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.
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3 comments:
I'm glad you enjoyed this great Scorsese classic as much as i did. I agree that the camera work was superb and the story immensely intriguing. There are so many different memorable scenes throughout the film that its hard to pick just one or two to comment on. I loved how the story occasionally switched narration between different characters, dispersing the thought that it was only a life story of one character (even though it could be argued, and i agree, that Ray Liotta was the central focus). This gave much more depth and perspective into others, providing an interesting format thus enhancing the storytelling. One last comment i have that was not mentioned in your post was another re-occurring technique. Im speaking of the sudden freeze frames backed by a narrative that appear often and the use of slow motion. Both are extremely effective in letting the viewer pause and concentrate on the matter the character is facing, creating importance within the story points and catching attention. Scorsese seemed to really favor this method at least in this work. Viewing it was a pleasure sam, nice work.
Yes. This movie is whoop ass. Not only visually entertaining, but with a strong story behind it as well. Scorsese has had success in bringing organized crime to the silver screen. To me, this movie was a portrait of the American Dream. As Sam said, Henry goes from parking cars and eventually works his way almost to the top. But due to his drug habits, and resulting paranoia, Henry falls from his position of power, and falls hard.
To add on to your comment on the coldbloodedness of the gangsters, i felt that was a odd, yet disturbingly funny part of the film. For example, after Tommy shoots a made man for "bustin' his balls" The three (Liotta, De Niro, and Pesci) proceed to drive to a spot to bury the body. Along the way Tommy needs to go to his mother's house to borrow a shovel. He finds his mother is awake, and she insists that they must have something to eat. The following scene is the three and Tommy's mother indulging in what seems to be a small feast. All the while, the man they have in the trunk has regained consciousness and is kicking from the inside.
The nonchalance they show for human life and suffering is truly astounding. To them it was just business.
I have to admit though, there were some portions of the movie where I felt Scorsese was having too much fun fiddling with camerawork. Doing very actionfilm-esque cuts in the middle of a very calm, unactionfilm conversation. Offhand the scene that hits me was when Henry was talking to Paulie(?)about not being a part of the drug trade, the cinematography became alittle antsy, this happened in other parts this one was most memorable. To contrast my statement, it may have been antsy to inform the viewer of the dangerous situation Henry was in and lying to Paulie(?) about.
Overall excellent movie, this nitpick took a lot out of me to write down.
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