Goodfellas - Another great by Scorsese (Goodfellas (DVD))

Member Name: bergkamp10

Product:	Goodfellas (DVD)
Date:	08/07/09 (6 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Decent special features, good quality print

Disadvantages: Be sure to buy the 2 disc edition

This review was written by myself, here: http://www.empireonline.com/forum/tm.asp?m=2422814 &mpage=4&key=


Perhaps Scorsese's most popular film, Goodfellas has become a staple choice for many people's top films lists. Despite the glamorous feel and approach to the film, it has a typically Scorsesean grittiness to it whilst showing the lives of a bunch of characters who you intially dislike yet can not take your eyes off. The main group of characters have a reasonably easy life, 'earning' great fortunes in return for their threats. Though they certainly live the high life for much of the film, they inevitably pay the price, resulting in arrest and/or murder.

This biopic, adapted from the book 'Wise Guys,' follows the life of Henry Hill as he goes from a child caught up in the gangster lifestyle through working part time, low ranking jobs such as chauffer for the gangsters after escaping his aggressive family life to his eventual betrayal. Along the way, we meet the characters who were responsible for much of Henry's successes in his life - Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro), his wife Karen (Dr. Melfi) and, most memorably, Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci). After meeting Karen, his quality of life begins to slide downhill as he faces the realities of gangster life. The brutality of Goodfellas is often dispersed and interwined with moments of humour - a key element of Scorsese's film as he attempts to show that the appeal of Mafioso lifestyle should be taken with a pinch of salt.

The first hour and a third or so are spent developing the vast characters and giving the audience an insight into the lifestyle. Conway is portrayed as a gentlemanly chap who unleashes his anger every so often. Playing on the audience's perception of De Niro's acting, Scorsese doesn't always show Conway's spouts of aggression as the audience are expecting De Niro's character to have violence as an aspect of his personality. Ray Liotta puts in a well judged performance as Hill, using his facial expressions to give the audience the impression that he knows that he needs to leave the scene yet is constantly drawn back in - the drugs and the money leaving him with to many opportunities to turn down. The star of the show is undoubtedly Joe Pesci. At one moment frightening, the next humorous, it is through DeVito that we see the truth and violent reality behind the enticing exterior.

Though unfortunate as it may be that Scorsese has not scaled the heights of Goodfellas since, we can be sure that if Pesci, De Niro and Martin were to re-team again, we can expect a likewise top class film, as shown in Casino. Perhaps the most influential film of the 90s, Goodfellas is rightly held up as a true classic of the crime genre.

Summary: Only Scorsese's third best film, yet perhaps the best mainstream film of the 90s.