Goodfellas

Although this is not Casino (my favorite Scorsese film), and CERTAINLY NOT The Godfather, this movie is also a masterpiece in it's own right, probably being the first film to capture the evil underworld of mob life.It's about Roy Liotta's (RIP, Legend) character named Henry who is taken by the romantic life of being a mobster, the wealth, the women, the power, and the ability to do whatever the hell you want to do without impunity. I mean come on; somewhere deep down inside of the darkest parts of our souls, we wish we had that sort of power. And why not? So, Henry decides to start working with them and work his way from the bottom. Along the way, we meet up with Tommy and Jimmy, played by Joe Pesci and Robert DeNiro. They become the good friends of Henry and not to mention the foils of him; Tommy who is more the aggressor while Jimmy is more of the planner. But no mistake, they ARE evil. In fact, they are so evil, Henry realizes that he may be out of his own depth, and being a gangers may have been more than what he bargained for.Scorsese does a great job with directing, as always, and I've always loved his camera work, especially when there are moments of quick-paced sequences or abruptness that kind of gives this sort of uneasiness. Although I'd argue I think he does this better in Casino, but there is plenty of it in Goodfellas.Nicholas Pileggi did an excellent job on writing the script and I'm currently on the hunt for his book, Wiseguys, which is what this movie is based on. And what's really striking to me is how much of the events in Goodfellas ACTUALLY happened. It's almost unreal at times, but Mr. Pileggi did his homework to bring this script to life.Other details that I love about this movie is the music selection. I LOVE the music Mr. Scorsese brings to his movies (again, I think he does it even better in Casino). There's a famous scene where he uses Cream in his movie and it's just such a great scene that says so much by doing so little and it's just great.One other thing that I don't hear people talk enough about is the food in this film. There's so much in this film that it consciously and unconsciously brings up about the food that I could smell it, like I'm in an Italian restaurant (and I'm 38 days in my 40 day fasting). Seriously, the food in this shot so well that I always get hungry while watching this film. There's a scene that makes me laugh every time I watch it where Henry, Jimmy, and Tommy goes to Tommy's house and have dinner with Tommy's mother, who is played by Martin Scorsese's mother. The context of the scene makes me laugh, the food makes me hungry, and the magic of acting that takes place between Joe Pesci's and Mrs. Scorsese's performance is done so well, I keep saying in a complimentary fashion, "That is so Italian." And I love it.To conclude, if you haven't seen Goodfellas, shame on you! What are you doing here, reading my review!? It may not be at the top like Casino, but it is absolutely worth the watch!

This isn't my favorite Scorsese film, but it's still pretty damn great, and is perhaps the best mafia film I've ever seen. The silly though often dramatically effective romananticizing of the mafia that you'd find in 'The Godfather' or 'Once Upon a Time in America' is completely missing here, and we see gangsters for what they almost certainly are, mere amoral creeps at best, and utterly sociopathic maniacs at worst. This is a courageously unconventional film, as it is largely a biography, and thus largely without a particular plot, and is completely devoid of any likable characters. But, it's always interesting, often fascinating and frequently disturbing, and Scorsese creates a consistent sense of believability and reality, even as the events fall well outside the range of our experience. Still, though Scorsese manages to shape the film in a way that makes it seem somewhat more purposeful and deliberate despite the lack of a central plot, it does have a slightly anti-climactic ending. Simply put, Hill's sudden downfall is quite a bit less intriguing that his rise. But, what are you gonna do, that's the way it happened. (More or less, anyway. I don't know enough of the real details to say how many liberties Scorsese took with the facts, but I'll assume that this has the gist of 'em, anyway.) The acting is uniformly top-notch, with special note going to Pesci as the murderous Tommy. He's certainly one of the most unnerving characters to come along in the 90's, and he really seems to embody what I'm told is a sociopath. He doesn't even kill because he likes to, precisely, he just does it because he just can't relate to others as human. The suffering of others means absolutely nothing to him, and thus he has no reason to restrain himself other than how it might effect him later. This is probably the scariest personality type: someone who seems kinda normal most of the time, but who is in fact a complete fraud, a fraud who doesn't really believe in any of the social constructions of the world, but fakes it to get by. Henry himself is an interesting character, as he displays an unusual detachment from everything around him, as I suppose would true of a great many career criminals. Being a criminal is just what he does.Authenticity is significant to the narrative, so this film lacks the surreal flavoring of some of Scorsese's classic work, but he still manages enough flair to keep interesting, largely in the form of some long, elaborate tracking shots, a bit of schizoid editing and some sudden freeze frames to go with the narration. He also pulls the old using pop-songs from the era trick, but for once this just seems to be a natural outcropping of the setting, rather than an gratuitous, distracting device.Certainly, this isn't a film for everyone. Again, no one is remotely likable, except maybe Paulie, who displays a wee bit more honor than most of the figures, and it's got plenty of graphic, callous violence. It's not that gory, really, but the cold approach to it will doubtless effect many. Still, if you're looking for an unconventional look at a disturbing unusual world that is still frighteningly close to home, you can't go wrong with 'Goodfellas'.Grade: A-

Surprised the hubs with a digital copy of one of our favorite movies. I purchased multiple movies, he is so happy.

It’s a great movie and was glad too find it