GoodFellas (1990)

‘GoodFellas’ is very different from the brooding Greek tragedy that was ‘The Godfather’ series and the guttural stylized gangster’s life in ‘Scarface’. It offers a matter of fact look at the lives of gangsters and explains why they do what they do. Scorsese’s triumph is that he opts to look at the world through their eyes rather than look at their lives and the outcome from the outside.

The story revolves around Henry Hill, a young man who starts the film by saying that as far back as he could remember, he wanted to be a gangster. It traces Henry’s fascination with these men, the power they had at their fingertips, the money that they could throw around and the respect they command from the community. He defies the belt-whipping of his father to embrace the world of crime and quickly grows into a bootlegger and counts on Tommy DeVito, Jimmy Conway and Paul Cicero as his closest friends and associates. As the group sees more money, they also see arrogance and a trigger happy attitude that finds them digging a lot of graves for people killed whimsically.

Henry’s life begins to change when he adds on the perks of a gangster’s life, the regular girlfriend who lives near his home, the addiction to drugs, the violent marriage and a constant fear of being caught. As time goes by, he begins his drug business, and is busted. He gets out but with the FBI on his heels, he sees his close associates distancing themselves from him and threatening to kill him. He needs to protect himself and his family and decides to go into the FBI’s witness protection program.

Scorsese’s treatment of this film is like the view of the world through a fishbowl. The narration by Henry Hill right through the film makes it a very reflective and a very explanatory journey for the viewer. Interestingly, the screenplay starts from the middle of the film, goes back to the beginning and then continues to the end. This is very different from the in medias res plot structure, where the end is shown and the story builds up towards the end.

One spectacular one-shot sequence shows Henry taking his girlfriend from the parking lot through to the Copacabana night club shows the viewer the kind of power that a gangster wields. A very innovative screenplay by Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi, the author of the book ‘Wiseguys’, on which the film is based. The soundtrack is filled with classic rock numbers by the Rolling Stones and Cream.

The acting honors go to Joe Pesci, Robert DeNiro and Ray Liotta. Pesci plays the hot headed Tony DeVito, a man who has scant respect for human life and just can’t take a joke. DeNiro plays Jimmy Conway and again, the method actor in him shows Conway’s life over a 30 year period. Ray Liotta as Henry Hill shines in the most important role of his career and was unlucky to not have won awards for his performance. He shows Henry’s transition from wide eyed apprentice, to ace gangster and to a disillusioned and troubled snitch superbly.

‘GoodFellas’ is a title dipped in irony but a story steeped in reality.