Goodfellas is one of the many films directed the great Martin Scorsese. Released in 1990, the film is based on the true story of Henry Hill, a man who worked his way into and up in the mob. He is joined by a few friends, Jimmy and Tommy, and the three take on life as gangsters from the 1950s up until the 1980s. The character Henry narrates most of the film, and at one point he explains that they all refer to each other as "good fellas." For instance, he says whenever he or another member of the mob is introduced to someone else, they always say "hey you'll like him; he's a good fella." Although it was simple, I liked this brief explanation that made the title of the film seem all the more relevant.
The three main men are each portrayed by a brillian actor in my eyes. Henry is played by Ray Liotta, who does an excellent job portraying a rebellious gangster with a likeable quality. Although he is technically the bad guy, the audience roots for him and sympathizes with him during his struggles because we get an inside look into his life. Showing his less than perfect family life as a child definitely allows the audience to feel for Henry, and also even understand why he chose they lifestyle he did. Liotta also does a fantastic job at portraying Henry as an overall isolated man, a popular aspect each main character in Scorsese films seems to possess. Even though Henry is constantly surrounded by people, we still see a loneliness in him that is especially obvious toward the end of the film when he clearly states to his wife "I am all alone." Jimmy is played by Robert De Niro, who often partnered with Scorsese for films throughout the 70s, 80s, and 90s. De Niro also does a great job making Jimmy to be a likeable character, even though we see him beat and kill people in several scenes. Also, the fact that he is so protective and kind to Henry, a character who the audience empathizes with, establishes him as a "good guy" in our eyes. Tommy was the one character that I wasn't particularly fond of, and I believe it was because of the wonderful performance by Joe Pesci. He did such a good job acting like a ruthless, vicious gangster that it made me not like him at all. That, to me, is an example of great acting. I am not sure if Scorsese meant for the character Tommy to be more unlikeable; however, this image was created due to Pesci's great style of acting.
I had never seen Goodfellas before viewing it in class, and I already want to watch it again. I really enjoy all of the Scorsese films that I have seen, and I think it is because of the way he presents his characters. Also, I believe audiences responded so well to Goodfellas because, similar to films like Bonnie and Clyde and Scarface, it glorifies rebellion and the outlaws. Our society seems to have such a fascination with gangster films because we are interested in seeing the lives of the bad guys. I think Scorsese did an excellent job with this film.
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Megan, that's an interesting point about Henry's essential isolation despite his being surrounded by people. That makes his explanation of "good fellas," which comes closer to the end of the film, make a lot more sense because of what it says about what Henry wants from life.
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