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

"As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. To me,being a gangster was better than being president of the United States.".

So says Henry Hill in the opening moments of Martin Scorsese's "Goodfellas",a movie about the tradecraft and culture of organized crime in New York. That he narrates his story-and is later joined by his wife-narrating hers-is crucial to the movie's success. This is not an outsider's view,but a point of view based ion nostalgia for the lifestyle. Towards the end of the film,Henry Hill(Ray Liotta)still misses the old days. His money is gione,most of the friends are dead,and his best friend is preparing to kill him,but after he finds safety in the federal witness protection program,but he still complains. The rewards of unearned privilege are at the heart of "Goodfellas"(which remains not only Scorsese's best but one of the great gangster thrillers of the 1990's) which relies heavily on the hardcore graphic violence sequences along with hardcore scenes of drug abuse and explicit graphic language along with some intense action scenes made this one of the top ten highest grossing movies of 1990 that was impressive in it's cast: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, along with Frank Silvero, Paul Sorvino, Frank Vincent, Tony Darrow and Samuel L. Jackson. The film was nominated for six Oscars including Best Picture, Best Director(Scorsese),Best Supporting Actor(Joe Pesci), Best Actress(Lorraine Bracco), Best Actor(Ray Liotta),and won Joe Pesci the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. The screenplay by Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese is based on Pileggi's book about Henry Hill titled "Wiseguy:Life In A Mafia Family".