Goodfellas

Released: 1990
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci

"We were good fellas, wiseguys."

I really enjoyed this movie, and I hate that it took me so long to see this. If you haven't seen it, I strongly recommend viewing it.

The general plot is the rise & fall of Henry Hill in the gangster world. At a young age he starts working for Paulie Cicero, Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci). He marries a jewish girl, Karen. Tommy kills this guy Batts without Paulie's approval. Batts was a "made man," you had to be full Italian to be a "made man" meaning Jimmy & Henry weren't ever going to be made. This also means your untouchable, without the consent of the bosses, i.e. Paulie!

Tommy is a bit of a hot head & Batts was harassing Tommy for being a shoe shiner, in front of a girl. Driving Batts's body to upstate New York to dump it is the opening scene of the movie, then it cuts to a flashback of how Henry got started. We get more details on the June 11, 1970. I feel like this is the start to the end, even though there's still another hour or so of the movie! It's about this time that Henry starts seeing a mistress, Janice, who he puts up in a very expensive tacky apartment. Karen finds out, takes the kids to Janice's apartment, and starts screaming. It's a pretty awesome scene. She wakes up Henry with a gun to his head, he gets a hold of the gun and hits her. Henry decides Karen's crazy (gee? really?) and goes to live with Janice.

Paulie steps in and says go back with Karen. (I'm reminded of Don Corleone: "A man who doesn't spend time with his family can never be a real man."). On the next job in Florida, most of the crew is arrested, because one of guy's sister works for the FBI. Henry starts to sell drugs to support his family (you know the one he loves so very much). Karen sees Janice's name on the list...she's obviously upset...again...The prison is a joke.

Paulie tells Henry to get out of the drug trade its bad (similar to Don Corleone...didn't want to be in the drug trade). The drugs continue. Tommy becomes a "made man" or at least is told that he's going to be, but then he's killed...you know for that murder that he wasn't supposed to do. De Niro shows his wonderful acting ability when he finds out in the pay phone. I found this to be a tell of how close they were to Tommy. Tommy always seemed like that jerk off friend you have that causes problems everywhere he goes. But in all the years they spent together, De Niro really did care for Tommy. It was touching.

Henry (and Karen...poor Karen), do quite a bit of cocaine and are organizing a deal. The FBI raids the house and Karen flushes the cocaine...you know so they don't find they have $60K worth of cocaine! Henry is pissed!!! Henry crawls back to Paulie needing help, Paulie's response was...hey remember those MULTIPLE TIMES I warned you that this was bad? Here's $3,200 and get out of my life. Jimmy is going to have Henry killed, so Henry joins the Witness Protection Program. He's later arrested on drug charges.

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Ray Liotta looks a lot like my boss, which is a little weird. But anyway, I thought he was really good. His laugh annoyed me. It was too loud & he opened his mouth really loud. I wanted to like him, but the whole cheating on his wife thing...I couldn't root for him. If it was just sex, I could probably rationalize it, but nope. You have kids dude...grow up. Then again, he grew up really fast and had a jerk of a father who happened to be a weeeee bit (read a whole lot) abusive.

Robert De Niro nailed it out of the park. He was fabulous, then again he's fabulous in everything he does. I appreciate the work/time/effort he spent with the real Jimmy Conway to observe gestures, mannerisms, etc.

Joe Pesci - good god I love Joe Pesci. My Cousin Vinny is one of my favorite movies. I honestly wasn't too bothered by the excessive use of the f word. He really is that pain-in-the-ass friend who you deep down love, but he causes problems wherever he goes. I mean shooting the kid? Someone is seriously suffering from some little man former shoe-shiner syndrome. Take a chill pill dude! His mom was great.

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Scorsese uses the steadiness of the camera & how fast paced the scenes move to chronicle Henry's life. In the beginning it's more stable, but as Henry becomes a paranoid coke head the camera becomes more jumpy (we're not talking Blair Witch shaky, but enough to notice).

The soundtrack is awesome. Scorsese's use of the soundtrack (and playing the soundtrack while filming like the "Layla Montage" so the shots line up exactly) is great. He also kept the music to the time period (then again the movie spans from 1955 - 1980, so he had a wide variety to choose from!

The "You think I'm funny" scene, according to IMDB, was apparently improvised between Pesci & Liotta.

The "f" word is used almost 300 times in the movie, averaging just over 2 per minute. Can you guess which actor said about half of them?

I like the differences between "old" and "new" gangsters and the downfall caused by drugs. It's a really interesting. The "old" gangsters just had an economic system, so to speak. They knew about appearances and the importance of a sharp mind (not necessarily educated, just street smarts and staying aware & alert of those around you & their intentions).