3 minute read
Film Review: Goodfellas
At over 30 years young, Martin Scorsese’s iconic masterpiece Goodfellas (1990) still has all the visceral power of a well aimed smack in the nose.
By Tadhg Curtin
I don’t know if you have been smacked in the nose but I have. You’re shocked, sore, disorientated, your eyes tear up and your adrenaline is pumping. It’s a dizzying, disorientating, and weirdly exhilarating feeling. That feeling is what watching Goodfellas for the first time is like.
'It's gonna be a good Summer!" L-R: Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta& Paul Sorvino
Director Martin Scorsese teamed up with writer Nicholas Pileggi to adapt his 1985 book Wiseguy which was based on the life of Henry Hill, a Mafia associate turned government informant. It’s very bitter-sweet that when I finally got to write about this monumental work, the film’s lead, Ray Liotta just recently passed away. It’s a career best for Liotta as Henry Hill but Robert De Niro, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino are absolutely incredible as well. Even Scorsese’s mother, Catherine Scorsese -who was not an actress - pops up in the famous late night dinner scene and is fantastic. But Joe Pesci steals the movie as diminutive but psychotic Tommy De Vito. He would be awarded the Oscar for Best Supporting actor for his legendary turn.
"I'm in construction." Ray Liotta & Lorraine Bracco
The craft at work here is phenomenal. The camera work by frequent Scorsese cinematographer, Michael Bauhaus, is glorious. It’s in constant motion - whip pans, zooms, steadicam shots, all cut together by master editor and longtime Scorsese collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker. It’s a scuzzy, sleazy looking movie - apparently Scorsese and Bauhaus wanted to a give it a working class look rather then give it a glamorous sheen. It’s scenes are often bathed in red which suggests so much; danger, blood, hell. It really is a ride with the Devil. It’s seductive and sexy at the beginning. We’re seduced into it’s immoral world and we’re loving it. But then comes the character of Spider. Poor Spider... Suddenly we see the danger of this world but it’s too late to leave now, sucker! We’re in it to the end, right through the anxiety inducing third act where it becomes a cocaine movie. Hill’s drug abuse and paranoia begins to inform the film making - fast cutting, jump cutting - the film becomes as jittery as its lead character.
Goodfellas uses voiceover and is probably the greatest example of voiceover done right - adding to the story rather than lazily filling in cracks in the narrative. It’s as if Hill is right there with you, confessing his sins with both regret and longing for that life And if The Godfather is opera, Goodfellas is straight up rock’n’ roll, both literally and figuratively. Scorsese scores his movie with the choicest of tracks; everything from The Rolling Stones to The Crystals.
"But in Italian it sounds much nicer". The great Catherine Scorsese in one the movies iconic scenes.
Undoubtedly, one of the most influential movies ever made, not just of the 90s but on a generation of filmmakers. David Chase cites it as a big one on his own masterpiece The Sopranos (which would feature many of the Goodfellas cast). It is the work of a master at the top of his game but he was left criminally Oscarless for his effort. Violent, brutal, exhilarating cinema. Check it out, ya stutterin’ $%*& !!!
