Country:
USA
Recognizable Faces:
Robert De Niro
Ray Liotta
Joe Pesci
Paul Sorvino
Martin Scorsese's mom
Directed by:
Martin Scorsese
Goodfellas might be the last true one-liner-machine gangster movie ever made. As film noir and mafia stories never really left the screen, the Quote-A-Likeable-Gangster style who started with Mario Puzo's Godfather is something that left the big screen almost completely. Except for The Sopranos, who owned HBO along with The Wire, it's something sadly seen as cliché and over with.
The good fellas are Henry Hill (Liotta), Jimmy Conway (De Niro) and Tommy DeVito (Pesci), three friends who are trying to make it in the criminal underworld without being members of the mafia. They are mainly robbers, stick up men and good earners to their boss Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino). Goodfellas' narrator is Henry, who starts as a teenager, impressed by the success and the glamorous lifestyle of older Jimmy Conway. He will rise and fall through the ranks of the local mob, as the Cicero family has hard time to adapt to the new realities of the underworld.
In typical earlier Scorsese style, Goodfellas could almost be a stage play due to the complexity and the shy, distant camera of many scenes. In family-saga fashion, it's action scenes are satellite to many meals, reunions and simple group discussions that makes the narration go forward. Compared to newer stuff like The Departed or Shutter Island, it feels stripped, almost novel-like, but you can appreciate the subtle pacing and the hard nosed scenes that always defined the Italian-American director.
Acting is also what makes a good part of this movie. Joe Pesci plays his first small-man-syndrome character(and arguably his best), a role that he will keep doing again and again over the nineties. Tommy DeVito is scary, borderline psychopathic and Pesci's slapstick performence gives it great credibility. De Niro is equal to himself as he delivers the goods as the older, smarter and mature Jimmy Conway. Henry Hill is also a high point in Ray Liotta's struggling career, the later part of the movie, Henry's life is getting derailed and Liotta renders extremely well the nameless panic and the paranoia of the doomed mobster. Like Pesci though, it was a one time deal because he never got quite close to this amazing performance.
Goodfellas comes at the end of a cycle formed by The Godfather and Scarface, which depicts the intimate life of successful gangsters. Some would say that you can feel the exhaustion and the similarities to the two first franchises, but I think Goodfellas distinguishes itself by its portrait of friendship against the stakes of the underground world and through the gritty and over-the-top madness of Joe Pesci. It's a little bare and predictable since it follows an established formula from so close, that you could almost call it a "worship" movie. Despite its unoriginal streaks, it's worth many viewings.
SCORE: 90%
