GOODFELLAS (1990)
Starring: Ray Liotta (Henry Hill), Joe Pesci (Tommy DeVito), Lorraine Bracco (Karen Hill), Robert DeNiro (James Conway), Paul Sorvino (Paul Cicero)
Directed by: Martin Scorsese, Written by: Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese, based on the novel WISEGUY written by Nicholas Pileggi
Reviewed by Doug Skiles
"As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster." - Henry Hill
Martin Scorsese's GOODFELLAS is one of the great mafia movies. Every part is acted so well, with every directorial touch perfectly done (including the longest stedicam shot on record), every plot detail is so relevant, that in the end, the only thing irrelevant are the reviews like this one. What is there to say about a movie like this?
If you had to make a complaint, it would be that there's not really any characters in this movie worth liking. There's too many scumbags. Sure, at first you like all of 'em, just like Henry. But soon you see the truth. Then again, why would you want someone to like in a story like this? It would go against the entire message.
Henry is a kid who grows up in New York, and dreams of being in the mob. He gets in, and we follows his life for decades as things go from bad to worse for him.
His life in the mob starts enjoyable enough, and we're enjoying it with him. Everybody is a smiling face, everybody wants to help. Sure, they're all criminals, but they're nice criminals, who're always willing to stick out their neck for a friend.
But, as Henry warns us, in the mafia, your murderers come with smiles. They're all just as willing to have their friends brutally murdered as they are to give them a hand. If you don't do what you're supposed to in the mob, you wind up "whacked", sometimes by a gun, sometimes a knife, sometimes hanging, frozen, in a meat locker, gutted. Just as fast as things seemed fun, they turn evil, dark, and sinister. Life in the mob looks glamorous on the outside, in the movies of Hollywood's Golden Age. But Henry Hill soon learns that the reality is far, far harsher. Life in the mob isn't heaven, it's hell.
GOODFELLAS is a true story, and that only further drives home what we're learning here. The mob isn't a colorful crowd of wacky criminals like in "Dick Tracy" - it's a brutal underworld of murder and deceit. And sure, that's not really a lesson - we all knew it, inside. But it's rarely showed to us quite so clearly how one can be drawn in by the glamour, only to end up fearing death at every turn.
Rating: ****
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