#51-B: GOODFELLAS (1990)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

8.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, many times, and I'm not even sure when the first time would have been. Probably in university, but maybe in high school

BEST SEQUENCE

The montage of bodies being found after the Lufthansa heist, with the perfect musical accompaniment of "Layla"

BEST LINE

"I'm funny how, I mean funny like I'm a clown, I amuse you? I make you laugh, I'm here to fuckin' amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how? How am I funny?"

- and by the way, this scene is actually probably tied for my favourite sequence of the movie

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

95%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Hard-hitting and stylish, GoodFellas is a gangster classic -- and arguably the high point of Martin Scorsese's career."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"The story of Henry Hill and his life in the mafia, covering his relationship with his wife Karen and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito."

DIRECTOR

Martin Scorsese

MAIN CAST

Ray Liotta, Lorraine Bracco, Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro, Paul Sorvino

THOUGHTS

• Goodfellas is one of my favourite movies of all time, and yet, despite this, I feel like there's a chance I'm inflating the Thrill Score a little bit. However, even if there may not be a whole lot of individual heart-pounding moments, the 8.5 rating is more applied to the movie as a whole. There's an all-encompassing jitteriness to Goodfellas that leaves you feeling breathless and on edge. It's kind of similar to Pulp Fiction, in fact, which also got an 8.5/10 from me
• We're talking about Goodfellas because of the reunion between Scorsese, De Niro and Pesci (and more on them in a minute) but Ray Liotta is the lead as Henry Hill, and I think he's fantastic in this. Despite being a completely unapologetic criminal he's still relatable and even sympathetic at times (and at other times wholly unsympathetic). I also think his voiceover narration is absolutely perfect and adds so much to the movie. For all these reasons I was shocked when I learned that Liotta didn't even get an Oscar nomination that year (and more on Goodfellas at the Oscars in a minute, as well)
• Joe Pesci, the Oscar winner for Best Supporting Actor that year, plays Tommy DeVito, a character who is completely unhinged and even more unapologetic than Liotta's Henry Hill. It's clear that Pesci had a ball making this movie, and he's captivating to watch, also providing a lot of the thrills with the completely unpredictable nature of his character. The "funny how" scene I quoted above is a perfect example of this - Pesci creates a ridiculous amount of tension between him and his friend, and then breaks it at the drop of a hat, just for kicks. The scene is iconic, but something I didn't even remember until this rewatch, it's also basically our introduction to Tommy DeVito as a character. I believe it's Pesci's first dialogue scene in the movie and it sets his tone perfectly
• And De Niro is also very good as Jimmy Conway! His role is a little less flashy, though, so it makes a bit less of an impact
• Rounding out the main cast, Lorraine Bracco as Karen Hill is also excellent, also nominated for Best Supporting Actress, and also provides great narration. Sidebar, I'm in the middle of a Sopranos rewatch, and it's always funny to see how much crossover there is between Goodfellas and The Sopranos. Lorraine Bracco is, of course, a prominent character in both, playing Tony Soprano's psychiatrist, Jennifer Melfi, but you've also got a young Michael Imperioli (Christopher in The Sopranos) playing Spider, the bartender who Tommy shoots for mouthing off to him (justifiably after Tommy previously shot him in the foot), and even Tony Sirico shows up in Goodfellas in a very small role, much smaller than his role of Paulie in The Sopranos
• And getting back to it, Goodfellas has had remarkable staying power as a movie, so it might be surprising to learn that Pesci's win was the only Oscar awarded to this movie. In the big categories, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Editing, Goodfellas lost to Dances With Wolves, a movie I haven't seen, but which I understand to be less highly regarded these days. A possible explanation, though, and something I also only just realized with this rewatch: this was the same year that The Godfather Part III was released, another movie that I would consider to have less staying power than Goodfellas. Still, I wonder if it caused some split votes, giving the advantage to Dances With Wolves
• And I think I'm going to leave it there, even though there's still more that could and should be praised! The soundtrack, the editing, the long and intricate tracking shots like Henry and Karen going through the back door of the Copacabana. It's all so good and it's all so influential, and endlessly rewatchable, and it's partly this rewatchability that puts Goodfellas in my top ten movies of all time

MINI REVIEW: CASINO (1995)

