What's the AFI Project, you ask? For more information, or if you just enjoy my bemused ramblings, read here:http://www.spout.com/blogs/pippin06/archive/2008/3/1/25756.aspx
GoodFellas is on the following AFI lists:
The Original Top 100 (#94)
The Revised Top 100 (#92)
10 Top 10's (#2 Gangster)
The next five films topping my Netflix queue are Martin Scorsese films. In my stream of consciousness queuing, I started adding Marty’s films with earnest in an effort to catch up. I’ve seen a fair few, but I felt like I was missing some important entries, especially earlier ones, from one of the great directors. The string used to include Raging Bull and Taxi Driver, but the AFI Project superseded the queue. Here, the queue and the AFI Project happily coincide, as the first Scorsese film of the string also happens to be an AFI movie and one I have wanted to see since its release. And why? Gentle reader, do you recall a little cartoon from the 90s entitled the Animaniacs? Well, GoodFellas had such a permutation upon pop culture, one of the regular shorts in the Animaniacs half hour included an overt nod to the film: three pigeons called the Good Feathers, mimicking the stars of this film (Ray Liotta, Robert DeNiro, and Joe Pesci), in their regular exploits to be the kings of the pigeon world. I felt an emptiness not knowing the pop culture basis for this highly hilarious cartoon, which featured these pigeons named Bobby, Squib, and Pesto (guess how they correspond) and a regular spot in which Pesto blows up at Squib, opining, “Do you think I am [fill in the blank], here to amuse you, is that what you’re saying?” before promptly laying waste to poor Squib. Thus, for many – important – reasons, I was dying to see this film. I must say, it was quite fantastic and is now, officially, my favorite Scorsese film to date other than The Departed (I don’t care how good Raging Bull and Taxi Driver are, or are supposed to be, this was, by far, the most entertaining of the three).
GoodFellas is narrated in flashback by Henry Hill (Liotta), as he tells of how he dreamt of being a gangster and ultimately ascended through the ranks of local gangsters populating his New York City neighborhood. Based on a biography by Nicholas Pileggi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Marty, Hill eventually became an FBI informant, but his story starts with childhood. He meets local boss Paulie Cicero (Paul Sorvino), becoming errand boy and eventual honorary member of his cadre of mobsters after he refuses to rat out his cohorts in court and becomes a “stand-up guy,” but because Hill is not Italian in descent (he is Irish instead), he cannot achieve higher ranks as a “made guy.” Instead, he befriends his mentor Jimmy (DeNiro), who teaches him the ins and outs of the trade, namely petty and not so petty crimes, and his psychotic partner Tommy (Pesci), who tends to overreact to just about everything--and his overreactions almost always descend into violence. Henry also marries (Lorraine Bracco) while maintaining a mistress and generally enjoys all of the perks of being a bigwig in crime, until his reckless dealings and behavior in the world of drugs and while accompanying the overly violent Tommy start to raise suspicion with the feds and compromise his standing with the gang, until he has no other choice but to save the lives of himself and his family.
As I indicated, I absolutely loved GoodFellas. First, this is one of Marty’s most stylish, most hip, and most entertaining entries amongst his lineup of gangster films. The pacing was tight and lightning quick; no moment was wasted or unimportant. He employed some of his best and yet most subtle lighting and camera tricks to elicit some great moments, including freeze frames, colored frames, skewed angles, and one-camera shots. His uncannily excellent taste in music also featured prominently in this film; another awesome soundtrack underscored and punctuated the frequently violent, frenetic, and sometimes funny action.
In fact, that’s another element of the film I quite enjoyed – never have I found egregious violence so funny, but for some reason, Joe Pesci’s Tommy just has that spark, and I think that’s what makes this film so unforgettable to many. The performances by most everyone in the film but, particularly, by DeNiro and Pesci and especially Liotta, who came a long way from Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams by the time he picked up this role, were great. Scorsese spins a yarn from Henry Hill’s tale, making gangster life almost folksy and fun, and even as Jimmy, Tommy, and Henry boast their own spins on psychotic, the viewer connects with them instantly and cares about them, even if Tommy tends to enjoy murder far too much. DeNiro brings his usual eccentricities to his role. Pesci has never been so electric and so interesting to watch, and this supporting turn is far meatier and more interesting (and more psychotic) then his turn in Raging Bull; also, he won an Oscar for this performance. Liotta, though, was really put through the paces, as Henry struggled to make himself a kingpin in the criminal world while simultaneously coming apart at the seams, particularly as his foray into drug trafficking becomes an addiction and his Achilles heel. All of the acting ingredients in this film were mixed to perfection, save for one bad egg.
For me, that bad egg was Lorraine Bracco. Don’t get me wrong, I think, in many ways, her jilted, abandoned wife complex was appropriate, and I’m sure Scorsese directed her to act as hysterical as possible throughout the film because that’s what an unsuspecting gangster’s wife would do. The problem is, she screamed practically all of her line deliveries, and while her character should be sympathetic, given that she is the wife of a mobster who is given license to do what he wants, including keep a mistress in a schwanky apartment of her own in a not-so-secretive manner, she played her particular brand of psychosis full-tilt and to an extreme that made her character and her performance extremely unwatchable. If that was the point, I find that disappointing and a bit sexist, though, granted, these traditionalist, morally ambiguous mobster-types are not exactly known for their membership in women’s liberation movements. Still, her mass hysterics yielded ringing ears and averting eyes because the level of shrillness was so over the top, and whether directed that way or an acting choice of Bracco’s, I did not enjoy it.
Still, this is easily one of the best gangster films I have ever seen and, perhaps, the best outside of the Godfather trilogy. The AFI seemed to think so, too, giving it rankings on both Greatest lists and on the ten top tens at number two in the Gangster category.
The art direction, cinematography, and costuming were, additionally, all top notch. In fact, GoodFellas was simply an enjoyable film in just about every way (aside from the hysterics of Bracco’s performance) and, for that reason, I think it should receive an 8.5 on the patented ratings scale between minor flaws/very good and perfectly entertaining. As to the patented test, I am not exactly sure of its pass/fail status. I could see myself enjoying the film at least once more, but is it a film I would pull out and watch for kicks? I guess the jury will be out on that decision or maybe another viewing on cable will help me make up my mind. In the end, though, GoodFellas is a great film, deserving of its rankings, and definitely a must-see for the would-be Scorsese fan or lover of gangster films but also a must-see for any self-respecting film fan in general.