Plot
Martin Scorsese explores the life of organized crime with his gritty, kinetic adaptation of Nicolas Pileggi's best-selling Wiseguy, the true-life account of mobster and FBI informant Henry Hill. Set to a true-to-period rock soundtrack, the story details the rise and fall of Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian New York kid who grows up idolizing the "wise guys" in his impoverished Brooklyn neighborhood. He begins hanging around the mobsters, running errands and doing odd jobs until he gains the notice of local chieftain Paulie Cicero (Paul Sorvino), who takes him in as a surrogate son. As he reaches his teens, Hill (Ray Liotta) is inducted into the world of petty crime, where he distinguishes himself as a "stand-up guy" by choosing jail time over ratting on his accomplices. From that moment on, he is a part of the family. Along with his psychotic partner Tommy (Joe Pesci), he rises through the ranks to become Paulie's lieutenant; however, he quickly learns that, like his mentor Jimmy (Robert DeNiro), his ethnicity prevents him from ever becoming a "made guy," an actual member of the crime family. Soon he finds himself the target of both the feds and the mobsters, who feel that he has become a threat to their security with his reckless dealings. Goodfellas was rewarded with six Academy Award nominations including Best Picture; Pesci would walk away with Best Supporting Actor for his work. ~ Jeremy Beday, RoviReview
Seventeen years after revising the book on gangster movies in his breakthrough Mean Streets, Martin Scorsese returned to the netherworld of Italian-American organized crime with this stunningly ambitious, ferociously entertaining look at one man's rise and fall in a Mafia family. Shot and edited with a propulsive sense of rhythm that Gene Krupa would envy (this may be the fastest 150 minutes in film history), Goodfellas explores the 30-year career of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) as a "mechanic" working for mob boss Paulie Cicero (Paul Sorvino). While most films about gangsters attribute their characters' criminal lives to greed or sociopathic behavior, Scorsese makes it clear Henry and his friends Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) are gangsters because they enjoy it: they like to steal, they enjoy violence, and their "work" allows them to profit from these qualities, which would be a hindrance in nearly any other career. However, while the film offers a point-blank look at New York's criminal underworld from the '50s to the '80s, Scorsese also uses this story as a unusual but clear moral fable. In the first few reels, Henry and his partners follow a strict code of honor and make sure to obey Cicero's wishes: you pay tribute to the boss, you stay away from dealing drugs, and you don't kill anyone unless it's absolutely necessary. By the mid-'70s, these guidelines have been forgotten, and as Henry, Jimmy, and Tommy slip away from Paulie's corrupt but strictly ordered ethical universe, it leads only to death and betrayal. Scorsese has long been fascinated with the actions of men searching for a moral compass in a faithless land, but he's rarely told the story with such kinetic force and audacious skill. ~ Mark Deming, RoviCast
- Robert De Niro - James Conway
- Ray Liotta - Henry Hill
- Joe Pesci - Tommy DeVito
- Lorraine Bracco - Karen Hill
- Paul Sorvino - Paul Cicero
Credit
Maher Ahmad - Art Director, Bruce S. Pustin - Associate Producer, Sylvia Fay - Casting, John Manca - Consultant/advisor, Richard Bruno - Costume Designer, Thomas Lee Keller - Costume Designer, Susan O'Donnell - Costume Designer, Martin Scorsese - Director, Thelma Schoonmaker - Editor, Carl Fullerton - Makeup, Allen Weisinger - Makeup, Kristi Zea - Production Designer, Bruce S. Pustin - Production Designer, Michael Ballhaus - Cinematographer, Barbara de Fina - Producer, Irwin Winkler - Producer, Les Bloom - Set Designer, Connie Brink - Special Effects, Michael Russo - Stunts, Nicholas Pileggi - Screenwriter, Martin Scorsese - Screenwriter, Steve Allen - Featured Music, Jack Bruce - Featured Music, Alan Freed - Featured Music, Donovan Leitch - Featured Music, The Rolling Stones - Featured Music, Jerry Ross - Featured Music, Pete Townshend - Featured Music, Arthur Altman - Featured Music, Paul Anka - Featured Music, Burt Bacharach - Featured Music, Jeff Barry - Featured Music, Sammy Cahn - Featured Music, Hoagy Carmichael - Featured Music, Eric Clapton - Featured Music, Hal David - Featured Music, Harvey Fuqua - Featured Music, Douglas Furber - Featured Music, Norman Gimbel - Featured Music, Ellie Greenwich - Featured Music, Mildred J. Hill - Featured Music, Patty S. Hill - Featured Music, Brian Holland - Featured Music, Gus Kahn - Featured Music, Barry Mann - Featured Music, McKinley Morganfield - Featured Music, Harry Nilsson - Featured Music, Alex North - Featured Music, Mitchell Parish - Featured Music, Phil Spector - Featured Music, William Stevenson - Featured Music, Al Stillman - Featured Music, Charles Trenet - Featured Music, Jimmy Van Heusen - Featured Music, Harry Warren - Featured Music, Cynthia Weil - Featured Music, Paul Evans - Featured Music, Ernie Erdman - Featured Music, Ted Fio Rito - Featured Music, Robert Allen - Featured Music, Jack Lawrence - Featured Music, George "Shadow" Morton - Featured Music, Peter Brown - Featured Music, Jack Rollins - Featured Music, Steve Nelson - Featured Music, Nicholas Pileggi - Book Author| Good-bye Girls (1923 Film), Good-Bye, Bill (1919 Film) | |
| Goodbye (2008 Film), Goodbye Again (1933 Film) |
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