There are a number of films people always say one must see. These movies are the one’s that define generations and go down in history as classics. One of these movies is Martin Scorsese’s, The Goodfella’s. A film that is arguably the greatest gangster flick of all time after The Godfather, and is often considered Scorsese’s best work. Recently, I had the chance to finally watch the masterpiece and have the privilege of critiquing it myself. My expectations for this film were sky-high and thankfully, it did not disappoint.
The film is told as a narrative from the point of the protagonist, Henry Hill (Ray Liotta). Scorsese divides the film into two (unequal) halves. The first half shows the film from Hill’s perspective as an outsider for the mafia, when the world looks glitzy and enticing. Hill see’s these men as Godly creatures, the most powerful being’s in the world, and we get to see why. In the second half, Hill is now an insider and experiences the brutality and savageness this world really possesses.
All the characters in the film have extremely meaty roles. Robert DeNiro plays Jimmy Conaway, the lovable gangster with panache who displays great passion for theft. Joe Pesci essays the role of the short-tempered quick-witted Tommy, another gangster who rose to prominence alongside Henry. DeNiro, Liotta, and Pesci are essentially the goodfella’s. DeNiro plays Conaway with charm and style, but also gets to show his strength in the scenes where he demands money, and expresses his emotional side at the scene where Tommy dies. Pesci walks away with the strongest part; his anger is greatly displayed in the scene when he shoots a kid in the foot for not bringing him a drink. Liotta also brings integrity and conviction to his role, but falls short in front of the other two characters. Henry’s wife Karen is the most prominent female character, played by Lorraine Bracco, who goes from playing a normal-young girl to playing a shameless, irrational older woman. She shows her intensity in the scene where she so boldly points a gun to her husband’s head. The rest of the supporting cast also does justice for what they’re meant to do.
Scorsese’s method of story telling seems to be the real hero of the film. It starts off as this film that glorifies the gangster life, he then gradually gets under the skin of one of the gangsters until the movie turns into a cocaine-snorting-white trash fest. In the end, the gangsters all leave their lifestyles and Hill leads a new, more normal lifestyle. That’s when Scorsese messes with you and starts making the gangster life seem more interesting once again. I really liked the goodfella’s, to be honest, no matter how pompous that may sound for a person my age. It was definitely worth watching.
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