“As far back as i can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.” Goodfellas by Scorsese, a movie with one hell of a cast. Robert de Niro, Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta play some of their best roles in their career. The movie shows the life of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) who grows up doing little jobs for the local mafia and grows in the organisation as the years progress. Of course this can’t happen without a lot of violence.
The genre of gangster movies came into existence during the twenties and thirties in the previous century. It was the time of the great depression, prohibition and a lot of illegal activities. Despite the violence the image of the gangster was something people really liked. Examples of early ganstermovies are 1931’s Little Ceasar with Edward G. Robinson and later 1949’s White Heat with James Cagney. The genre has stayed popular over the years and every year many gangster movies are made.
It’s really a pleasure to see how Joe Pesci plays his role as a foul mouthed gangster who will snap really quickly. His “funny how” and “Oklahoma kid” scenes are classic. It’s funny to see that in this last scene Michael Imperioli is the kid that is serving the drinks. Most people will know him now from his role as Christopher Moltisanti in the Sopranos. He’s not the only “Sopranos” actor that shows up in the movie. Lorraine Bracco (Henry Hill’s wife) is Dr.Melfi in the Soparnos. If you pay close attention, you will be able to spot more actors. Examples are Big Pussy and Paulie Walnuts. If you like gangstermovies and you still haven’t seen the Sopranos then you will have to order the complete set immediately. You will not be disappointed.
The reason for Goodfellas receiving a 10 is the fact that everything in this movie is simply perfect. The sets are fantastic, Scorsese knows how to frame his shots, the life of a gangster “outside of work” is also shown. You can keep rewatching this movie without it getting boring. I hardly ever give a movie a 10.
I do so when, after watching the movie, i get the feeling that it’s a revolutionary movie. Something i’ve never seen in such a way before and gives me a “WOW” feeling. This is the case for all the tens i will be discussing on the site. I’m expecting the number of tens to increase the coming months as i’m slowly working through the IMDB top 250. There are also movies which i watched and will probably award a 10, but i saw them before i kept track of my scores. So if you are missing some very important movies (like the Godfather or ALien or any other title) chances are i haven’t seen it yet or have to rewatch it before it gets added.
One that definately deserves it’s spot in the list is Goodfellas. In the movie Henry Hill says: “Jimmy was the kind of guy that rooted for bad guys in the movies”, which i did for Henry.
Also read my previous tens:
Movie 5 Memento (2000)
Movie 4 The Great Dictator (1940)
Movie 3 District 9 (2009)
Movie 2 Donnie Darko (2001)
Movie 1 Before Sunrise (1995)
Great review. I saw this recently at my local picturehouse cinema as part of the BMW origins films presented by Mark Kermode (that’s not an advert, I don’t work for BMW!). There would always be two films based around one theme. First up was the “Life in Crime” pair: Goodfellas and Mesrine (definitely worth a watch if you haven’t seen it, Vincent Cassel is incredible).
My review of Goodfellas will appear sometime soon. Interestingly, under the “Tricks of the Mind” pair of films, I also got to see Memento on the big screen too; another fabulous film.
I had already imagined opening my review with “As far back as I can remember…”, so I’m not stealing the idea from you! But then probably most reviews of Goodfellas start like that.
Thanks a lot. I’m a bit envious that you saw this on the big screen! Luckily I’ve found a cinema here that started to show old movies and recently saw Raiders of the Lost Ark on the big screen, next month they will be showing the Godfather.
I saw the Mesrine movies and really liked those (the reviews of these are also on my site), but I heard the mini series Carlos (although about someone else) is even better. I’ve bought that, but haven’t come around to watching it yet.
That’s not a problem, it’s such an iconic quote!