A defining performance, but not a leading one. In the 1973 feature that
marked a breakout for director Martin Scorsese, De Niro plays Johnny Boy, the
wiry, jacked-up Little Italy punk who's both a source of good times and a
constant pain in the butt for his ... morebest friend Charlie, the movie's main
character, played by Harvey Keitel. A surrogate for the director,
Charlie's a good guy who's tortured by religious struggles, problems with women
and whether or not he wants to go on being the bagman for his low-level mobster
uncle. Charlie's the movie's through-line, but Johnny Boy is its fuse. De Niro's
energetic performance is funny, frank and, finally, startling. He brings to life
everything that makes a real-life guy like this one so much fun and so dangerous
to be around.
