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Review: GoodFellas

An Augustus rating of 9/10

Today's review is on the 1990's classic, GoodFellas. A gangster movie surrounding deception, greed and a whole lot of whacking.

This flick was directed by Martin Scorsese in the 1990s based on Nicholas Pileggi's non-fiction book, Wiseguys. The main actors in this movie are Robert Di Niro (Jimmy), Ray Liotta (Henry), Joe Pesci (Tommy) and Paul Sorvino (Paulie).

The movie was set in the United States from 1955 to the late 1980s. It surrounds a family of Italian-American mobsters including the main characters of Jimmy, Henry, Tommy and Paulie. Basically, they have decided that living the life of a schnook, is not the life they were meant to live.

The movie's narrator is Henry, one of the main characters. He tells the story of how he was brought into the life of crime and fortune. As a child, Henry despised working for his father or doing anything that required hard labour. In his teens, Henry began to work for the head boss, Paulie, who immediately took him under his wing. Henry decided that he did not want to work for a living and soon, was adopted into the mafia.

Jimmy is one of the most important characters in the story. He plays the part of one of the vital mobsters. Everyone knows Jimmy, but nobody wants to get on his bad side. Throughout the movie, Jimmy's character drastically changes and his inner demon is revealed.

Tommy is the reckless and infamous loud mouth who has a very short temper. He is constantly swearing and letting his anger get the best of him. He is very close to Jimmy who acts as his sober second thought. He, Henry and Jimmy begin to run the streets and no one dares get in their way.

The F-bomb is dropped over 296 times throughout the movie!

Half of which are by Pesci's character Tommy.

The story illustrates the rise and fall of these mobsters. It begins with Henry, Jimmy and Tommy accumulating enormous wealth through an airplane robbery. As the men are getting richer, their greed becomes the best of them. Tommy murders anyone who insults him and runs into danger after killing an important boss. Jimmy manipulates his fellow gangsters to gain more power. Henry acts as the "counselor" in the group, trying to keep relative peace among his partners.

The climax of the movie is when the trio becomes involved in the drug trade. Although they are thoroughly warned by Paulie not to get involved, they set to perform their largest heist. Unfortunately for them, nothing good can come from the massive amount of money they’ve stolen. As paranoia, deception and arrogance become the main themes in the story, the members of the mob face total destruction.

This movie does an excellent job at developing characters. Throughout the story, each main mobster is looked at in deep description. It focuses on the transition of the character's persona from slick, calm and smart to irrational, paranoid and untrustworthy. The movie does a phenomenal job at creating suspense and flow of plot. 

The movie, Goodfellas, received over $45 million in the box office. It was nominated for six academy awards and won five awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and was considered to be one of the “greatest films ever.”

So, all in all, a pretty good film. If you like a story with a great rise and fall structure and thorough development of characters, this is the movie to watch. But, if you have a weak stomach and the sight of guns and violence scares you, switch the channel and proceed to cry. 

- Augustus

Goodfellas Dictionary:

whack: (verb) to kill someone.

schnook: (noun) regular folk with regular jobs living a regular life. 

made: (verb) to become a boss, where nobody can touch you.

wiseguy: (noun) someone who has been made and is of a higher boss status.

SOURCE: http://www.shortlist.com/entertainment/50-useless-but-genius-facts-about-goodfellas