“As far back
as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster.”
The immortal line spoken by Ray Liotta
in the opening minutes of Martin Scorcese’s “Goodfellas”. This film is important to the world of
cinema, but to me it was important to my youth, I was 16 when I first saw
“Goodfellas” on video. To say it stayed
with me is an understatement. I had yet
to see the “The Godfather” and had only seen half of “Scarface” on basic TV,
which is the same as not seeing it at all.
So this was the first time I was exposed to the film version of the gangster
lifestyle. And the way it was presented
was through the eyes of the young Henry Hill. The first fifteen minutes we spend
with the young Henry was influential. Not working for the mob, but being part
of something bigger than you.
From there
we see De Niro and Pesci who turn in awesome performances. Twenty minutes in we get the famous “How am I
funny?” scene, which still holds up with the tension and the humor. The rest of the film is just scene after
scene of greatness, Lorranie Bracco as Karen, the classic walk through the back
door of the Copacabana, Henry beating
the crap out of Karen’s neighbor Bruce,
(I heard the term pistol-whip by then, but to see it, even a fictional
one, was insane.) But like the other
crime classics before it, what stands out the most is the rise and inevitable
fall of the gangster.
Watching it
now 21 years later what I noticed are the things I didn’t catch years before,
Paulie and Jimmy evoking their self-preservation in the form of marital
advice. Paulie telling Henry to say ‘no’
to drugs because it gets in the way of business (illegal that is). And let’s not forget, the amazing cinematography
and awesome soundtrack, now thought to be common in any Scorsese picture.
So if you
haven’t seen it in a while, give “Goodfellas” a watch, they use the “F” word a
lot, but their gangsters, what the “F” do you expect?
