A Portrait Of Mob Life

Rating: 8/10 (29 August 2009)

The obvious comparison for this movie is, of course, "The Godfather." Looked at in that way, I thought "Goodfellas" was the superior movie - actually, not even close. Where some of the characters in "The Godfather" (especially Brando's Don Corleone) had an almost cartoonish aura around them, everyone in this movie seemed very real. There were no cartoonish elements to this, and no one in this movie was ever fated to be a caricature, in the way Brando as Corleone was. This was a down to earth, realistic story about life in the mob, shown mostly through the eyes of Henry (Ray Liotta), who, as an Irish Italian kid, glamorizes gangsters and gets involved with them as a kid, and then lives his life among them. Liotta was very good, as were all the main actors is this - Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and Lorraine Bracco all did well with their respective parts, and you come away from this movie thinking that you have a feel for what it's like to live this life. As the movie comes to an end, and Henry becomes a snitch, testifying against some of his former "buddies," you also get a dose of reality. These guys don't go to the cops out of any real change of heart or because they're suddenly stricken by a guilty conscience and decide to go straight. Henry suddenly realized he was in danger, and the only way to protect himself and his family was to testify. In the voice-over narration the point is well made that, even as he's testifying against these guys, he still envies them their lifestyle and enjoyed sharing it for a good number of years, and going straight is the price he has to pay for safety.
Certainly, a better move than "The Godfather." In all honesty, I think they're both over-rated on this site as the 2nd-best ("Godfather") and 15-th best ("Goodfellas") movies of all time at the time of writing. Having said that, I did enjoy watching "Goodfellas." 8/10