| Goodfellas was Martin Scorsese�s gangster drama that was nominated for Best Picture and a number of other Academy awards in 1991. It ran against Dances with Wolves, and lost to it. It�s been a very hard decision choosing which film I believe should have got best picture, because both movies are two of my all time favorites, but I am going to have to go with Goodfellas. It was just a quick, last minute decision, and I could change my mind any minute, but the fact is, I chose Goodfellas. Its cinematography and even music is equal to Dances with Wolves quality, and it doesn�t even have to be an epic film to do that. The reason the cinematography is so excellent is because Scorsese lets his camera roll for a long enough time that we can get immersed in what�s going on. I�d say it goes without cutting to another camera for about five minutes at one scene. Sometimes, its unbelievable to a person like me that a camera man can carry the huge camera around static, for so long, and keep perfect composition. But probably not to you little, disgruntled, people that don�t know the difference between a wide shot and a close up! (Just kidding, I don�t care if you don�t care about cinematography. A guy just has to add some humor to his reviews so they aren�t so dry; you know what I mean?) If you don�t care about the music in a movie either, skip this paragraph too, why don�t you! There is no orchestral score in the film at all. Instead, Scorsese has done something miraculous, and used period music throughout the entire film to give us a feel for where in time our characters are at, as the story progresses. The amazing thing about it is that the songs he chose actually have a common bond between the situation that the characters of the film are in, and what the music is saying. The story that Goodfellas follows is a true story of the gangster, Henry Hill (Ray Liotta). The film starts out with the young Henry Hill peering through his bedroom window, watching the local gangsters, narrating to us that he always wanted to be one. So, when he is old enough, he gets involved as much as he can with the mob. Eventually, he meets the famous Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro), who gives hundred dollar bills to anyone who does as little to open a door for him. Another mobster he meets around the same time is Tommy De Vito (Joe Pesci), who can be a nice guy sometimes, if his horrible temper doesn�t get in the way. At first, Henry�s life is great. He can get anything he wants, when he wants it. He just has to do what the people over him want him to do, which includes stealing and helping his friends whack people (Kill People). After about the first hour, some things start going wrong for Henry, and his friends. Within the last forty minutes, nothing is going right for Henry. Things start going down hill when Henry starts cheating on his wife, Karen (Lorain Bracco). They only get worse, when he gets involved with drug deals and starts taking drugs. Things also go wrong for the mob as a whole when they suspect certain people are getting an idea of what they are doing. This leads to killing everyone that is linked to a robbery because Jimmy is afraid that they will rat on him, Henry, and Tommy. The killing spree packs a whole lot for the viewer as the climatic guilty feeling just increases. This is probably what the genius, and the maker of the film, Martin Scorsese intended for the viewer to feel. The violence in the film is not supposed to give you a rush-feel, like an action movie or give you a good feeling. It�s supposed to show what great evil these guys are capable of committing, and it does just that. When someone commits a murder, the reaction is similar to when someone is murdered in Schindler�s List. (One would appreciate this paragraph more after watching the film) The best performance in the film comes not from Pesci, who is very good and perfectly cast for his role (he was honored with an Academy Award for his performance, along with a Golden Globe), but from Lorraine Bracco, as Henry Hill�s wife, Karen. She has to come across as a tough, angry woman, at some points in the film. At other moments she has to seem scarred, attractive, exasperated, worried, and content. This is how well developed her character is. She succeeds at all of those moods, and steals the scene more than once. The scene where she breaks down after Henry pushes her off the bed yells at her and holds the weapon to her head is unforgettable, and extremely powerful. Her crying and yelling lingers with you once the movie is over. Her performance is one of the best of the nineties. Ray Liotta also has to show many different emotions and does so commendably, without going over the top by crying too much or being too angry, or exasperated. He�s the actor that truly pulls you through the film and gets you involved in it. And even though his character isn�t Mr. Perfect, a good spouse, and sometimes not even a great friend, you can sympathize with him. De Niro is, of course, in top form and doesn�t make any mistakes through his entire performance (which is not unusual, for one of the best actors of our time). He is perfectly casted as the gangster who thinks he thinks he knows everything but makes a few mistakes every now and then Martin Scorsese has made one rare modern masterpiece. The nineties was not the best decade (at least as far as us critics are concerned) for film. Scorsese made a film every decade that was seen as one of the best (80�s-Raging Bull, 70�s-Taxi Driver). Hopefully, he can pull this off in the 2000-2010 decade also, with Gangs of New York. With Goodfellas, he took a brilliant cast, combined innovative cinematography, with a fast paced, gristly, script, and even faster paced editing. The period music is only the cherry on top. Scorsese mixed every aspect of cinema so well that it feels like a perfectly mixed, sweet Italian sauce (he loves his Italian food you know) that Scorsese would even approve of. If you think I am relating the �sweetness� in the sauce, with the feeling you get at the end of the film, you have misunderstood. It�s the opposite really. You feel like you�ve been cheated and lied to, used, shot in the gizzard, and hauled though a puddle of mud by a car speeding at ninety miles per hour. But you know that that means you we�re hooked on the film couldn�t take your eyes off it, and we�re really involved in the story. No one can explain the feeling you get at the end thoroughly enough. You just have to see the film to understand it. The language is extremely hard to take even with a cuss filter, because a lot of words are added by the actors and can�t be filtered, but at least some of the words can. It is probably how often the people portrayed in the film actually swore. Joe Pesci is the one who gets the most cuss words across and that�s because of his horrific temper. I would recommend this film to anyone that is strong enough to see such real, eye opening, and disturbing violence, and hear how real New York gangsters actually talk (trust me, it�s not always a pretty site). Goodfellas stands as the best movie about the mob I have ever seen. Some may disagree and say the Godfather was, but I think Goodfellas is a little more realistic, and I could get involved in the story more. One of the best films of the nineties, one of the best films ever made. Goodfellas is its name. |
| Goodfellas ****stars |
| United States, 1990United States, 1990 MPAA Classification: R (Graphic violence, profanity, drug use) Producer: Irwin Winkler Screenplay: Nicholas Pileggi & Martin Scorsese, based on "Wiseguy" by Pileggi Cinematography: Michael Ballhaus Director: Martin Scorsese |