The time has come to finally do what's right and bump up my favorite film from my favorite director to a full 5 stars. Martin Scorsese has made many legitimate masterpieces, but like many, I would say that GoodFellas embodies best what he is all about as a filmmaker. It's a New York set gangster epic about the Italian-American mafia, a milieu that has always fascinated Scorsese. It's a rise-and-fall narrative, the kind of story he has told peerlessly throughout his career. And it's Scorsese himself operating at the peak of his cinematic powers. Never are Scorsese's stylistic trademarks better at display than in this film, from the voice-over narration (breaking the fourth wall at the very end) and the perfectly timed needle drops, over the montages set to 50's doo-wop music (early in the film) and classic rock hits (later on), to the freeze frames and the overall dynamic editing, it all mashes up beautifully to create a perfectly flowing film with an infectious energy.
There's just so many classic moments that are etched into the history of cinema. The freeze frame of Henry's face as the voice-over narration begins ("As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster"), followed by a needle drop of Tony Bennett's 'Rags to Riches'. "Funny How?" The iconic long tracking shot into the Copacabana, set to The Crystals' 'And then he kissed me'. The 'Layla' montage where everybody connected to the Lufthansa heist gets whacked. Henry standing up from the witness booth in court and walking towards the camera to directly address the audience. Tommy shooting at the camera. Seeing all those classic moments back just brought a smile to my face.
Another thing I love about this film is that it's so funny. Now you could say: what do you mean funny? Well, it's funny, you know. It's funny, it's a funny film. Well, funny how? What's funny about it? Just, you know, it's funny. How they tell the stories, what? There's that iconic scene of course. Or the scene where they're on their way to dump Billy Batts' corpse and stop by Tommy's mother (played by Scorsese's real life mother Catherine!), who insists they have some food, followed by the smash cut to them casually having some pasta (the editing is brilliant throughout this film, thanks to Scorsese's long-time collaborator, Thelma Schoonmaker). The whole 'family' congratulating Henry on getting out of his first pinch. Just the general behavior way these Italian-American wise-guys act and talk in this film never fails to make me laugh.
By the way, I feel like it's such a lame critique to say that "Scorsese is glamorizing the lifestyle of these mobsters". First, judging a film by its supposed (lack of) morality is such a boring way to look at it. Furthermore, saying that he glamorizes the mafia is mostly a compliment to Scorsese's prowess as a filmmaker, as the whole point of the first act is to show us how the still very young and impressionable Henry gets seduced by the seemingly glamorous lifestyle of these gangsters. Scorsese is just so damn good at that, he almost beguiles us too.
The whole discussion actually reminds me of Trainspotting, another one of my all-time favorite films, which also gets criticized sometimes for glamorizing its thorny subject (drug addiction). In that film, main character Mark Renton says: "people think about the misery, the desperation and death, but what they forget is the pleasure of it. Otherwise, we wouldn't do it. After all, we're not stupid. At least, we're not that stupid."
It's the same with the gangster lifestyle: of course, there's the violence and death, but there is obviously also a certain allure to the way they live. Otherwise, they wouldn't do it. Mobsters don't follow any rules, they do and take whatever they want to, whenever they want to. There's the money, the superficial glitter and glamour and even an apparent sense of camaraderie amongst these 'Good Fellas'. And yes, Scorsese uses every cinematic trick at his disposal to showcase these enticing aspects of the mobster lifestyle, because that's what Henry sees and what draws him in. Now because he is such a supremely talented filmmaker, in making us look at these gangsters through Henry's eyes, Scorsese can almost convince us too that this is perhaps truly an enviable life (before of course pulling the rug in the second half). That's why the Copa tracking shot is so brilliant: Scorsese shows us in about two minutes how Karen could so easily get swept up in all the glitter and glamour of Henry's lifestyle, to the point that she's willing to ignore all the red flags that come with it.
However, despite all the money and the flash and the fun, Scorsese eventually shows us as well that the good times can't last, as sooner or later, the chickens come home to roost. We see the brutal violence and its consequences, the paranoia and the ruthless backstabbing. Especially the supposed feeling of friendship between these wise guys is brutally undercut, as they either start killing each other or ratting on one another to save their own skin. All of this is presented with the same cinematic bravura by the way. There's even another parallel with Trainspotting there, as all the main characters either end up succumbing to their addiction or backstabbing each other.
