Laura’s Rating: 4/5 Stars
A mob movie with Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta? Count me in. I had to watch this before it left Netflix at the end of April. Mild spoilers about events later in the film but no big reveals, I promise!
The Analysis:
Goodfellas does a great job of capturing the allure of the mafia lifestyle. As young Henry Hill says in the beginning of the movie, “To me, it meant being somebody in a neighborhood that was full of nobodies.” The guys in the mob constantly had cash, they were often untouchable to law enforcement, and they got special treatment at restaurants, clubs, etc. I would die to hang out at the swanky Bamboo Lounge and never pay my tab or to enter a club through the kitchen after skipping the line.
The casting is fantastic and everyone plays their role perfectly. Actor Christopher Serrone does a great job of playing an innocent kid who gets a taste of fame and fortune. Ray Liotta and Robert De Niro were born to play gangsters. Karen, played by Lorraine Braco, perfectly portrays the way someone might hesitate to enter the lifestyle of the mob but then eventually become swept up in it before they know it. The other wives had just the right amount of personality and eccentricity. I like a good mafia movie as much as the next person and this one managed to slip in some humor and some “wow, they are so cool” moments. I could watch the scene where Robert De Niro stares into the distance smoking a cigarette while a Cream song plays in the background over and over.
Okay I did really like this movie, but at first I wasn’t going to give it 4 stars. The overall feeling it gave me was more like a 3.5, above average but nothing special. For me, the movie started great and gradually went downhill. Many people say Godfellas is the best mob movie outside The Godfather series. However, that doesn’t mean it’s necessarily a close second. The scenes with a freeze frame and Ray Liotta’s narration were interesting and funny in the beginning. The early jobs and romances were intriguing. However, I didn’t really enjoy the turn towards Henry becoming a drugged out, paranoid rich guy in the last part of the film. I’m sure that is probably an accurate depiction of what happens to many criminals who get involved in dealing/moving drugs, but I really started to lose interest in Henry towards the end of the film. By the end, I didn’t care as much about what happened to the characters. Despite a couple of important action points later in the film, it still felt dull to me. However, after discussion with my boyfriend, Chip, he made a few great points that changed my mind a bit.
Goodfellas is a great example of the mafia lifestyle, emphasizing the importance of family and loyalty, but it also shows the dark underbelly of a life of organized crime.The goal of the last third of the movie is to shatter the false, glamorous idea of the mobster lifestyle. It isn’t as great as it seems and can get you mixed up in some bad business. As Chip pointed out to me, “you’re feeling the way that the director wants you to feel: less interested and disillusioned.” Of course! It made total sense to me. I didn’t enjoy the later events in the movie…neither did the characters themselves! After finally discovering this secret genius of the film, I decided to bump up my rating to 4 stars.
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