Director Assignment Post #1: Goodfellas Directed by Martin Scorsese

Goodfellas is a story about the rise and fall of the infamous gangster, Henry Hill. As a kid he idolized gangsters and started by parking cars to eventually becoming one of the heads, but as his influence grew he became trapped by his own anmbitions.
An important scene in Goodfellas would be when the gang is playing poker and the bartender, "Spider" mistook Tommy Devitos drink. Tommy who is known for his temper gets very upset and shoots Spider in the foot. The next poker game Tommy tries to get a rise out of Spider, which he does, leading to Tommy killing Spider. Afterwards the fellow gang members are clearly perturbed and Tommy blows it off as if nothing happened, meanwhile Henry is sinking deeper and deeper into this dark world of his. This scene is important because it shows the complete coldbloodedness of Tommy and how the gang gets angry at Tommy for killing Spider because of the mess, not the actual act of murder.
The camerawork present in Goodfellas is superb, with very intelligent shots and with an almost minimalist style depending on cuts and editing to increase tension or invoke another emotion. A scene that is a wonderful example of the expertise of the camera would be the tracking shot of Henry and his future wife Karen taking the back door of a restaurant and walking all the way to the front table. The scene transitions wonderfully from a bustling street outside to a nice candlelit dinner in front of the band. There are quite a few tracking shots present in the film but are executed so smoothly that they almost goes unnoticed.
Goodfellas is recognized as one of Scorsese's greatest works due to the jawdropping revelations and masterfully crafted camerawork, this film gets the respect and adoration it deservedly recieves.