Goodfellas (1990)Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert DeNiro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino
I got a text message from a friend the other day. He had hired out Goodfellas and was somewhat surprised when the film finished after only 65mins. He then realised that it was one of those double sided DVDs and he'd started on the wrong side. He was crushed. It reminded me though that I had been meaning to revisit Goodfellas. I'd watched it a couple of years ago and had thought it was very, very good but it hadn't struck me as great, yet it continues to come up on so many greatest-film-of-all-time lists, so I wanted to give it a second go.
Based on a true story, as recounted in Nicholas Pileggi's book Wise Guy, Goodfellas tells the story of Irish-Italian-American Henry Hill (Liotta). Since he was a kid he has always wanted to be a gangster. After being taken into Paulie Cicero's (Sorvino) gang as a youth he works his way slowly up the chain while forming an alliance with the slick Jimmy 'The Gent' Conway (DeNiro) and the hot headed Tommy DeVito (Pesci).
What makes this film such an effective gangster movie is the honesty and balance with which Scorsese tells the story. Often gangster films fall into one of two camps. They either glamorise and romanticise the criminal lifestyle or they show it to be brutal and detestable. In Goodfellas, Scorsese finds a balance between the two. On the one hand we get a very real sense of what attracts people to this lifestyle. At the beginning of the film Henry Hill narrates that "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. To me, being a gangster was better than being President of the United States." And we believe him. We see the world through Henry's eyes and as a result we understand the appeal of it. But while he shows us the appeal, Scorsese doesn't overly romanticise or glamorise it. Goodfellas doesn't have the epic, operatic feel of The Godfather. We don't look at the mafia figures like they are members of some type of Italian-American royal family. We see them as small time hoods, and their flash cars and mink coats all feel a bit ciche. On the other hand, Scorsese does not shy away from showing the dark side of the lifestyle. We see how brutal they can be in dealing with other people, the complete disregard for human life, and also the paranoia and discomfort that comes from constantly having to watch your back. Scorsese goes to great lengths to make sure we fully experience the life of a gangster, the best parts and the worst.
Like Scorsese's best films of the 1970s and 1980s, Goodfellas is not narrative focused. The film contains no central narrative thread. Rather the film is about creating and exploring a world. If Goodfellas is about something, it is about what it feels like to be a gangster. Scorsese uses first person narration, a somewhat unpopular technique, really effectively. Most of the story we get from Henry Hill's mouth, but we also get some very interesting narration from his wife Karen (Bracco). Through the narration we experience the world through their eyes. Through Henry we understand that appeal. Through Karen we understand how someone can just get sucked into the lifestyle.
As much as Henry and Karen are the films emotional centre, what makes this film so brilliant is the supporting cast. DeNiro is at his best as he so often is in his collaborations with Scorsese, Sorvino is great as the mob boss, very still and quiet but still very powerful, but the particular star is Joe Pesci. Goodfellas was overlooked at the 1991 Academy Awards (the year Dances With Wolves dominated), but the one award that it did win from its six nominations was Best Supporting Actor for Pesci. He is simply outstanding as the strangely engaging but terrifyingly short tempered Tommy DeVito. For a little guy, Pesci's ability to dominate a scene and invoke fear is very impressive indeed.
Goodfellas is a brilliant film, so much so that the great debate is whether Goodfellas is a better gangster film than The Godfather. A lot of people think it is. I'm not sure that it is really a valid comparison because they are such different pictures. The Godfather is epic and operatic while Goodfellas is gritty and local. Goodfellas is very much a Martin Scorsese picture in the same way that The Godfather is very much a Francis Coppola picture. What Goodfellas does really well, and why it has maintained its reputation as a modern classic, is that it takes you inside the lifestyle of a gangster and makes you experience it and feel it. But as brilliant as it is, it is still not my favourite Scorsese film.
And the pick of the bunch is.....
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