Just a Bunch of Neighborhood Guys

Rating: Null/10 (13 January 2014)

If The Godfather (1972) is grand opera, Goodfellas is Grand Guignol. The violence is sudden and brutal, with no effort at cosmetics. This is a blue-collar crime ring Hill (Liotta) belongs to, with connections to the Mafia. They've got just enough juice to act with impunity. Shoot a kid waiter— don't worry about the law; after all, that's what the payoffs are for. Want to impress your girl with a table up front at the Copa— don't worry they'll make one. These are criminal entrepreneurs, looking to make a buck anywhere, except dealing dope (too risky, I guess), that is, until Hill fatefully succumbs. It's an exciting life, as long as you stay on the right side of the unwritten rules. So, even the underworld operates by a standard of justice, namely their own. As to the rest of the world—that's made up of 9 to 5 schnooks.
Liotta turns in a fine controlled performance in the central role of Henry Hill. Ditto, DeNiro as the dangerous Jimmy. But, Pesci is all out psychotic as Tommy. It's hard to see how the gang could put up with a nutty loose cannon like him even if he does furnish the movie with its edgy appeal. Scorcese directs with down-home gusto, focusing almost as much on family life as the criminal. Still, the 160-minute result could easily have been trimmed back. That would have tightened the impact.
Nonetheless, the movie is a fascinating look at urban crime, proletarian style.