The first mob film that got it dead right

Rating: 10/10 (28 November 2009)

Back in the early 90's, criminals simply weren't presented as they really were. This started the trend in the proper direction, showing a schism in organized crime that cracked it's foundation and highlighted the downward swing they've been on for decades now.
Brooklyn born and raised Henry Hill is half Irish and therefore can't be a made man. His neighbourhood cronies treat him like family, but still he can never get to the big leagues of the mob. Paulie is their particular district's big boss, who detests drugs and the threat they represent to his way of conducting business (and staying out of prison). Jimmy is homicidal and also the greatest and most shameless thief around, who's been in and out of jail since childhood and also can't be made and fully accepted due to his Irish blood. And to round out this cast of characters is Tommy, a smoking gun that bristles with hot headed rage at the slightest imagined insult. Together, this can only add up to trouble!
Paulie is one of the last who believes in the old code and the coming cocaine revolution is like a tidal wave that will reduce his little world to rats scurrying off the sinking ship that organized crime is degenerating into. Under his watch, the younger men that are like sons to him lie, break rank with their criminal common sense and generally act like they prefer stupidity over any kind of self preservation. Little remarks at a card game or bar or on the street get people killed faster than lightning. Huge scores are not about equal shares when one man wants everything, save for a tribute kicked up to the big boss, for himself.
The mob could have continued all powerful if certain trends hadn't taken over. But what went down meant becoming an informer wasn't unthinkable anymore, it was now plan B. The soldiers on the streets felt their superiors were out of touch with major opportunities and the old moustache Petes lost the battles they could never win. Drugs were and are at every level of society and Henry Hill was one of countless souls that didn't save for a rainy day because they wanted to get high and ignored the depth of the big picture.
Read the amazing book "Wiseguy" Nicholas Pileggi wrote with Henry's no holds barred account of his sordid life filling out the details one really needs to fully appreciate this film. There are millions of criminals in the world, but most of them never go on the record so unnervingly.