In Reality They`re A Bunch Of Bad Fellas

Rating: 9/10 (9 September 2003)

Ah yes gangsters , a bunch of misunderstood criminals , or at least popular myth would have us believe . They`re nice to their moms , kind to animals and children and if they have to kill someone ..... well it`s business , no hard feelings . You know the cliches and Hollywood is more guilty than anyone of propping up these myths and it`s great to see a Hollywood movie deconstruct these fictions . GOODFELLAS shows gangsters as they are : Violent thugs and contemptable cowards . Very few films have come up with a bloodchilling villain in the shape of Tommy and the most terrifying thing is this evil little b@stard existed in real life . Oh and despite all these hard men strutting around letting everyone know how tough they are in reality they`re sh*t scared of doing hard time , there`s no honour amongst thieves and these tough guys would cut their mothers throat to stay out of jail
Scorsese directs in a MTV inspired way . With the exception of Spielberg all great American directors were doing this at the time . Oliver Stone did it with BORN ON THE FOURTH OF JULY , HEAVEN AND EARTH and NATURAL BORN KILLERS , Francis Ford Coppola did it with his version of DRACULA and Scorsese would continue the style with CAPE FEAR and CASINO . Scorsese directs in this style with just the right amount of excess so the movie doesn`t suffer from being overdirected in the way CASINO was ( CASINO is basically an overlong , inferior remake of this film ) while the script by Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi is just about the right length and - Unlike CASINO - is beautifully paced and allows the audience to make up their own mind on Henry Hill who only seems to be an innocent bystander throughout events - Yeah right

Warner Bros are rightly remembered for their classic gangster flicks of the 30s and 40s . They made another gangster classic in 1990 , and this time they made a truthfull one