GOODFELLAS (1990) (****)

In 1972, Francis Ford Coppola perfected the gangster genre with THE GODFATHER. Martin Scorsese twisted that image in MEAN STREETS a year later. When Scorsese would return to the gangster genre in 1990 with GOODFELLAS, he showed us the wealth of stories that could be told in the genre. THE GODFATHER was epic, while GOODFELLAS was personal and dirty. It showed the glamour and the brutality of the lifestyle like it had never been seen before.

Based on Nicholas Pileggi's true crime novel WISEGUY, the story follows Henry Hill from when he was kid. He started parking cars for the neighborhood gangsters where he earned respect. He became drunk with their influence and power. Ray Liotta's performance as the young adult Hill is intense. He's a smart hustler who knows how the game is played. He makes a lot of money for the boss Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino, DICK TRACY). His close friends are the paranoid Jimmy Conway (Robert DeNiro, RAGING BULL) and the loose canon Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci, CASINO).

Scorsese's use of voice over is remarkable. Hill narrates large portions of the film so we understand the world and the pull it has on him. But Scorsese, who wrote the script with Pileggi, knows when to tell and when to simply show. When Hill's future wife Karen (Lorraine Bracco, TV's THE SOPRANOS) is introduced to the world, she narrates her own take on the gangster life. She's turned on by the violence and how Henry will avenge her honor, but she doesn't quite know what she is getting herself into.

The fast life eventually catches up with them and once Hill gets into drugs, we see his inevitable fall. He starts cheating on Karen, who becomes paranoid and jealous. She starts making a scene, which brings unwanted attention to the operations of Cicero. In these scenes of confusion and desperation, Bracco excels, making her Oscar nomination well deserved. Early on, Henry tells Karen that no guy goes to jail as long as he has his act together. The drugs make Henry loose his act. His slide down to the bottom isn't one event, but a series of events that dig him a deeper and deeper grave.

DeNiro and Pesci are remarkable in their supporting roles. DeNiro's Jimmy develops from mob muscle into a calculating businessman over time. But the more legit looking his businesses get, the more paranoid he gets that his number is up. He doesn't put up with even the most minor of mistakes in his crew. Pesci, in an Oscar winning performance, can go off at any moment. Even the smallest element of disrespect toward him could end in murder. He enjoys messing with people. He defines the Napoleon Complex and that's why he is a classic character that no one forgets.

Scorsese's use of the moving camera should be a lesson to anyone interested in how films work. He knows the effect of the moving camera and how it can build anticipation or tension. Take for instance the much-copied scene when Henry takes Karen to the nightclub and they skip by the line and Henry is greeted by everyone like he's a king. Cut up, it wouldn't have the same effect. Karen is dazzled and overwhelmed by everything that is happening all at once and so is the audience. Scorsese uses film techniques to create empathy. In turn, Scorsese knows when to cut too. With his longtime editor Thelma Schoonmaker, who was also nominated for an Oscar for her work here, the long day sequence toward the end is quickly paced, capturing the chaotic mind frame the drug addled Henry is in. Once again, Scorsese used technique in service of the story, not just to show off.

Scorsese finds great irony in the ending of Hill's story. It's a different kind than the dark irony at the end of THE GODFATHER. Henry Hill looses everything he's ever wanted much like Michael Corleone, but there isn't any sense of glamour in the way Hill's life turns out. Michael looses his soul, but ends on top. Hill would make a deal with the devil to have what Michael gets. But I guess Hill did make a deal with the devil and the devil always cheats.