Review of GoodFellas (1990) by Brendan C — 30 Apr 2013

Goodfellas is the greatest of all mafia movies in my opinion. It is the most entertaining, and fun mafia movie to me by far. The Godfather is a close second but even though most people like it better I like this one more. The two both set the standard for mafia and gangster movies in my opinion. The Godfather is more epic, but this one is more awesome, and fun. They both have their unique things that make them amazing, like The Godfather has more quotable lines, and a more interesting story, while Goodfellas has a much more unique style invented by the director. Also Goodfellas is much more straightforward then the Godfather, while the Godfather is really hard to follow, and Goodfellas isn't.

Martin Scorsese has made many awesome movies, but this is with out a doubt my favorite of his films. His style is a very recognizable one, and one that is very original. His style is very cool, and the films are very entertaining because of the coolness the film has. He tends to have somebody narrating over the film, and it always adds to the entertainment of the film. Ray Liotta narrates this film, and his voice sounds really good as he does it. He narrates thirty years of Henry Hill's life. Part of his style is that he doesn't always stay in one scene for a long time, because he has to tell a story that last over a few years in only 2 to 3 hours. This film is very much like that. However this style really only applies to his gangster movies. His stuff like "Taxi Driver," or "Cape Fear" is all completely different.

Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) always wanted to be a gangster, even when he was a kid. The life was just so appealing to him. He admired the Lucchese crime family a lot, and he quit school to go work for them. At first his father was getting really angry with him when he learns he hasn't been going to school. The gangsters threaten the mailman if he continues to deliver letters from the school to his house.

The beginning of the movie almost glorifies being a gangster, and it makes the life look awesome. It shows all of the advantages of it. Gangsters were treated like celebrities, and anything they wanted they could get. They made money, and they had a lot of fun. Of course it was a really violent life that nobody should live, because they are all sociopathic killers.

Jimmy "The Gent" Conway (Robert De Niro) took him under his wing. Jimmy loved to steal. He loved to pay off cops. According to Henry he was the kind of guy that would root for the bad guys in movies. He also worked with a guy named Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci). Tommy is a total hot head. He will brutally beat somebody just because that person teased him for something small. At one point he brutally beats a made man of another family to death because he made fun of him for a shoeshine job he did when he was a kid. That got them in trouble, because you can't kill a made man of another family without getting permission from the other family to do it. If you kill a made man without permission they will later come back and kill you. He also shot a guy in the foot for no good reason, and then later shot him to death because he wouldn't dance. He is a total psychopath. But he is a great character for a gangster movie.

The life is not one you should live, but Henry Hill sure loved it. His narrating, and the way he told the story is what made the life look great, and not as awful as it really is when you think about it. He told it in a way that made the film happy to watch, because it just seemed like so many good things were happening for him. Towards the end a lot of bad things were happening though.

The dark part of the movie is the brutal violence, and the stuff between henry Hill and his crazy wife Karen (Lorraine Bracco). She gets really mad and crazy at him all the time, and she is always screaming at him. She is an awful psychotic person, but he doesn't deserve anybody better then her, because he is a sociopathic killer. He is also a cheater, and she gets mad at him all the time. She is the only part of the movie that makes it tough to watch. Everything else is just awesome.

This movie is absolutely amazing. Entertaining to the point that it is sick. The most fun mafia movie of all time. Really well acted, and the story is great. It demands to be watched many times.