Both GoodFellas and Trainspotting are movies that portray their characters and their lifestyles with plenty of stylistic flourishes AND without easy moralization, which rubs some people the wrong way. However, it's still clear there's only a couple of ways these stories can end and most of them are depressingly hopeless. Just because Scorsese and Boyle don't outright condemn their characters doesn't mean they idolize them either. I didn't exactly come away from my multiple viewings of GoodFellas wanting to be a gangster, just like I have never wanted to try some heroin after watching Trainspotting for the umpteenth time.
It's all there in Henry Hill's final words: "Anything I wanted was a phone call away. I bet twenty, thirty grand over a weekend. Didn't matter. It didn't mean anything. When I was broke, I'd go out and rob some more. We ran everything." Even though his actions through a life of crime eventually caught up with him, to the point that he had to choose between ratting out all his 'friends' to the FBI or getting killed by those same friends, he's still nostalgic for his former life, lamenting how "Today everything is different; there's no action, have to wait around like everyone else. I'm an average nobody, get to live the rest of my life like a schnook." And although we certainly don't feel any sympathy for him, we get it.
Just like the director is firing on all cylinders here, so are the actors. Ray Liotta was born to play baby-faced gangster Henry Hill; his narration is pitch perfect as well. The iconic Robert De Niro is effortlessly cool as the cold and calculating Jimmy Conway (that slow-motion shot of him smoking at the bar as he decides he's going to have a bunch of his 'associates' killed is glorious), while it's Joe Pesci who has the flashier role here as Tommy DeVito. The way Pesci turns on a dime from joking prankster to violent psychopath is chilling. Both De Niro and Pesci would of course go on to play very similar roles in Scorsese's other '90s gangster epic, Casino.
It's simple really: when I think of Martin Scorsese, I think of GoodFellas. Here's a director, who had already displayed his grasp of a variety of styles, themes, and stories (and thus had already made many great movies), finding the perfect match for his stylistic sensibilities, in terms of story, narrative form, actors, everything. Amongst the many great films he's made, GoodFellas is Scorsese's magnum opus and would serve in many ways as a blueprint for some of his later films (Casino, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Irishman and even Killers of the Flower Moon come to mind). It's one of the movies that made me fall in love with the movies about 10 years ago and will forever be one of my favorite films to return to.
There's just so many classic moments that are etched into the history of cinema. The freeze frame of Henry's face as the voice-over narration begins ("As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster"), followed by a needle drop of Tony Bennett's 'Rags to Riches'. "Funny How?" The iconic long tracking shot into the Copacabana, set to The Crystals' 'And then he kissed me'. The 'Layla' montage where everybody connected to the Lufthansa heist gets whacked. Henry standing up from the witness booth in court and walking towards the camera to directly address the audience. Tommy shooting at the camera. Seeing all those classic moments back just brought a smile to my face.
Another thing I love about this film is that it's so funny. Now you could say: what do you mean funny? Well, it's funny, you know. It's funny, it's a funny film. Well, funny how? What's funny about it? Just, you know, it's funny. How they tell the stories, what? There's that iconic scene of course. Or the scene where they're on their way to dump Billy Batts' corpse and stop by Tommy's mother (played by Scorsese's real life mother Catherine!), who insists they have some food, followed by the smash cut to them casually having some pasta (the editing is brilliant throughout this film, thanks to Scorsese's long-time collaborator, Thelma Schoonmaker). The whole 'family' congratulating Henry on getting out of his first pinch. Just the general behavior way these Italian-American wise-guys act and talk in this film never fails to make me laugh.
By the way, I feel like it's such a lame critique to say that "Scorsese is glamorizing the lifestyle of these mobsters". First, judging a film by its supposed (lack of) morality is such a boring way to look at it. Furthermore, saying that he glamorizes the mafia is mostly a compliment to Scorsese's prowess as a filmmaker, as the whole point of the first act is to show us how the still very young and impressionable Henry gets seduced by the seemingly glamorous lifestyle of these gangsters. Scorsese is just so damn good at that, he almost beguiles us too.
