heavy. Everything about the print quality is strong. It’s only limited by the choice to do the brochure, which has become more common for Criterion, as it decreases the enjoyment of reading it, having to handle the folded-out pages.

Grade: B-

Text-to-image ratio

There are ten pages with images and fifteen pages with text. Given the short page count, this felt like a very nice balance. Both components were given the space they needed and completed each other.

Criterion’s cover for the Blu-ray of Mean Streets.

Grade: A

Content

A full side (six pages) of the pamphlet is devoted to the essay, which is called “Rites of Passage” by Lucy Sante. Sante has a large task here, having to summarize what makes this seminal early Martin Scorsese film special in a limited page count, and Sante pulled it off.

Sante covers how this hyper-specific film can speak to so many of us by featuring character types many of us can recognize in our own lives. She also explores the historical backdrop of when the film was made, its revolutionary use of music in the soundtrack, interesting examinations of the meaning of the locations and the characters, and how this fits into Scorsese’s legendary career. Sante’s essay provides valuable context for newer viewers along with reminding those of us who’ve lived with this film for a long time what makes it still work so long after it was released. This essay won’t necessarily blow anyone away, but it's worth the read.

Two of the pages of images are collages of stills from the film, featuring key characters and iconography. I like them fine.

Grade: B-

Creativity

Sante wrote a strong essay, but this is a fairly by-the-numbers booklet. With one essay and a couple collages, this booklet doesn’t meet the standard of Scorsese’s dynamite picture.

Grade: C-

Grade summary

Professional and production quality grade: B-

Text-to-image ratio grade: A

Content grade: B-

Creativity grade: C-

Final thoughts

I recommend reading Sante’s essay if you’ve bought a copy, but the booklet is a letdown for such a monumental film. Maybe I’m wrong, but I believe Mean Streets would be a strong seller for this huge company, so I would have appreciated an actual booklet with a higher page count. But at least it’s a relatively packed disc, so this booklet really is a bonus.

Overall grade: B-

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