SUPERB

Rating: Null/10 (23 October 2004)

From the opening script "From as far back as I can remember, I have always wanted to be a gangster" to the ending script "I now live like an average nobody, a schnook"...the film culminates the real-life story of Henry Hill, an Irish-Italian hoodlum growing up in New York in the 1950s and 1960s with aspirations of becoming a mobster.
For any person who finds distaste with this film due to the violence, language and content, I ask you to consider this... The reason this film is so superb is that it takes us into the intimate life of a person who was not "an average nobody" to quote the movie. Most people find this interesting, enthralling and profoundly entertaining because it is unique to the lives 90% of us lead. A film is supposed to be all of these things.
For any person who found this film magnificently scripted, acted and directed - I would heartily agree. It is the BEST gangster film ever made. Ever.
Why is this film so darn good? I think for several reasons:
1. The acting. The actors casted are believable. They are not typical "Hollywoodized" actors and actresses. Not cosmetically enhanced, wafer-thin or highly buffed, plastic. They are excellent at their craft and you think to yourself "I really could have know a person like this". It adds realism to the film. Too many films are made that are simply unreal (whether it be the plot, special effects or actors), and that is not entertaining...it is a bore.
2. The directing. The film direction, mixed with voice overs and unique camera shots, captures the audience from the start of the film to the end in a wonderful, compelling storytelling event.
3. The musical score. Henry Hill's story begins in the 1950s when he was a boy and ends in the 1980s when he is arrested for narcotics dealing and enters the Witness Protection Program as the only option of salvation. The music parallels Henry's life and brings back the nostalgia of that time.
4. A darn good story. Henry Hill's story, based on the book by Nicholas Pileggi, is just a fascinating tale.
I choose not to discuss details of the film as the film speaks for itself. I highly recommend it.