The whole discussion actually reminds me of Trainspotting, another one of my all-time favorite films, which also gets criticized sometimes for glamorizing its thorny subject (drug addiction). In that film, main character Mark Renton says: "people think about the misery, the desperation and death, but what they forget is the pleasure of it. Otherwise, we wouldn't do it. After all, we're not stupid. At least, we're not that stupid."
It's the same with the gangster lifestyle: of course, there's the violence and death, but there is obviously also a certain allure to the way they live. Otherwise, they wouldn't do it. Mobsters don't follow any rules, they do and take whatever they want to, whenever they want to. There's the money, the superficial glitter and glamour and even an apparent sense of camaraderie amongst these 'Good Fellas'. And yes, Scorsese uses every cinematic trick at his disposal to showcase these enticing aspects of the mobster lifestyle, because that's what Henry sees and what draws him in. Now because he is such a supremely talented filmmaker, in making us look at these gangsters through Henry's eyes, Scorsese can almost convince us too that this is perhaps truly an enviable life (before of course pulling the rug in the second half). That's why the Copa tracking shot is so brilliant: Scorsese shows us in about two minutes how Karen could so easily get swept up in all the glitter and glamour of Henry's lifestyle, to the point that she's willing to ignore all the red flags that come with it.
However, despite all the money and the flash and the fun, Scorsese eventually shows us as well that the good times can't last, as sooner or later, the chickens come home to roost. We see the brutal violence and its consequences, the paranoia and the ruthless backstabbing. Especially the supposed feeling of friendship between these wise guys is brutally undercut, as they either start killing each other or ratting on one another to save their own skin. All of this is presented with the same cinematic bravura by the way. There's even another parallel with Trainspotting there, as all the main characters either end up succumbing to their addiction or backstabbing each other.
Both GoodFellas and Trainspotting are movies that portray their characters and their lifestyles with plenty of stylistic flourishes AND without easy moralization, which rubs some people the wrong way. However, it's still clear there's only a couple of ways these stories can end and most of them are depressingly hopeless. Just because Scorsese and Boyle don't outright condemn their characters doesn't mean they idolize them either. I didn't exactly come away from my multiple viewings of GoodFellas wanting to be a gangster, just like I have never wanted to try some heroin after watching Trainspotting for the umpteenth time.
It's all there in Henry Hill's final words: "Anything I wanted was a phone call away. I bet twenty, thirty grand over a weekend. Didn't matter. It didn't mean anything. When I was broke, I'd go out and rob some more. We ran everything." Even though his actions through a life of crime eventually caught up with him, to the point that he had to choose between ratting out all his 'friends' to the FBI or getting killed by those same friends, he's still nostalgic for his former life, lamenting how "Today everything is different; there's no action, have to wait around like everyone else. I'm an average nobody, get to live the rest of my life like a schnook." And although we certainly don't feel any sympathy for him, we get it.
Just like the director is firing on all cylinders here, so are the actors. Ray Liotta was born to play baby-faced gangster Henry Hill; his narration is pitch perfect as well. The iconic Robert De Niro is effortlessly cool as the cold and calculating Jimmy Conway (that slow-motion shot of him smoking at the bar as he decides he's going to have a bunch of his 'associates' killed is glorious), while it's Joe Pesci who has the flashier role here as Tommy DeVito. The way Pesci turns on a dime from joking prankster to violent psychopath is chilling. Both De Niro and Pesci would of course go on to play very similar roles in Scorsese's other '90s gangster epic, Casino.
It's simple really: when I think of Martin Scorsese, I think of GoodFellas. Here's a director, who had already displayed his grasp of a variety of styles, themes, and stories (and thus had already made many great movies), finding the perfect match for his stylistic sensibilities, in terms of story, narrative form, actors, everything. Amongst the many great films he's made, GoodFellas is Scorsese's magnum opus and would serve in many ways as a blueprint for some of his later films (Casino, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Irishman and even Killers of the Flower Moon come to mind). It's one of the movies that made me fall in love with the movies about 10 years ago and will forever be one of my favorite films to return to.