Goodfellas (1990)
Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci
Synopsis:
Three wiseguys make their living in the mob, but their business eventually catches up to them.
Impressions:
Right up there with The Godfather, this is one of the quintessential mobster movies. While Scorsese himself attested that his goal was to present the story fairly neutrally so the audience could draw their own conclusions, it's been claimed that this film glamorizes mob life. While some punches were indeed pulled, this is a rather harsh story with characters who tear themselves apart with their many self-destructive behaviors. It certainly didn't make me think signing up would be a good idea. What the Godfather series does across three films, this movie does in one, showing how the mob progressed from the 50s to the 80s. There are strong performances all around, but the power trio stands out the most and Joe Pesci in particular will leave a deep impression as the highly volatile Tommy DeVito. I'm certainly not the only one of my generation to be rather familiar with the Goodfeathers parody from Animaniacs. How they would pick this of all movies to lampoon in a children's cartoon boggles the mind. It's an often brutal film but finely crafted and definitely worth seeing.
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