GoodFellas: the violent way of the mobster

Rating: 10/10 (25 January 2016)

Martin Scorsese is one of the most iconic film directors of all time. From Raging Bull to Shutter Island, from Taxi Driver to Wolf of Wall Street, he has done it all. Scorsese also played a big part in the success of actors such as Robert de Niro, Joe Pesci and Leonardo DiCaprio. In his career of 23 feature length films, for me, it is the 12th movie, I think is his best; GoodFellas. So, let me review two hours and twenty-seven minutes full of swearwords, drugs, violence and Rolling Stones music.
GoodFellas is about Henry Hill (played by Ray Liotta), a New Yorker sucked into the mafia-business at a very young age. The viewer experiences a span of three decades, in the life of Hill and his gangster colleagues Jimmy Conway (played by Robert de Niro), Tommy DeVito (played by Joe Pesci), Paul Cicero (played by Paul Sorvino) and more, in the mafia. The movie is based on the true story, of Henry Hill. Hill said himself that the film depicts his life in the mafia very accurately. The script and dialog in the different scenes is very good and humorous.
The acting in GoodFellas is brilliant. Liotta plays his role excellently and delivers his voice-overs fantastically. However, it is the acting by de Niro and Pesci, which is one of the things, that make this film so special. Pesci's intense and choleric acting even earned him an Oscar for Best Actor in a supporting role. Lorraine Bracco, who plays Karen Hill, Henry's wife, also plays her role well, but not quite with the excellence, like the before mentioned actors.
The soundtrack of this film is very interestingly structured. It starts with music from the sixties, where also the plot begins. It moves alongside the story up until the eighties. Typical for Scorsese, the soundtrack has many songs from the Rolling Stones, but also features Eric Clapton among other artists. The music in GoodFellas is overall very well picked and fitting.
GoodFellas is my favorite gangster/mafia film, due to an amazing story, funny dialog and monologue, superb acting and good music. It is also my favorite Scorsese film, my second favorite nineties film and my third favorite movie of all time 10/10