Goodfellas

The first time I had heard of "Goodfellas" it was at a Christian Camp when I was about thirteen or fourteen. At the camp we were given a list of movies that were deemed sinful against our church, "Goodfellas" was at the top of the list. Of course "Goodfellas" is sinful, it's about gangsters, what kind of gangster movie would it be if it wasn't sinful?

However because it was on that list of sinful films, it took me awhile to finally see "Goodfellas". By that time, film had become a new kind of religion, and I didn't feel like I was going to go to hell just for watching a movie.

"Goodfellas" doesn't feel like a typical gangster film, it's fast, it's kinetic, it's full of rhythm, it's almost like a musical without the show tunes. This is pop art, a visceral experience. It can be shocking, brutal, and violent, but it can also be funny, light, and joyful. This is Martin Scorsese at his most entertaining, his most surprising, and his most fun.

It's funny, but I don't really consider "Goodfellas" to be as serious as other Scorsese masterpieces like "Taxi Driver" or "Raging Bull", despite the fact that this is a film which examines the life of a gangster. Unlike other modern gangster films like Coppola's "The Godfather" or De Palma's remake of "Scarface" which took a more operatic approach to the genre, "Goodfellas" takes us back to the streets. We meet Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), a man who comes into the mob at an early age. He's seduced by the lifestyle, the clothes, the money, the power, everything that the movies have exploited for decades.

Henry begins his mob life as a young man, and we watch him grow up becoming more and more important. His usual crew consists of Tommy (Joe Pesci), a hot headed psychopath, and Jimmy (Robert De Niro), the leader of the bunch who usually plans out big scores for the fellas to do.

We see Henry's rise in the gangster life, to his inevitable fall where he ends up in the witness protection program. Movies like this usually end with the main character being killed off, but Henry was actually a real person who did end up in the witness protection program. His story was published as a book called "Wiseguy" by Nicholas Pileggi who co-wrote the film's screenplay with Scorsese.

What makes "Goodfellas" standout from the crowd of gangster films it followed is not letting itself fall under the trappings of cliche. The gangsters here are shown as real people, they talk like they probably do talk. As with "The Godfather", the gangsters portrayed here are Italian Americans, and we get a certain authenticity with their way of life and culture. There is probably more talk about what the men are eating than about killing. We see scenes where Henry and the guys are sitting around the table, playing cards or at a restaurant. Scorsese always knows when to pull the rug out from under us, by offsetting these normal scenes, with violence.

To this day, it's hard to find a film more shocking in its violence than in "Goodfellas", it comes so sudden, mostly from Pesci's character Tommy, who is like a lit fuse ready to go off. But the violence is never dwelled upon, it's treated as a daily routine within the lives of these guys. It does serve as a wake up call to the audience, that power comes with a price, and it's something that proves to be Henry's downfall. By the end, he's trapped in a corner, he's no longer safe, and the only way out is to betray these men, and end up the rest of his life hidden.

I don't think "Goodfellas" has anything new to say about gangsters, it's serving the same story that crime doesn't pay, but it's in the execution of this story that makes it so brilliant. Scorsese is a master of the film language, he seems to be having a ball exploiting every technique known to man. He never slows the film down, if you watch it, you can see it has its own pace, it flows together effortlessly, it's all thanks to the timing, and editing by Scorsese's longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker, who has done every one of his movies since "Raging Bull".

There were also leaps and bounds of innovative camera work introduced in the film, most notably the famous Copacabana scene, where we see Henry enter the club with his wife Karen (Lorraine Bracco), with a steady cam following them in. It's done all in one drawn out shot, as they come in through the kitchen, and enter to take a front row seat near the stage.

Scorsese has also been known for substituting original film scores in favour of existing music, and here he does it masterfully. How could you forget the the sweeping montage of murdered bodies over the song of "Layla", it's one of the great movie moments in history. Scorsese has the talent of finding the right song for every scene, either used to set the right mood, or to juxtapose what is actually going on, it all works beautifully.

"Goodfellas" is a great film because it's fully of energy and vitality. It's a way for us to live vicariously through these dangerous men for awhile, we admire them because they live a life that looks cool and dangerous, but we know with this kind of life, there are extreme consequences, which is safe for us, but not for Henry Hill.

I don't think "Goodfellas" is as deep as other Scorsese films, but I don't think he has ever been this fun with the film language before, watching it is always a treat, it's one of the great American genre films of the last twenty years, it's a master at the height of his powers showing the kids how it's done.