Scorsese's swan song!

Rating: 10/10 (24 February 2005)

This film is arguably the best in the Scorsese cannon. In "Goodfellas" Scorsese seems to have created the quintessential gangster picture.
"Goodfellas" follows the career of a small time hood, named Henry Hil (Ray Liotta) who was friends with members of (but never really admitted into) the New York mafia. Hill, who would eventually betray and testify against his mafia cronies is not shown here as a sympathetic character by Scorsese, just as a young boy who grew up idolizing gangsters and then working for gangsters and then eventually befriending many of them. What he witnessed and saw while hanging around many of the members of the mob, later was used against them in their trial by Henry who became a witness for the prosecution.
Scorsese does a magnificent job of introducing us into this fascinating world of the mafia. His attention to detail creates a vivid portrayal of the world that these gangsters exist in. He puts us front row center, as he introduces us (literally) to many different members of the mafia and takes us on their bloody adventures and allows us an unflinching view of the violence that was an everyday part of that world. With montages and voice overs, we are saturated with these characters, offering us a view into their mind, and their feelings and fears. Towards the end of the film, Scorsese creates a paranoid, and frantic montage that climaxes just has he pushes us to the edge of our seats and frays our nerves.
There are fantastic performances by Robert DeNiro,Lorraine Bracco, and Ray Liotta, in what I consider to be his best film role ever. Joe Pesci achieved world renown fame as the short, funny,foul mouthed, homicidal gangster in this film ("What do ya mean I'm funny?!") and the supporting cast is equally good and give this film a aurora of authenticity.
Scorsese is a wonderful director with many great films in his cannon, however after a couple of viewing of "Goodfellas" I think you will agree that this is his finest film.