Goodfellas is way better than I expected!

Joe Pesci won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for Goodfellas. Martin Scorsese was nominated for Best Director at the Academy Awards and the Golden Globe for this films. Goodfellas brought in $46 million and ranked 26^th at the box office. For an R-rated crime drama, it was a smash hit. Hell, it’s an incredible success on any level.

Until now, my only experience with Goodfellas was on best of lists and a fantastic parody on Animaniacs. Gangster films rarely interest me. I prefer stories about heroes not villains. Movies that glorify the gangster life style are especially off putting. It’s hard to become invested in a protagonist when I would normally be looking forward to their death/defeat. When I try and watch these movies I find myself wanting the story to end. That’s not the sign of a genre that is for you.

So why did I sit down and watch this film? I credit a cineflix video about supporting actors who steal the show. Joe Pesci in Goodfellas took the number two spot. I love the channel. They’re dissection of films always hits the mark. They go beyond the surface and choose films many would never consider. I’ve seen most of the films they listed, but not Goodfellas. It’s as good a reason as any to watch a film.

Thankfully, Goodfellas avoids falling into the standard cliché of gangster storytelling. Ray Liotta as Henry Hill is the protagonist, but he’s no hero. The very first scene of the film shows Henry and his friends murder a man tied up in the trunk of his car. At first, the friends think the man is dead, and mistake his attempts to free himself from the trunk while they’re driving as having hit an animal on the road. When they discover he’s alive, Joe Pesci repeatedly stabs him then Robert DeNiro shoots him. The matter of fact manner they treat his death with doesn’t invite the viewer to celebrate the murder. Nor do we identify with the victim. Instead, the film flashed back to Henry Hill’s childhood instead of staying with this moment. We cut immediately to how he entered the mob.

The film breaks down the mob hierarchy and social structure through the eyes of a young man entering their world. In contrast to the bleak opening scene that ends abruptly, the opening lingers. We get a detailed look at the mob as described by a youthful and enthusiastic Henry. Coming from him the mobster life style sounds glamorous, but the opening scene is always in the back of the viewers mind. The film’s violent start hovers over the nostalgia tinged flashback. The childish view of mob life as a supportive brotherhood is a lie for the violent truth.

Scorsese’s film continues the openings setup throughout the rest of the story. Something dark happens, then the film shows frames Henry’s life as a positive before allowing darkness to creep back into the storyline. Henry’s marriage is a prime example. Lorraine Bracco’s Karen Hill starts out as a bad blind-double date for Henry. They ignore each other at first. Henry stands her up on their second date, and fed up she confronts him. He then charms her until her anger becomes infatuation. This is the dark setup.

The film quickly moves into a typical whirlwind romance for the couple. Their relationship is so strong it survives him handing her a bloody gun and asking her to hide it. The film frames her hiding the gun as a symbol of their relationship’s strength. This is a bright moment in their relationship’s arc within the narrative.

Marriage, home and family quickly follow. All is well, they’re moving quickly through the cultural norms of a relationship. Then the film casually drops the revelation Henry has a girlfriend. The film makes sure to tell the audience this is normal in the mob. Everybody has a mistress. He’s bought her a condo and spends two weeks straight staying with her. Darkness creeps into their marriage, by way of Henry’s lifestyle.

The pattern repeats itself with Joe Pesci’s Tommy. Early in the film he jokingly threatens Henry over a comment that he’s funny. The scene is intense, and truly dark. It ends with Tommy and Henry laughing, but it’s not a funny scene. It establishes Tommy’s short fuse and violent tendencies. We’re then treated to scenes demonstrating how good a friend he is to Henry. Their relationship builds, and the audience sees Tommy through Henry’s eyes. He’s a good person, a friend, but we remember that early scene. It never fades away. Joe Pesci’s performance certainly helps it remain fresh in the mind.

Tommy’s never a light character in real world terms, but he is a positive character in terms of Henry’s story. By the time, we reach the scene from the opening, where Tommy’s assaulted the man in the trunk, then kills and buries him, the films able to frame that dark scene as a positive one. They’re working together as friends. Surprisingly it’s not until Tommy murders an innocent bartender for talking back to him that the darkness truly returns to Tommy’s narrative.

The bartender’s murder is the ultimate expression of Tommy’s short temper. He’s acting entirely against his own betterment, and counter to Henry’s needs. After this murder, it’s a quick trip to tommy’s own death. Watching the pleasant veneer of the powerful mob lifestyle slowly stripped away is fascinating. The film does this repeatedly. Dark, light, dark again. By the end, Henry Hill has nothing left. It’s the most fitting fate for a man who stole everything in his life.

This narrative flow kept me watching.  The way the film built up and tore down the whole gangster narrative was fascinating. Every time I wondered whether we’re supposed to idealize these people, the film explicitly shows you the horrible reality of this lifestyle.

Beyond the structure of the film, there’s so much to love. Joe Pesci easily deserves to be on that Cineflix list. Every scene with him is magnetic, and when he’s not on screen, you want him to be. Ray Liotta gives the best performance I’ve seen from him. Wolf of Wall Street was a good movie, but seeing this film makes it less impressive. Ray Liotta and Scorsese did the same story, but better. Wolf of Wall Street lacks the clear narrative arc and structure of Goodfellas.

Goodfellas sits alongside the first Godfather as the only gangster films I’ve enjoy. That’s a rare accomplishment, because I didn’t even care for the Godfather part two, and many consider that the best sequel of all time. It’s never a good idea to write-off an entire genre in any medium. Art is too complex to dislike all expressions that share a similar type. There will always be a piece or two that transcends what you generally dislike about the genre. Goodfellas is that rare film for me.