"Goodfellas" Talkback (Spoilers)

[Hanshotfirst113]

Three decades of life in the Mafia.

A Martin Scorsese picture

Henry: "You're a funny guy!"
Tommy: "Funny how?"

Studio: Warner Brothers Pictures
Release Date: 1990
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Produced by Irwin Winkler
Written by Martin Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi, based on the book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi
Cinematography by Michael Ballhus
Edited by Thema Schoonmaker
Starring: Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta, Paul Sorvino, Lorraine Bracco

PLOT: Henry Hill becomes an Irish-American foot soldier in the Mafia as we watch his story and his rise and fall.

Comments?

[Cortez2301]

Great movie.This and "Raging Bull" are my all time favourite Scorcese movies.It was really interesting to see The mafia from the fifties to the eighties (though I really wish I could see more of the 1930s).Great story and acting.I give it 4.5 stars out of 5.

[GregX]

Five stars from me. It may not be the "greatest" movie ever made, but it's definitely my favorite. Love Robert De Niro. Love Joe Pesci. Love Ray Liotta. Love Lorraine Bracco. More than that, I love Scorsese, and I think this is his best.

It breaks my heart that it lost Best Picture to "Dances With Wolves".

My grandfather actually knew Jimmy "The Gent" Burke. Who Jimmy Conway in the movie was directly based on. They gave him his biological mother's maiden name "Conway" because Burke's daughter Catherine demanded $100,000 for the use of her father's name in the movie.

[Hanshotfirst113]

One of my personal top ten. As good as filmmaking gets. An exhilarating ride and an intimate character study, high art and pulp entertainment all at once. One of film's greatest directors, drunk on the possibilities of cinema. With breathtaking cinematography, his camera exploring the characters and their environments. Social chronicles, character study, thrilling ride, GoodFellas is all of the above. Full of bravura camera work (the Copa stedicam shot is breathtaking), but always with purpose and in terms of character, style, narrative, and theme, GoodFellas has style and substance alike to burn, and at 2 1/2+ hours, it barrels through them, never feeling overlong. Scorsese tethers his camera to a central character as he is often to do, but surrounds him with an unforgettable group of compatriots. Pesci, De Niro, Liotta, Sorvino, and Bracco are all pitch perfect. Scorsese's documentary background less us see the characters for what they are, and there's no glamorous characters or opera here, just grit, as we spend 30 years with men who you usually wouldn't want to know. Full of gritty violence, but never glorified, its simply the way that these people communicate. Scorsese doesn't directly ask for sympathy, but I still find conflicting feelings as Henry turn in his crew and the end and it trapped in suburbia. One of the defining American films of 1990s, easily one of the best gangster films ever made. A masterpiece.

[Leaping Larry Jojo]

Actually, a lot of people, and I mean respect film critics, DO find that it glorifies the mafia. It's hard not to deny they have A point. The movie is really hip (especially helped by the great soundtrack), almost TOO hip at times for you to really see the ugliness and despise it all.

But you know what? I don't care. And I have always been skeptical of criticism that question a movie's ethics. Yeah, I know there are times when a film can be despicable in values (Birth of the Nation is one example) but Goodfellas is no BoTN and even if it glorifies the mafia a little, is that any worse than your typical Hollywood blockbuster glorifying violence and xenophobia? A movie is about being entertaining, and telling a good story. Goodfellas is incredibly entertaining, and while you could argue for or against its true ethical orientation, it is not about any kind of message in particular. It's just a damn fun movie about a guy in the mafia, and there's nothing wrong with that.

[Hanshotfirst113]

Actually, a lot of people, and I mean respect film critics, DO find that it glorifies the mafia. It's hard not to deny they have A point. The movie is really hip (especially helped by the great soundtrack), almost TOO hip at times for you to really see the ugliness and despise it all.

See, I saw that as Henry Hill's view of the mafia. He saw being a gangster as a glamorous way of life, and quite honestly, many people probably do. There's a certain allure to that kind of lifestyle for many people, and Scorsese sees that too, and for the first hour, the film shows it that way. But as Henry's life spins out of control, I think that much of that allure falls by the wayside, but Scorsese's documentary-like approach means that at the end of the film, I saw things both ways. Henry was a member of the mafia, and so were the rest of his crew, but he sold them out. There's not two ways about. Sympathy for the devil, so to speak. And like Taxi Driver, the film asks the question and leaves you to answer it. My favorite Scorsese film, and that says a lot.

But you know what? I don't care. And I have always been skeptical of criticism that question a movie's ethics. Yeah, I know there are times when a film can be despicable in values (Birth of the Nation is one example) but Goodfellas is no BoTN and even if it glorifies the mafia a little, is that any worse than your typical Hollywood blockbuster glorifying violence and xenophobia?

I agree. Heck, 300 is probably far more offensive that GoodFellas to lots of people.

[Movie06]

Now this (Goodfellas), I like. I prefer it over The Godfather to be honest. Everything about this film I liked, it was just so interesting to me.

[Hanshotfirst113]

Now this (Goodfellas), I like. I prefer it over The Godfather to be honest. Everything about this film I liked, it was just so interesting to me.

I like both for different reasons. GoodFellas is visceral, kinetic, gritty, and raw, The Godfather I&II are, languid, operatic, lyricial, and leisurely. Both are masterpieces in their own right, perfectly shot, designed, acted, written, scored, edited, produced (though I wonder if Ruddy and Coppola got into it on part I), and directed.

[JRP82190]

Scorsese's best film behind The Departed in my opinion and it was the movie that helped me appreciate the Gangster genre