The film is based on the true
story of Henry Hill, a gangster who made his way through the mob hierarchy.
Henry started as a young boy infatuated with local mobsters that he saw in his
neighborhood. To him, they seemed better than the average man grinding it out
for little pay and little respect. He just wanted to be a part of it. As Henry
got older, he started pulling jobs with James Conway and Tommy DeVito having
the time of his life. But like all gangster stories, eventually the music
stopped.
Goodfellas is written and
directed by Martin
Scorsese and is considered to be among his best films (if not his best),
which is saying something – the man being among film’s most accomplished
filmmakers. Scorsese worked with frequent collaborators cinematographer Michael Ballhaus
(whose work on the film is top notch) and production designer Kristi Zea.
The film stars Ray Liotta, and
co-stars Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci (whose
performance won the film’s only Oscar), and Lorraine Bracco. Paul Sorvino
features in support (along with a bunch of other familiar faces to gangster
films and TV series).
Goodfellas is one of the most
critically heralded films of all-time (even though it lost Best Picture to Dances
with Wolves at the 1991 Oscars); many even consider it the best film of the
1990s. Likewise, it is among the most exalted in the gangster genre (a genre
Scorsese does incredibly well with films like Mean Streets,
Casino, The
Departed, and now with The
Wolf of Wall Street – though it is a much different kind of gangster film,
if you even want to call it that). It is a must-see for fans of the genre (as
well as cinephiles in general), along with The
Godfather, The
Godfather: Part II, The
Sopranos, Once
Upon a Time in America, and City
of God.
Trailer: Here
