the most common ( and in many cases the only ) complaint against francis ford coppola 's 1972 masterpiece the godfather is glamorising of mafia , which is presented as an institution guided by ancient tradition and virtues like honour , loyalty and solidarity more suitable for some gentler , kinder ages .
martin scorsese , another italoamerican moviemaker , confronted that perspective with his own , more down - to - earth vision of mafia in 1973 mean streets , movie that dealt with lower echelons of organised crime .
unfortunately for scorsese , his film was unspectacular and too artsy to compete with coppola 's influence on mafia portrayals in the movies .
seventeen years later scorsese returned to mean streets of new york with another film that dealt with darker side of american organised crime .
this film was goodfellas , epic black comedy which is today considered as one of the best and most influential films of 1990s .
goodfellas owes some of its initial success and popularity to the fact that it was based on the true story , told in best - seller book wiseguy by nicholas pileggi ( who would co - write the screenplay for the film ) .
the book , as well as the film , chronicled thirty years in the life of henry hill ( played by ray liotta ) , irish - italian criminal from new york .
at the age of 13 he gets recruited in the criminal organisation of paulie cicero ( played by paul sorvino ) , local mob boss , and gradually climbs up the ladder starting with small errands .
after couple of years , together with his best childhood friend tommy de vito ( played by joe pesci ) , he joins the crew of expert thieves led by jimmy conway ( played by robert de niro ) .
three of them spend years as best friends and associates , gathering enormous wealth from their criminal enterprises that would culminate with one of the most spectacular robberies in american history .
wealth , influence and privileges of men connected with mafia are enough for henry hill to seduce his future wife karen ( played by lorraine bracco ) , who would afterwards remain loyal to her husband despite infidelities , domestic abuse , arrests and would even be accomplice to his own private drug dealing business .
but the perfect world of " wiseguys " gradually begins to fall apart - tommy 's unpredictable outbursts of homicidal violence , jimmy 's reluctance to share his part of the loot with partners and , finally , henry 's own drug habit would lead to his downfall and make him question his loyalty to the friends .
goodfellas is an excellent example of a film that represents work of a film genius in his full glory .
scorsese managed to create a vision which is effective and complete despite being full of contradictions that would ripped the film apart in the hands of less talented filmmaker .
world depicted in this film is both ordinary and fascinating .
scorsese spares no effort to show us all the violence , hypocrisy and inherent paranoia of organised crime , yet it manages to make it both seductive and funny .
after being exposed to two and half hours of the film and three decades of criminal history ( based on some notorious real life events ) , the audience understands why the characters chose such dangerous life paths , trading the superficial and short - lasting glamour and prosperity of a criminal to the dullness and poverty of honest citizens .
scorsese also manages to break viewer 's moralistic inhibitions by showing truly revolting material - scenes that depict personal tragedies , broken homes , human depravity , violence , bloodshed and murder - in all their uncompromising reality , but in a manner that would make it amusing and funny to the audience .
with the use of ironic soundtrack , manipulative shots , character 's dialogue or narrator 's commentary , goodfellas represents the new standards of black humour that would became very popular few years later during tarantino era .
even if we do n't pay attention to skills with which potentially disturbing material becomes eye pleasing and entertaining , we should admit that scorsese displays his talents of truly original and creative filmmaker .
first , we might notice unusual structure of the plot - relatively minor subplot is used as movie 's ironic prologue .
then , instead of single narrator , scorsese switches to the second character as narrator in the middle of the film only to switch back to the original shortly afterwards .
this multiple points of views , both in terms of narration and various subjective shots , only lengthens the ironic distance towards characters and their situation .
same ironic distance comes with extremely effective choice of soundtrack .
nostalgia for good old times is illustrated with easy - listening 1950s pop songs , while depression , paranoia and bad times find their expression in more neurotic rock songs of late 1960s and 1970s .
but the soundtrack is most effective when it is used as ironic comment - almost pastoral , easy listening tunes make strong and very ironic contrast to the scenes of violence and bloodshed .
however , thing most associated with this film is couple of continuos shots that feature characters moving through large rooms and interacting with dozens if not hundreds of people .
such scenes , although they require very great skill and patience during their shootings , became very popular among other directors in 1990s .
fragmentary character of the screenplay , which does n't have straight plot and instead bases film on series of loosely connected vignettes , gives another interesting opportunity for scorsese .
he uses this structure of film to experiment , and most successful of such experiments is hilarious " a day in life " segment near the end of the film .
another essential element of goodfellas is large but superb collection of great acting talents .
the most respectable among them is robert de niro , but his character , who happen to be most quiet and business - like member of criminal trio , gets overshadowed by two of his friends and colleagues .
joe pesci deserved his " oscar " for supporting role of homicidal psychopath tommy , and his lines , including ad - libs , probably represent the most memorable element of the film .
ray liotta , although equally talented , perhaps does n't look as the best choice for narrator and nominal hero of the film .
liotta 's henry hill looks somewhat too hollywoodised and glamorous among this bunch of low - level street thugs .
liotta , on the other hand , improves general impression by very realistic and menacing portrayal of drug addiction .
lorraine bracco is , on the other hand , very effective and believable as karen hill , wife who gradually descends into same moral cesspool as her husband .
paul sorvino is also very effective as patriarch mafioso , and among the supporting cast most memorable is chuck low as pestering small - time gangster who unknowingly digs his own grave .
as a combination of clever sociological study , black humour and innovative
filmmaking goodfellas became something only the truly great films could do - work of art and excellent popular entertainment in the same time . because of this achievement , and also because of the great influence on future filmmakers ,
this cinematic gem deserves its rightful place among the best films of 1990s .
Output: P