Goodfellas (1990)

I remember, for years, my Mom had been telling me to watch Goodfellas. She hounded me about it for a while, and I eventually broke down and rented the original DVD release. This was in my formative years, when I thought Fight Club was far and away the best film ever made. I watched it and liked it, but didn't think it was anything special. It was entertaining enough, but didn't do much to endear me. Then, a funny thing happened- it kept popping into my mind. I remembered specific moments, plot points, lines of dialogue, particular shots. It didn't dominate my mind, but it did pop into my mind as often as other films that had a bigger impact on me. By the time the Martin Scorsese Collection came out, I couldn't wait to see the film again. As soon as I got it in my hands, I popped in Goodfellas and loved every moment of it. Now, I have to rank it among my favorite films of all time.

Goodfellas has actually had quite an effect on my life in very small places. It's infinitely quotable, something that's exploited in my family for all it's worth. When me and my Mother discuss particularly busy days, it's not uncommon for someone to throw in, among the mundane errands to be run, "and stir the sauce, and deliver the guns to Jimmy..."

For me, there's much to admire in Goodfellas. I remember thinking that the different techniques used in the storytelling, like the voiceovers or the freeze-frames, seemed kind of random and out of place. But, as my personal experience can attest to, they really go a long way towards making the film stick into your mind and emphasizing different moments and emotional climaxes in the story. I remember hearing Scorsese say one time that the French New Wave was too hip for him, that he admired their spirit but the films pretty much blew by him because he was far more old-school in his sentiments. But, watching Goodfellas, I think he's joking, because it's certainly one of the most stylish films to come out in the past few decades.

Much has been made of Scorsese and the violent content of his films. Like most, I'd have to disagree and toss out the cliche that they're simply misunderstood. The startling moments of violence in his films spring to mind when one thinks of his work, but looking down his filmography from an objective standpoint, there's really not much there. Much like the works of Hitchcock and others, the moments of brutality stand out in your mind because they're meant to, not because they're frequent or gratuitous. In Goodfellas, the violence comes at some of the least likely moments, not only for the viewer, but for the characters as well. It's like Ray Liotta's Henry Hill mentions in the film, it comes swiftly and without warning. It keeps the viewers on their toes, making them feel much like the the wiseguys portrayed felt. And it's because the moments of violence are so startling and unexpected, that it sticks out in one's memory.

The violence in Goodfellas illustrates well the danger of life as a wiseguy. This is one of the many ways that Scorsese paints a vivid picture of 'the life'. In fact, that seems to be the main goal of the film. Not to tell a morality tale or anything like that, simply to show the way of life for these gangsters, their trials and tribulations, as well as their rewards. Told through the eyes of Henry Hill, it's extremely glamourized, because that's the way that he saw it. From the first moments of the film, when Hill says that as far back as he could remember he always wanted to be a gangster, it's clear that this is what he loves to do. The beautiful tracking shot halfway through the film shows this wonderfully, as the camera pans and swoops all around in one continuous take, showing Henry and Karen reaping the benefits of the life. This is the heart of the film, the way of life. Scorsese has shown it like a tapestry, illustrating every aspect of it, simultaneously informing and romanticizing. This is the life he chose and he loved every moment of it. That's why the film's biggest tragedy is that he's forced to give it up and become a regular schmuck. Of all the tragedies and deaths to befall the characters in the film, we feel the most resonance at the end when Henry Hill lifelessly picks up the paper in front of his ordinary house. He's given up the one thing he ever wanted to do in life.