Martin Scorsese explores the life of organized crime with his gritty, kinetic adaptation of Nicolas Pileggi's best-selling Wiseguy, the true-life account of mobster and FBI informant Henry Hill. Set to a true-to-period rock soundtrack, the story details the rise and fall of Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian New York kid who grows up idolizing the "wise guys" in his impoverished Brooklyn neighborhood. He begins hanging around the mobsters, running errands and doing odd jobs until he gains the notice of local chieftain Paulie ...
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Martin Scorsese explores the life of organized crime with his gritty, kinetic adaptation of Nicolas Pileggi's best-selling Wiseguy, the true-life account of mobster and FBI informant Henry Hill. Set to a true-to-period rock soundtrack, the story details the rise and fall of Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian New York kid who grows up idolizing the "wise guys" in his impoverished Brooklyn neighborhood. He begins hanging around the mobsters, running errands and doing odd jobs until he gains the notice of local chieftain Paulie Cicero (Paul Sorvino), who takes him in as a surrogate son. As he reaches his teens, Hill (Ray Liotta) is inducted into the world of petty crime, where he distinguishes himself as a "stand-up guy" by choosing jail time over ratting on his accomplices. From that moment on, he is a part of the family. Along with his psychotic partner Tommy (Joe Pesci), he rises through the ranks to become Paulie's lieutenant; however, he quickly learns that, like his mentor Jimmy (Robert DeNiro), his ethnicity prevents him from ever becoming a "made guy," an actual member of the crime family. Soon he finds himself the target of both the feds and the mobsters, who feel that he has become a threat to their security with his reckless dealings. Goodfellas was rewarded with six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture; Pesci would walk away with Best Supporting Actor for his work. Jeremy Beday, Rovi
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have long been an admirer of the films of Martin Scorsese, but there are many I haven't seen. The past several days, I took the opportunity to watch both "Casino" (1995) and this earlier film "Goodfellas" (1990), It was difficult, in retrospect, to say I knew Scorsese's films without having seen this two outstanding works. "Goodfellas" in particular is a great film which properly is included in the National Film Registry.
"Goodfellas" is based on a true story and is based on mafia, gang life in New York City from the mid 1950s through the early 1980s. It is based on the life of a gangster, Harry Hill, from childhood in the 1950s until 1980 when he turned on his fellows to save himself from prosecution. Hill later became an author, as did the main character in Scorsese's "The Wolf of Wall Street" Robert De Niro plays Hill. Joe Pesci plays Hill's vicious friend Tommy and Lorraine Bracco plays Hill's wife Karen.
The film is a series of inter-related fast-moving vignettes that show Hill's increasing rise through organized crime. It was a life Hill says he was born to live and he regretted leaving it upon turning on his fellow wiseguys. The film probes motivation about the appeal of such a life, which is filled with apparent camaraderie, easy profanity, good food, sex, easy and terrible violence, and money. The movie has many scenes which show Hill as part of a family mixed with the inevitable scenes of brutality and betrayal.
The film is set to an intoxicating background of songs from the era and takes place in the clubs, streets, and homes of the wiseguys/goodfellas. One may not be long for life and peace in this world.
The characters frequently speak in voice-overs commenting on their actions and on the events they recound. While "Goodfellas" is told from the perspective of the wiseguys, their perspective is not that of the film. As with much of Scorsese, the movie encourages reflection on the life it portrays, on its shallowness and viciousness. A metaphysical, religious outlook, I think, underlies this film,
I was grateful for the opportunity to see and think about "Goodfellas" at last.