Set in Brooklyn, we follow Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) through his induction, involvement and departure from the Italian Mafia. It all starts out in Henry’s town as a little kid and how he watches the Mafia members from his apartment. He sees all of them having fun and living a carefree life. Immediately Henry knows that he wants to be a part of this. He soon gets a job with them making deliveries and other little errands but is just the foot in the door that he needs. He now commands respect around his town and his whole family gets it too. His parents originally do not known where this new respect is coming from, but they do not seem to mind. The kids of the town carry home the mother’s groceries and the local butcher lets them cut in line. To work his new job with the mafia, Henry must miss some classes from school and they finally catch up with him. After the postman delivers a letter from the school to Henry’s house and the father beats Henry for his insubordination, the postman is contacted by the mafia and shoved in a pizza oven. That was the end of the school problem. Henry’s life is going great. He does not have a care in the world and he loves it. His grades may be declining but his life is so good at this point that he does not care.
The movie now flashes forward to Henry as an adult. He has made it through his adolescent years as a junior gangster and he is now a full fledged Mafioso. He is now partners in crime with the mobster legend, Jimmy Conway (Robert DeNiro) and the insane Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci). These three work together on everything with Tommy getting them in trouble along the way. Henry eventually gets caught committing a crime and is sentenced to jail time. Just when you think his luck has finally run out, you are wrong. It turns out that being in jail is just as good as being out. They, being all the locked up members of the mafia, live like kings. They eat gourmet meals, live in a large prison cell all together, and the guards treat them like gold. He still has the life. At this point, Scorsese decides to throw in a little twist to the perfect life.
Henry, while in jail, gets mixed up in drugs. At the time this seems to have enhanced his life even further but as the movie progresses we find that it is indeed his ultimate downfall. He is living the life once again. While in jail he has made many contacts through his drug business and his cliental list expands even more once he gets out. At this point he is rolling in the dough, buying the biggest houses with the most extravagant décor. He even goes as far to buy an apartment for his mistress, who his wife does not know about. All good things have to come to an end, much like Henry’s success. He winds up getting caught with the drugs and, to make a long story short, his whole family has to live under the aid of the governmental protection agency. Henry has now lost everything, his money, fame, respect, dignity, the trust of his wife and on top of that, which is the worst of all for Henry, he is forced to live a normal life. After all the years that he has been living an immortal life he now has to be an average Joe. This is the ultimate punishment for Henry, a mediocre life, with a mediocre family, with a mediocre salary. A life shrouded in mediocrity. Goodfellas is the foundation for all mobster movies that follow it. This movie, released in 1990, was one of Scorsese’s best works. Although this was not his first it certainly did set a precedent for the rest of his movies and the movies of other director.
Scorsese put together an instant classic when making this film. There are many mobster films out there but there is a reason this one stands out as one of the best. Content is one of the main reasons for this. He manages to capture the true life of the Italian mobster. He initially glorifies it like many other directors have, but then, as only Scorsese could do, he begins to dismember it and show the true life that lies beneath and what is always destined to come if following along this path. Every other mobster movie fails to incorporate this premise, that being a mobster is not all it is cut out to be and that there are consequences to living this illustrious life. This would be the main reason why this movie is so successful now and why it will remain an immortal classic. Scorsese also made all of the characters disbelieve that they were doing anything wrong. They were almost in a way disconnected from society, shrouded from normalcy which made what they were doing just run of the mill, average thing to do. Little did they realize that outside of them, the world was completely different. They could never have known this though because in their “click,” outside people were not accepted or let in so they, as I said, had no connections. This aspect to the film really adds something to think about towards the psychology of the mobsters.
The acting in this movie is also some of the best acting out there. The three main actors, Liotta, Pesci, and DeNiro, are genius in this film. They have the parts of the Italian mobster down to a science and they hit every tendency right on the nose making for a very convincing movie. Their chemistry together is phenomenal and the movie would not be the same without that. All three of them get so involved in their parts that it is like their characters life, their identity is their life, and not just a persona that they are playing in order to entertain the public. Granted, without Scorsese’s directing and fantastic ideas putting these characters into the scenes, this trio would not have as great of an effect. The situation that direction is able to put them in gives these three phenoms something very easily worked with and gives them opportunity to really expand on Scorsese’s ideas and show their true colors.
A more minor detail which also makes the movie what it is, is the music. Although this may be overlooked at first, the music is perfectly synced up to the movie to add extra drama and emphasis. The soundtrack is also an amazing soundtrack with some outstanding songs, but the context which they are used in is even more outstanding. In the beginning the movie opens with a song, “From Rags to Riches,” and it does a brilliant job in summing up the movie, even in the earliest of scenes. As Henry goes on saying how “being a gangster was better than being President of the United States,” this song is playing, and they work perfectly together. All throughout the movie the songs are like that and it is really interesting; if you pay close attention to it you can hear every song synchronized with the situation.
Overall Goodfellas is a brilliant movie with brilliant acting and plot. It is a must see for all people whether you want to be a gangster, hate gangsters, or are indifferent towards the whole situation. This movie has become a part of our culture and because of that it cannot be ignored. If you have not seen this movie yet, make it a point to. I guarantee it will be well worth your time.
Works Cited
SBGEMINI “Goodfellas Trailer.” Youtube. 5/7/08 <http://youtube.com/watch?v=twVYnfNbQGo>
