Review of GoodFellas (1990) by Swati — 29 Nov 2013

Possibly the most entertaining gangster movie ever. Goodfellas is based on a novel named Wiseguy (which means the same thing) and is narrated by the character of Henry, who we follow as he enters into the underworld at the age of twelve.

Every minute is used to build suspense and drama. The plot follows three relatively small time gangsters_ Henry, Jimmy and Tommy_ who fall way in over their heads with the Mafia and the law enforcement, and the repercussions of this conflict. I found the characters of the latter two especially captivating.

The direction was mesmerizing. The camera angles used reminiscent of an old beloved era. The dialogue and the voice-over were used in conjunction to propel the plot onwards, skipping over seemingly insignificant details and moving onto more exciting parts of the story like a great novel. The art direction and the soundtrack were spot on and created an atmosphere of the 1970s quite successfully.

This is a period piece and was stylized only to the extent that it wouldn't spoil the effect that Scorsese set out to create. In essence, by focussing on substance over style, a picture much closer to reality was created. And that was the beauty of the film. Gangsters are interesting of themselves and showing them in their raw form was much more alluring. How they behaved, spoke, lived and settled disputes was shown with painstaking detail. Clearly a lot of research has gone into it.

Some great movies stick to developing the plot and sometimes succeed in also developing the characters, like The Godfather; others are more successful in relating the sense of the passage of time and have a minimal plot, like The Shawshank Redemption. Goodfellas does both of them. The plot about the trio's troubles with the Mafia and their many heists would have been quite enough for a lesser film, but what makes it truly great is its success in also letting us take a glimpse into the daily lives of these gangsters as the years pass by smoothly from scene to scene.

No gangster film is complete without a few violent murders and Goodfellas is no different, but Scorsese takes no pleasure in it. He moves away from them gracefully after he's made sure we've seen enough to understand what's going on. I did not find it gory in the least. Scorsese takes a much lighter tone than the more traditional crime movies. There were so many quick-witted quips and retorts, and scenes of pure hilarity, that never for one second does one find themselves in a gloomy and despairing mood.

We're shown a lot of other characters too, but they only feature to enrich the world of the three main characters and their experiences. We do not linger too long on anyone to drag the narrative to a standstill. Scorsese does this so successfully that despite this, I still managed to find some of the other characters, especially Paulie, quite engaging.

There are a lot of movies depicting crime but they are deliberately stylized to make the characters likeable but what I loved about this movie was Scorsese did not set out to achieve that but succeeded in this feat only by sticking to reality and depicting gangsters as they had lived themselves. And since these psychopathic beings by virtue of their lack of inhibition were quite charismatic to begin with, this charm seems much more genuine and infects us with their extraordinary personalities.

All things considered, I think Scorsese has been more than successful in making a perfect film. If I did not have a nostalgic attachment to the story and characters of The Godfather, even though it was released sixteen years before my birth, I would have jumped on the bandwagon without a second thought in hailing Goodfellas as the finest gangster film, and perhaps the greatest film ever, of all time.