Organized crime, mafia or mob business can lead a person to the top of the world and to the bottom of the ocean depending on their decisions. The movie Goodfellas is about this exactly, the rise and fall of people in the mob.
Goodfellas is based on a true story of Henry Hill, an Irish-Italian immigrant growing up in Brooklyn in the 1950s. The movie was directed by Martin Scorsese with screen play by Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi and is based on the book Wise Guy by Pileggi. Goodfellas follows Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy De Vito (Joe Pesci) in their journey to work their way up the ranks in the mob. Henry has always wanted to be a gangster and starts working for the local mob and skipping school and makes more money than some adults while he is only a teenager. Henry becomes good friends with Tommy and Jimmy and the three starts a daring life of hijacking and stealing. The movie follows them through some of the largest hijackings, the good life of making enormous amounts of money, murders and competition from rival mobs and one huge predicament that could lead to their downfall.
One of the reasons that I enjoyed this movie so much was because it was very realistic. The plot is very believable because of the acting, casting, dialogue and events of the plot. All parts of the movie are believable, nothing is over the top. I think the main reason everything is believable is because the movie is based of off real life events from the life of Henry Hill but the acting and dialogue help very much. The dialogue contains many swear words, particularly the F bomb, which is very stereotypical in movies that are about the mafia. Lots of yelling and they all have thick Italian accents which are also stereotypical of the mafia. The acting of laughing very loudly and either having a bright smile of the face or a scowl add the effectiveness of showing the mafia. I believe that the casting for this movie was done very well because all of the members of the mob in this movie don’t need make up or costumes to look like they belong to the mafia. Many of them have starred in other movies/shows about the mafia such as the Sopranos.
The cinematic aspects of this movie are used to enhance and emphasis what is going on. The use of low key lighting in this movie really enhanced the mob. The mob is a shady business and the low key lighting helped to emphasize this with all the shadows where business is being done. Also used was unrestricted narration especially in the beginning. During the first 10 minutes it is almost all narration by Henry Hill setting up the story and the giving the audience background information about all the characters. Throughout the movie unrestricted narration by Henry Hill occurs along with narration by Karen Hill (Lorraine Bracco), Henry’s wife. This gives the audience a full understanding of what is going on and leads to suspense when the audience knows who might die soon. During the beginning narration Scorsese uses many freeze frame shots while introducing characters and showing major events to add emphasis to these people and events to make sure the audience remembers them. The shots are fairly lengthy in this movie and the camera pans the scene often to show the audience the surroundings. One lengthy shot that stands out in my mind is a steadicam shot that follows Henry and Karen from their car through the back entrance, hallways, past the patrons, through the kitchen and into the Copacabana club all in one shot. Lastly this film has been credited to using music phenomenally well. There is almost always music playing to enhance the mood that is being portrayed in the movie, the music is always fitting and used very well.
The story line alone in this movie makes it a good movie in my opinion but the cinematic aspects make it a great movie. I really enjoyed the story line because I find criminals to be very interesting but the use of all the cinematic aspects made everything that much better to turn this movie from good to great. Scorsese does an amazing job and really captures the life of Henry Hill along with the rise and fall of the mafia men.
Goodfellas is based on a true story of Henry Hill, an Irish-Italian immigrant growing up in Brooklyn in the 1950s. The movie was directed by Martin Scorsese with screen play by Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi and is based on the book Wise Guy by Pileggi. Goodfellas follows Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy De Vito (Joe Pesci) in their journey to work their way up the ranks in the mob. Henry has always wanted to be a gangster and starts working for the local mob and skipping school and makes more money than some adults while he is only a teenager. Henry becomes good friends with Tommy and Jimmy and the three starts a daring life of hijacking and stealing. The movie follows them through some of the largest hijackings, the good life of making enormous amounts of money, murders and competition from rival mobs and one huge predicament that could lead to their downfall.
One of the reasons that I enjoyed this movie so much was because it was very realistic. The plot is very believable because of the acting, casting, dialogue and events of the plot. All parts of the movie are believable, nothing is over the top. I think the main reason everything is believable is because the movie is based of off real life events from the life of Henry Hill but the acting and dialogue help very much. The dialogue contains many swear words, particularly the F bomb, which is very stereotypical in movies that are about the mafia. Lots of yelling and they all have thick Italian accents which are also stereotypical of the mafia. The acting of laughing very loudly and either having a bright smile of the face or a scowl add the effectiveness of showing the mafia. I believe that the casting for this movie was done very well because all of the members of the mob in this movie don’t need make up or costumes to look like they belong to the mafia. Many of them have starred in other movies/shows about the mafia such as the Sopranos.
The cinematic aspects of this movie are used to enhance and emphasis what is going on. The use of low key lighting in this movie really enhanced the mob. The mob is a shady business and the low key lighting helped to emphasize this with all the shadows where business is being done. Also used was unrestricted narration especially in the beginning. During the first 10 minutes it is almost all narration by Henry Hill setting up the story and the giving the audience background information about all the characters. Throughout the movie unrestricted narration by Henry Hill occurs along with narration by Karen Hill (Lorraine Bracco), Henry’s wife. This gives the audience a full understanding of what is going on and leads to suspense when the audience knows who might die soon. During the beginning narration Scorsese uses many freeze frame shots while introducing characters and showing major events to add emphasis to these people and events to make sure the audience remembers them. The shots are fairly lengthy in this movie and the camera pans the scene often to show the audience the surroundings. One lengthy shot that stands out in my mind is a steadicam shot that follows Henry and Karen from their car through the back entrance, hallways, past the patrons, through the kitchen and into the Copacabana club all in one shot. Lastly this film has been credited to using music phenomenally well. There is almost always music playing to enhance the mood that is being portrayed in the movie, the music is always fitting and used very well.
The story line alone in this movie makes it a good movie in my opinion but the cinematic aspects make it a great movie. I really enjoyed the story line because I find criminals to be very interesting but the use of all the cinematic aspects made everything that much better to turn this movie from good to great. Scorsese does an amazing job and really captures the life of Henry Hill along with the rise and fall of the mafia men.
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