Great by all means, but not the best

Rating: 9/10 (5 December 2011)

As a huge fan of Scorsese's 2000s movies Goodfellas seemed right up my alley. Indeed, the measure of greatness of Scorsese movies is how they stack up against this classic and the question is often what is his best since.
So my expectations were high to say the least. There are some scenes in Goodfellas which would make me proud to have it included in my list of top movies - from intimidating the mailman by shoving his head in the oven to Tommy's reckless blasting away of "Spider" over a trifle, to Henry Hill waking up to his wife pointing a gun in his face, and, my favourite scene, when Tommy is shot dead and blood flows slowly from his head out over the floor.
And I could go on listing scenes. This is exactly the point - there is something lacking, even poor, in the story as a whole i.e. in the pace of the film. Henry following Tommy along to the double date is a turning point in the narrative, with Karen coming into the story at this point. The initial scene at the restaurant just seems to fit in as another part of the lengthy orientation. Then the two have an argument on the street - again it all seems to fit in. Then all of a sudden Henry's voice-over tells us that he finds her attractive and Karen's opinion somehow changes and they decide they'll go out, this time on a proper date - this is way too unrealistic. The awkwardness of the first date is conveyed so well, with the contrast between Tommy and his girl, and the voice-over from Karen, that it's fair to wonder why she even wanted to go on the second date. After the Copacabana date you can believe that she was impressed with him but I'm sure most people found it odd that she wasn't repelled to begin with and got caught up in the whole thing. It takes ages for anything narratively significant to happen, and when it does it's out of nowhere.
The film seems to be confused what its emphasis is. The opening scene is taken out from a late point in the movie, giving it that mystery-movie style revelation when we realise the context of that scene. This is inappropriate - by the time we figure out what that scene was about we know that the gangsters kill people all the time, and sometimes over practically nothing, especially Tommy. There's too much of a similarity between the murders of Spider and Billy Batts to give special importance to Batts; sure, Spider was a nobody and Batts was a "made" man, but there should have been more done to show why Batts was more serious. The filmmakers couldn't have expected audiences to grasp the intenseness of killing a made man.
Goodfellas isn't a movie about the Lufthansa heist, not really. The filmmakers obviously chose to sacrifice a traditional story for an in depth, more holistic view of mob life. The cost is that the climax lacks some depth. The filmmakers were never interested in the heist, they were interested in its aftermath, because that's where the characters interrelate. All those involved are slowly killed off by Jimmy Conway, and in the sense that we finally see the fullness of Jimmy's gangster quality (besides throwing 100s to operating doormen and bartenders) there is some interest and drama. But this is compromised because the heist is an opportunity that the gangsters merely stumble upon - there is no reason or meaning involved in the actual robbery besides their normal greed. Jimmy Conway has nothing personal in it, no journey towards it, and it is this extra psychological depth that would have made the ending truly masterful. The filmmakers, and hence the audience, are too caught up in the characters' relations to think about them individually.
A lot will disagree with this, but I think The Departed is better. It has all the same great hallmarks of directing but it has a masterfully crafted story that isn't spontaneous and doesn't drag (even though The Departed is longer) and it is psychologically deep (the main female character is a psychologist, what more could you want?). This said, Goodfellas is a quality movie and a proud part of the Scorsese canon, and if a friend came and told me he recently watched it I would still light up and be ready to talk about all the amazing scenes.
In short, to be a Masterpiece, EVERYTHING has to go right - and although there are lots of awesome films there are few masterpieces, and Goodfellas is definitely an example of the former and not the latter.