Keep it stacked or get whacked. Your choice.

Rating: 10/10 (23 March 2012)

Scorsese's Goodfellas is an incorruptible masterpiece with morals, wit, black humor, and cringe-inducing material, some of which the most graphic and brutal the man himself has ever filmed. It portrays the life of organized crime over the course of three decades, showing the central character who grew up idolizing the mob before almost despising it towards the end of the film. The result is a slick, unmatchable look at the way mobsters spoke, operated, and functioned from the fifties to the eighties and is one of the most powerful pictures for not only Scorsese, but for film itself in general.
The story revolves around Irish-Italian Henry Hill (Liotta) who, ever since he was a youngster, looked up to the mob in his home of New York City. He says he wanted to be a gangster more than the president, because the gangsters had an untold amount of respect and dignity. The job revolves around persistency, bravery, emotionless devotion where one bad choice could ruin every good one you ever made in your life.
Hill is taken under the wing of mob boss Paulie Cicero (Sorvino) and his loyal team of Jimmy Conway (De Niro) and Tommy DeVito (Pesci). Conway operates as sort of an everyman mobster who is constantly watching his back, yet at times seems like he will crumble under all the pressure. While Tommy, on the other hand, is animalistic, unapologetic, and simply shameless, reacting impulsively on violence if someone looks at him the wrong way. Pesci's role as Tommy DeVito earned him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor, quite possibly the most violent character to ever win. While Hill is working for Cicero at a young age he learns two of the most important life lessons early on in his career; "Never rat on your friends, and always keep your mouth shut." This begins Hill's long, relentless career as a mobster, which involves stealing, plotting, scheming, and constant commitment to the job. He gets married at a young age, to the heart-stopping beauty Karen (Bracco), a Jewish girl, much to the dismay of her mother. Karen falls for Hill's bravery, leadership, protection, and smarts early on, but realizes that once you married a mobster, you're now married to the job as well. That makes you a mob-wife; a position you can't refuse.
Throughout the film, we see how Hill manages his mobster duties and his overall position. This is where the very Scorsese aspect comes into play. If you've been exposed to enough of the genius director, you'll know what he does best; the stories of people who rise and fall, or endured a reasonable amount of glory in a specific point in their life. In Casino, it showed a man named Sam "Aces" Rothstein, played by De Niro as well, struggle to run a Vegas casino with a number of roadside distractions. He was at the height of his game once, but a few faulty decisions on his part ran him straight into the ground. In The Aviator, one of Scorsese's more recent films, we meet the unsung filmmaker and aviation expert Howard Hughes, portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio. There, we dissect Hughes' glory years from when he directed the most expensive film of all time, to when he plummeted into a sea of nothing, becoming a sheltered germaphobe for a good remainder of his life. In Goodfellas, we see how a man can go from being a big shot to a self-indulgent, paranoid man consumed alive by his own greed, disrespect, and betrayal.
Another recurring element, in pretty much every film by Scorsese, is we can see Scorsese's undeniable fascination with the material. We understand why he took the project just by the way he shot the film. We can see he takes a stern liking to the mob lifestyle, and sometimes, we get the faint impression he admires them. On the surface, and if we were to make a broad generalization, untold riches, cute Italian women, different ones every night, close friends, and fancy clubs and restaurants sounds divine to me. But they don't tell you that you must sleep with one eye open, and constantly avoid getting whacked. That part they left out of the manual.
The performances, like in any film by the master, are simply divine - not a single one off pitch or even average. One performance that has gone overlooked is Lorraine Bracco. She is in the same position actress Sharon Stone would find herself in when playing Ginger in Casino, five years later. Bracco is in the position to overact, but never does. She is constantly improving as time goes on, and handles her climatic instances well. Not to mention, the male performances by De Niro, Liotta, Pesci, and Sorvino are all absolutely wonderful, always hitting the correct note in every place.
Goodfellas is an American classic. Not a modern classic; a regular ol' classic. It is an enriching movie, with stylish writing (by Scorsese himself and Nicolas Pileggi, who wrote the novel the film is based on, Wiseguy), inevitably stellar performances, and an unforgettable score and setting that might leave you breathless at some points. The hardest part in any Scorsese film is picking a favorite scene. I think I've found one. It involves one the best jump scenes in any film I've seen recently. Along with evoking regret, naive instincts, and betrayal. It involves Joe Pesci. I will not say more.
Starring: Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Paul Sorvino, and Lorraine Bracco. Directed by: Martin Scorsese.