Well, gang, if you liked Goodfellas, there's a very good chance you'll like Casino as well. Scorsese, De Niro, Pesci; a sprawling story of crime based on real-life events; even co-written by Nicholas Pileggi, who co-wrote not just Goodfellas but also the book it was based on. However, while I can't really blame them for sticking with what works, there is a familiarity to Casino that forces us to compare it directly to Goodfellas, and that leads me to consider it the lesser of the two, even if only slightly. De Niro's good in the leading role, and Pesci's playing a nearly identical character, just with a different accent. Sharon Stone got an Oscar nomination (the only nomination Casino received), and I thought it was a very nice touch to cast several stand-up comedians who would have performed at the Vegas casinos in their heydays, including Alan King, Dick Smothers, and, especially, Don Rickles. Like I said, if you enjoyed Goodfellas, I definitely do also recommend Casino. It's just not quite on par (and I honestly think Liotta's narration in Goodfellas is better than De Niro's or Pesci's in Casino).

Up next: It will almost certainly be Dustin Hoffman's last appearance in these reviews, Marathon Man from 1976

#51: RAGING BULL (1980)

THRILL SCALE 1-10

6.5

HAVE I SEEN IT BEFORE?

Yes, once, around 2009

BEST SEQUENCE

When Jake's jealousy and paranoia completely consume him, more than we've ever seen before, and he takes it out on his wife and his brother in violent fashion. Harrowing to watch, but intensely gripping

BEST LINE

I don't typically shy away from swearing in these reviews, especially when quoting a movie, but I'd rather let Waiting for Guffman speak for me:

ROTTEN TOMATOES SCORE

92%

ROTTEN TOMATOES CRITICS CONSENSUS

"Arguably Martin Scorsese's and Robert De Niro's finest film, Raging Bull is often painful to watch, but it's a searing, powerful work about an unsympathetic hero."

IMDB SYNOPSIS

"The life of boxer Jake LaMotta, whose violence and temper that led him to the top in the ring destroyed his life outside of it."

DIRECTOR

Martin Scorsese

MAIN CAST

Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Cathy Moriarty

THOUGHTS

• Through no one's fault but my own it's been a long time since I posted my Rocky review, but I watched Rocky and Raging Bull fairly close together (with Creed in the middle) and it's a pretty interesting contrast. Rocky Balboa and Adonis Creed are true heroes in their movies, upstanding and honourable men who just happen to be quite talented in the violent and bloody sport of boxing. Jake LaMotta, on the other hand, is, frankly, a real piece of shit. He's not just brutally vicious inside of the ring but also outside of it in his personal life, and he's a jealous, cruel, selfish and spiteful man. This is made even more interesting by the fact that LaMotta was a real person and Rocky Balboa wasn't. Raging Bull was even based on LaMotta's own memoir, which must have been harshly honest about the type of man he was. A positive depiction, it is not
• There is a fair amount of boxing depicted in this movie, effectively shot with beautiful black and white cinematography. The rings look huge, and the stadiums look cavernous and black. But, again, the boxing isn't really the most important part. The boxing is more shown as something that LaMotta is naturally good at because of the type of person he is
• Raging Bull won De Niro his second Oscar after The Godfather Part II and, as of now, his last Oscar. It was also his fourth movie with Scorsese out of an eventual ten feature films. He really is very good in this, he fully inhabits the character, and it's one of the prime examples of De Niro physically inhabiting his characters as well. Not only did he train intensely to depict LaMotta at his prime, even fighting (and winning) several genuine boxing matches in Brooklyn, he also then put on roughly 60 pounds to depict LaMotta in his later, heavier years
• As good as De Niro is, though, the real soul of the movie is Pesci as LaMotta's brother Joey. Only his second movie, he goes toe-to-toe with De Niro in every scene (as an actor, anyway; his character receives a lot of abuse from LaMotta). Same with Cathy Moriarty as LaMotta's second wife Vikki, and both actors were deservedly nominated in the supporting Oscar categories
• Finally, this isn't the first time we've talked about Scorsese and De Niro working together (Cape Fear from 1991), and it won't be the last (Taxi Driver is the 22nd most thrilling movie on the AFI list). However, we still haven't touched on my favourite Scorsese/De Niro movie, and as a bonus we'll get to reunite them with Joe Pesci (and it's not The Irishman, even though I liked that movie a lot as well)

Up Next: I've been meaning to shoehorn this in at some point, and now seems like a pretty good time to do so while we're enjoying the Scorsese/De Niro/Pesci vibes. It's Goodfellas from 1990. But that's not all, we're also going to talk about the next movie the three of them collaborated on, Casino from 1995 (possibly in a separate review, but I'm probably just going to talk about both movies at the same time)