"Good But Not Great" Fellas

Rating: 7/10 (1 April 2015)

I realize that in many circles, this film is considered an absolute classic and possibly Scorsese's greatest. However, over the course of time, my perception of this film has changed. Having read "Wiseguy" by Nicholas Pileggi, I realized that this movie does not conform to the book all that much and tends to stray a great deal. While most of the performances are memorable, they don't really resemble the actual characters that the story is based on. Joe Pesci's performance seems way over the top to me although certain short scenes of his are hilarious. Overall, I'd say his performance was overacted. DeNiro, Frank Vincent, Lorraine Bracco, and Ray Liotta turn in very convincing performances and Scorsese's approach to this film was very unique and well done. One of the many overlooked features of this movie is the soundtrack. While not quite chronologically correct in some spots, it does tend to emphasize certain scenes. My major criticism of this film is that way too much time in the second half is devoted to Henry's drug problem. I felt that this segment of his life could have been summed up in one or possibly two scenes. But here, almost the entire second half of this movie focuses on Henry's drug addiction and dealing. Not necessary. Another criticism is that the famous "Lufthansa heist" is only mentioned here and not shown at all. I believe that this, above all, was the centerpiece in the lives of Jimmy Burke and Henry Hill and is not given enough attention. I would have preferred to see more detail about the heist and less about Henry's drug use. Other than that, it's a memorable film and worthy of a few viewings. But as an all-time classic, I don't think so.