To me, this is the best film ever made. A bold statement you may think, but I the minute I saw Henry Hill utter the famous line: "As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a gangster", followed by the kick of Tony Bennett's 'Rags to Riches', I knew I was in for something special.
In the hands of any other director, this could have been a straightforward adaptation of Pileggi's Wise Guy. Yet with Scorsese, the film is injected with an important dose of life - something I thought was slightly missing from The Godfather series. The relationships are so close and warm between these goodfellas, something absent from the cold relationships in Scorsese's subsequent, poorer, Casino.
The characters react well to each other - the main actors being superb. Liotta has never been better than as Henry Hill, the regular guy seduced by mob life, and Pesci has never again reached the great heights he did in this film, as the only 5ft 5" man I know who can scare me. De Niro is doing what he does best, and that is playing the gangster, but in an understated fashion, never going into parody. Yet like most good films, it is the small things that make a difference - and there is no exception here. Even the minor roles are fully fleshed out, as if there is a life behind the story of Henry Hill. Like Mickey Eyes... or Anthony... or Jimmy Two Times (on the account of the fact that he says everything twice). The sheer density of the characters is to be commended.
Scorsese has the knack of timing his music to the action that occurs on screen. But this isn't just a song played in its entirety (something Tarantino would do) - instead Scorsese chops and changes his songs, halfway through a scene. Take for example the 1980s scenes, where Hill is in a fit of paranoia whilst delivering the guns to Jimmy and picking up drugs for himself. From the start of this powerful section of the film,we get Nilsson's 'Jump into the fire', followed by some Muddy Waters, mixed in with the Stones - to a dizzying effect, until we end this section with 'Jump into the fire' again. Pure genius.
This is also seen in the Layla montage - the piano exit of Eric Clapton's 'Layla' introducing us to the fall of the gangsters who knew too much about the heist. From the pink Cadillac, to the meat locker with Frankie Carbone in it - it is a beautiful scene, with so many great techniques on offer. I could go on forever about the amount of great scenes in this movie that work with the music (Billy Batt's murder with Donovan's 'Atlantis'... tracking shot of Jimmy with Cream's 'Sunshine of my love'...) - but that is for you to watch and experience.
Goodfellas is a film-lovers film. It has a great story (great narration too), superb acting from all, beautiful cinematography (the Copacabana scene comes to mind, also with the visceral tracking shots) and the all seeing eye - Scorsese. Goodfellas is a film that is as violent as it is funny, a sense of humour in Scorsese's work also seen in King of Comedy and After Hours. This is Scorsese's (and in my humble opinion any director's) best work. And that is saying something considering how fantastic Raging Bull and Taxi Driver are.
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