• One of Scorsese’s three finest films (spending too much time arguing between this Raging Bull, and Taxi Driver isn’t fruitful) which puts it up there all-time with any film (it is my current #22 film of all-time as of 2019). I would argue that it’s the most rewatchable film of all-time- I don’t think there’s a more enjoyable (and faster) 142 minutes in cinema history
  • some masterpieces have a brilliant narrative, some have 2-3 show-stopping formal or stylistic high-water marks… Goodfellas has one of cinema’s 10 greatest narratives and is wall-to-wall virtuoso-stylistic, auteur cinema — there are a dozen highlights at least
  • She’s a hell of a writer but you have to laugh at Pauline Kael in the “New Yorker” on it- “Is it a great movie? I don’t think so.” haha
  • Like Taxi Driver soaked in yellow with a believable color design mise-en-scene motif here we are bombarded with reds throughout the film—the exaggerated red tail lights is the first thing you see after the credits (the simplistic but strong credits by Saul and Elaine Bass)—in that scene when they go around to the trunk, I mean the break is not on so the red is accentuated by Scorsese and DP Michael Ballhaus—and the red is pouring out of the trunk, too
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—the exaggerated red tail lights is the first thing you see after the credits
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Like Taxi Driver soaked in yellow with a believable color design mise-en-scene motif here we are bombarded with reds throughout the film
  • The flashback sequences of Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill coming of age act as almost their own short film. It is a series (formally so sound) of voice-over narration with freeze-frames and then killer lines of dialogue like the famous “As far back I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster” and “The way I figure it, everybody takes a beating” and the line about how his mother got respect at the grocery store. I believe there are 6 freezes, the one on Liotta’s face, one of his father beating him, mailman in the oven, car exploding, De Niro handing him $20, and then the “broke your cherry” freeze – the series of freezes in this short film flashback opening marks some of the greatest uses of the freeze frame film technique in cinema history
The flashback sequences of Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill coming of age act as almost their own short film. It is a series (formally so sound) of voice-over narration with freeze-frames and then killer lines of dialogue as the freeze holds– the achievement here with freeze frame is up there with The 400 Blows, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Jules and Jim
  • It is a transcendent narrative– so engaging
  • the trademark Scorsese pop/rock/doo-wop (from Who’s That Knocking in 1967 it’s been a Scorsese trademark) music, Cadillac’s, nostalgia (while still being a Scorsese film with violence) 
  • After the flashback sequences of Henry Hill’s youth—we get the tracking shot in on Ray Liotta at the airport and the virtuoso style on display, though it pivots in technique (we’re done with the freezes), it doesn’t let up
  • Scorsese is smart enough to surround himself with an impeccable cast and crew—Pesci puts on an early mesmerizing display (in his Oscar-winning role) with the “How and I funny?” routine. It’s a tribute to De Niro, Liotta, Bracco, Sorvino that Pesci doesn’t blow them off the screen completely
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Scorsese is smart enough to surround himself with an impeccable cast and crew—Pesci puts on an early mesmerizing display (in his Oscar-winning role) with the “How and I funny?” routine. It’s a tribute to De Niro, Liotta, Bracco, Sorvino that Pesci doesn’t blow them off the screen completely — the red lighting in the design of the frame is no mistake either
  • Scorsese switches narrators 29 minutes in passing the baton from the voice-over of Liotta to Lorraine Bracco – she passes the baton back later– -it’s a bold choice and has proven to be incredibly influential (You could do another 2,000 words on the influence of Goodfellas on Hollywood cinema in the last 30 years)
  • The Copacabana shot is breathtaking. Is it the best oner in cinema? Best 3 minutes in cinema? I think it is.  You could justifiably write an entire paper on the shot but it obviously as a technical marvel and whisks you away (like Bracco’s character) which impacts the mood, narrative and character—there’s also Scorsese’s sin motif in the production design and we go from the lush greens at the beginning of the shot as we enter the club and then we’re surrounded by the reds of hell.
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The Copacabana shot is breathtaking. Is it the best oner in cinema? Best 3 minutes in cinema? I think it is.
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there’s also Scorsese’s sin motif in the production design and we go from the lush greens at the beginning of the shot as we enter the club and then we’re surrounded by the reds of hell.
  • We’re off to the shine box scene with Frank Vincent and Pesci’s Tommy—a volcano of Napoleonic rage
  • In a transition, Liotta’s face is isolated and washed out in red
  • The camera is always moving- another tracking shot along the bar as they plans the first heist and yet another shot (which would be the best single shot in almost any other film) is the introduction of all the other gangsters at the Bamboo lounge including the “get the papers, get the papers”.  You are spinning at this point.
  • Red lights exploding from the car and earth seemingly as they dig up the body
Red lights exploding from the car and earth seemingly as they dig up the body– expressionism from perhaps cinema’s greatest artist
  • 88 minutes in and we’re doing coke and listening to Scorsese’s Rolling stones
  • A slow-motion shot at the bar that is a call back to Mean Streets– this time with De Niro smoking
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a slow-motion tracking shot of cinema’s greatest screen actor– enhancing the gymnastics going on in his head- in another film, maybe even another masterpiece, this is the best shot of the film
  • Throughout several times we get the date in the form of black and white titles—the May 11, 1980 113 minutes in is another short film within a film. We’re in the 80’s with blow and the paranoia with the helicopter. Liotta is fatigued, sweaty and Scorsese is utilizing jump cuts galore and wild zooms as the world is closing in on Henry
  • During the sequence with De Niro and Liotta at the diner Scorsese uses Hitchcock’s zoom-in, track-out Vertigo shot to great effect
  • And then again we break the rules with Scorsese breaking the 4th wall with Liotta talking to the camera
And then again we break the rules with Scorsese breaking the 4th wall with Liotta talking to the camera—
  • It makes for such an interesting counterpoint to The Godfather (came out in 1990- the same year as the much anticipated The Godfather Part III)
  • It is visually and narratively audacious, ambitious muscular filmmaking
  • Ebert – “Not this film, which shows America’s finest filmmaker at the peak of his form. No finer film has ever been made about organized crime – not even “The Godfather,”
  • Ebert- “From the first shot of his first feature, “Who’s That Knocking at My Door?” (1967), Scorsese has loved to use popular music as a counterpoint to the dramatic moments in his films.”
  • Alan Jones- Radio Times “Be prepared to be completely bowled over by a director at the peak of his talents and in full control of top-notch material.”
  • Wendy Ide- “Observer (UK)” – “For its swaggering energy, the heart-in-your-throat pacing and for some of the most memorable, most imitated scenes in mafia movie history, this must rank as one of Scorsese’s finest films, if not the best.
  • A Masterpiece