A crime classic from Martin Scorsese

Rating: 10/10 (8 June 2012)

Goodfellas follows the exploits of Henry Hill and his friends as they strive to gain power in the mob in the middle of the 20th century. Hill gets involved in arson, robbery, hijacking and even murder with his pals Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito. Ambition and power comes a great cost to Hill and his family however, as he descends into world of addiction, paranoia and in the end, he betrays the two rules he was taught years previously, never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut...
Since its release in 1990, Goodfellas has become a landmark in the crime genre and a significant picture in the recent history of cinema, and rightly so. Few crimes, like The Godfather, effectively convey the importance of family like Goodfellas does. The film features sterling performances from Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci and Robert DeNiro as always.
Scorsese is known for his effective use of score and it is perhaps at its peak here. Songs from The Rolling Stones, Derek and the Dominoes and George Harrison bring the period to life and set the tone for the film perfectly. Scorsese's direction must also be praised, a trademark in the long tracking shot resurfaces in a scene which follows Henry and Karen into a restaurant, through the corridors, through the kitchen and to their seat in a shot that lasts a good minute and a half at least.
Goodfellas is one of those movies that towers above modern cinema with its realistic and brutal view of life in the mob, its sympathetic characters and it stands as one of the finest reasons for why Martin Scorsese may be the greatest and most influential director alive, if not in the whole of cinema history.