"As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster"

Rating: 10/10 (18 March 2017)

Goodfellas is Crime drama that came out almost 25 years ago and it still stands as by far the best mob movie ever made.
The film is about of the true story of former gangster Henry Hill, who worked his up the ranks to become a big time gangster in New York in the 1960's. The film focuses on Hill working his way from a child gangster to becoming a popular gangster in the mob. The story flows very well and without any noticeable bumps in the movie. The story is easy to follow and not very confusing. The film just focuses on the ride of Henry Hill as a New York gangster, however no film is perfect, my only critique or criticism with the film is that at some point for a couple of minutes it seemed like the film dragged on with the plot. However, I barely noticed it, so it isn't that big of a deal. Henry Hill is a bad guy, but at the same time you can't help but just feel for him. In a world where gangsters spend their time murdering and stealing, Hill seems like the one who has a heart, even if it is hard to see.
The acting is as good as I thought it would be. Henry Hill is played Ray Liotta, and he does a really good job of portraying the young gangster, but he was overshadowed by supporting cast. Robert De Niro does a amazing job playing the veteran gangster who lives in a world surrounded by guns, money, sex and violence. He made me hate him and feel for him at many different points in the film. He carried the film nicely and kept me interested. Tommy DeVito is played by Joe Pesci and he has never been better. This is one of his best performances as a violent and humorous psycho who will make jokes and then start shooting people around him. He made me think that there is no way that anyone this crazy exists, but at the same time, he was my favorite character throughout the film. Joe Pesci fits the role perfectly. The rest of the cast is also delivers but with De Niro and Pesci performances I didn't care that much about the other performances. Goodfellas had 12 different songs, playing at 12 different points and all of the music flowed together very well. I don't think the score could've been better fit for the tone and atmosphere of the movie. During tense situations or heart pounding moments the music is always there to build the atmosphere, and make the scene in the movie seem meaningful even when it doesn't matter that much. The score just works so well with the movie and makes moments that already stand out even more intense. Few movies have the ability to create a feeling to the viewer and then double that feeling with the music that is playing.
The screenplay and the script is also very well done. Martin Scorsese does a great job of showing the life of Henry Hill using convincing dialogue and scenes. I loved the way events played out. It seems like the events were played out in a real life scenario. Also this movie has some of my favorite quotes and scenes I have ever seen in a movie. Nothing in this movie is predictable or clichÃ© at any point of the film. Whenever something important happened it wasn't predictable, and at some points of the film, I was caught off guard completely. The dialogue also made every scene seem meaningful even when it didn't affect the plot of the film or change the characters in a major or dramatic way. When a scene was full of suspense, the dialogue made all of it full of anticipation and gripped me in a very memorizing way. I may be talking about the dialogue a lot, but it did help the film a lot by building the situations and making every scene have deeper meaning. The dialogue was my favorite part of the film.
The overall theme is forgiveness and if the main character can live with himself with all of the brutal things he does to other people. I couldn't think of a better way to show this theme by taking the true story of a gangster and bringing back to life. With great acting, a well made script, convincing dialogue, an amazing atmosphere and compelling story make Goodfellas one of the best movies of all time. If you haven't seen this movie, I recommend you do, this is the best mob movie ever made.