Both sides of the medal

Rating: 8/10 (8 August 2015)

There's much to say about Goodfellas, and most of it has already been said by others. What I enjoyed the most with the movie was how it constructs this dual reality. You see and hear all of these guys having a blast, enjoying their money and their power. You can hear Liotta's character describing the joys of the life they led. At the same time you are presented with certain scenes from this life where you can also see the backside of the medal. Many mob movies are like this. They show this really charming culture of, well, people celebrating their own importance, and a culture based on respect, tradition and hierarchy. But then you typically see it all falls apart, so it wasn't a good idea after all. This movie plays around a bit with this, showing you both sides of the medal from the get go, but as the story progresses you can gradually see the medal turning around, going from having the positive side in focus, to having the negative side in focus. But, as mentioned, both sides of the medal are visible from the start till the end. This is maybe the most obvious in the ending scenes, with how the narration relates to what you see.