The Quintessential 'Gangster' film ...

Rating: 10/10 (22 December 2010)

"Goodfellas" is so realistic you feel like watching a documentary about the mob: the narration is straight-forward, it doesn't try to use big words, or a rich vocabulary, gangsters proudly talk like the lucky scumbags they are. As for the others, the honest guys, like you and me, they are simply labeled as losers, how could someone like a script where he's almost insulted? Well, just think about this, insulted by whom? by a wannabe big shot who thinks he's the king of the world simply because he doesn't need to stand in a queue, or can get the best table to his girlfriend in the restaurant? the genius of the script is that you're almost envying the protagonists in the beginning, the whole first act has a sort of joyful atmosphere where everything is fun, even when it's not. It almost makes you drool about this life where everything is easy: money, girls, sex, fun, power, respect, when you, poor schmuck, has to struggle to live a crappier life ...
But they ARE criminals, no doubt about that, they're cheaters, they're robbers, murderers, they cheat their wives, they stab in the back, and the only honor they have is not to "rat on your friends", as if there were friends in this business anyway ... even the rules are corrupted from the beginning, why shouldn't you rat? if you're put in a position where you might do it, you're already a target ... it's a nasty, stinking, horrific world, we're proud not to belong to at the end of the film, and that's the power of the script. You follow these characters who seem cool, nice, funny (like a clown, or just like that) and you end up feeling guilty for that. The movie makes you question this weird appeal you feel to gangsters, even one of the first lines of the movie is quite significant : "As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a gangster" ... we're like, wow! This movie goes ahead, it shouts loudly what "The Godfather" was trying to whisper ... from the first words of the 'Wags to Riches' song, we're literally plunged into a world, where we share the dreams of a character who wants to be a gangster, as if it was the most honorable profession. The movie doesn't even question that, it's almost normal to want to be a gangster. Scorsese has a twisted provocative approach in the beginning of the movie and it works perfectly, because it makes the ending all the more bittersweet, or all the more ironic.
Which takes me to the last lines, compare them with the first. The character's story arc concludes with these powerful lines : "I'm an average nobody... get to live the rest of my life like a schnook", this line is like a last slap in the face to the other schmucks who didn't realize during the movie that these guys were ALL already average nobodies, and probably worse than that, even when everything was fine ... the last grin on Hill's face after he did it 'his way' (a reference to the ending credits song) is to highlight the ridiculousness of the situation where he's trying to persuade himself he ever was someone before, but he was nothing ... he didn't exist in the papers, he didn't exist in society, he did nothing, and the only wise decision he took was to save his skin by 'ratting' on his 'friends'. This is a movie about ultimate losers, about a cruel, violent and nasty world where sooner or later, you LOSE. But you don't lose because crime does not pay, let's not be that naive. You lose because this so-called fellowship is based on a fallacious etiquette that makes friendship and loyalty totally inconceivable, at least in the long term. Consequently, when you watch the movie a second time, you realize that everything is fake from the beginning, the ending makes the irony even more palpable ... hell, the irony is even in the title, 'Goodfellas' ...
Just like its glorious predecessor, "The Godfather", the script is one of the most remarkable elements of the films, especially when combined with an incredible editing : you jump from a memorable scene to another, you're like watching a time capsule of the criminal world, it's an entertaining journey into crime that doesn't show how crime is fun or entertaining, but just to highlight in a more powerful way the cruelty of this world that looked so joyful, so cool in the beginning (and I don't even mention the acting)... In other words, the script is provocative, ironic and entertaining, what do you want more? better written dialogs? that's not the point. "City Lights" didn't need dialogs to be considered a masterpiece, nor does "Goodfellas" where the vocabulary is so particular, it's like another character from the film.
"Goodfellas", Marty's masterpiece is the quintessential Gangster film, not because it makes you want to be a gangster, but because it gives you two feelings in common with gangsters, envy and fear ... and a third one at the end, which is guilt.