Goodfellas (1990)

Date: 12/14/07
Inwood Theatre
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099685/

Goodfellas.

Pros:
Its use of genre for seventy-five percent of the film.
Dual narration.
Joe Pesci.
Use of music.

Cons:
Narration?
Its diversion from the genre for the last twenty-five percent of the film.


     How do you review Goodfellas? As the film which revived the sagging gangster genre, it remains one of the landmark films of the decade and easily one of the most important of Scorsese's still blossoming career.
     To me, one of my favorite aspects of the gangster genre is how it so nonchalantly turns the conventions of all other genres on their head. Black is white and dark is light in gangster films. Think about it: who are you rooting for? The gangsters (read: bad guys) or the police (read: good guys)? Exactly. To me, Goodfellas is the perfect embodiment of this spirit. From the opening scenes, when Pesci is stabbing Billy Bats in the trunk and Liotta delivers his infamous tagline, "As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a gangster." we as the audience are on his side. This is something Scorsese is extremely effective with, but particularly for the first two thirds of this film. For example, when boss Paul Cicero threatens to put the mailman's head in the oven if he ever delivers a bad letter from the school to Henry's parents again; instead of the reaction of horror one would normally expect, the audience is delighted.
     My biggest complaint with the film is when the film leaves the gangster genre as Henry becomes a cocaine junkie. While the paranoid helicopter scene is intriguing, it almost feels overlong and is completely detached from the gangster themes of the rest of the picture. Despite my calling this a complaint I think it's one of the films stronger points too; this very scene becomes woefully symbolic for his guilt that boss Paulie is watching his every move and that his once friends are now moving in on him, much like the FBI. Here the film leaves the conventions of the gangster genre as Henry sacrifices his friends for his life and in return becomes one of the very suckers he spends much of the film complaining about. It's this difference that sets Goodfellas apart from not only it's gangster peers but also the other films around it; it milks the gangster genre for all its worth and then buries it out in the forest, with Scorsese holding the shovel.