GoodFellas: Married to the Mob

In a world that’s powered by violence, on the streets where the violent have power, a new generation carries on an old tradition.

Making GoodFellas a horribly realistic film took its toll. Joe Pesci had qualms about playing such an evil character as Tommy DeVito and Lorraine Bracco thought of her character as an abused woman in order to grasp how to play her. In the end, director Martin Scorsese was forced to cut several of his bloodiest scenes. But he did achieve that feeling of authenticity, not least by letting the actors research their parts thoroughly and then allow them to ad-lib during rehearsals, writing their best work into the script. It was a difficult shoot, but the end result became one of the director’s finest films.

The story is based on reality and was originally researched by crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi who became interested in the tale of how an FBI informant began his mob career. As a teenager during the 1950’s, Henry Hill started running errands in Brooklyn for a local capo called Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino), eventually getting acquainted with his henchmen, including the clever and careful Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) and the violent, psychotic Tommy DeVito (Pesci). In this mob family, Henry finds everything he’s been looking for, including respect and money. The life of a gangster is glamorous (except for those times when you’re digging a hole in the middle of nowhere to bury some guy you’ve killed), and Henry loves it. He dates a woman whom he eventually marries, Karen (Bracco), and she’s willing to put up with being the wife of a mobster. As the years go by, Henry and his compadres do time but also make money, not least from a heist at JFK Airport. But their lives slowly deteriorate. A hit on a fellow mobster who was a part of the Gambino family comes back to haunt them and Henry’s new engagement in the world of drugs dooms him and Karen, starting the chain of events that force Henry to stand up in court and identify his former friends as members of the Mafia.

It isn’t a very likeable character that Ray Liotta is playing; even when Henry Hill goes into the FBI Witness Protection Program he can’t help but feel sorry for not being a mobster anymore, in spite of all the horrible things he’s done. Still, Mr. Liotta does a great job of making us interested in this rather unscrupulous character and his career; the film became his breakthrough. The same is true for both Ms. Bracco (very strong as Karen who is turned on by the life of crime but still can’t accept the ultimate consequences of being married to Henry) and Mr. Pesci who is unbelievably dynamic as Tommy, a temperamental gangster in the style of James Caan’s portrayal of Sonny Corleone in The Godfather (1972). The director knows how to convey the emotions of belonging to a crime family. He shows us how tempting it is for a kid to get involved with these “fun-loving” people; they find a home, a place where bonds are tied and where there’s never a shortage of money. Mr. Scorsese cleverly contrasts those positive sides with the negative ones; the violence is shocking and grotesque. It is a long but well paced film, funny and horrifying.

Mr. Scorsese was attracted to the movie because of Mr. Pileggi’s credible depiction of what life as a gangster looked like. Fans of The Sopranos will recognize many familiar actors from that show here; both these works of art have been lauded for giving us insight into the warped life of mobsters and how they function. It isn’t pretty… but it is nevertheless eerily absorbing.

The YouTube clip shows the trailer.

GoodFellas 1990-U.S. 145 min. Color. Produced by Irwin Winkler. Directed by Martin Scorsese. Screenplay: Martin Scorsese, Nicholas Pileggi. Novel: Nicholas Pileggi (“Wiseguy”). Cinematography: Michael Ballhaus. Editing: Thelma Schoonmaker. Cast: Robert De Niro (Jimmy Conway), Ray Liotta (Henry Hill), Joe Pesci (Tommy DeVito), Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino, Frank Sivero… Samuel L. Jackson, Henny Youngman, Michael Imperioli, Illeana Douglas.

Trivia: Mr. Scorsese’s mother Catherine plays Mr. Pesci’s mom. Al Pacino was allegedly considered for the part of Jimmy Conway. The story about Henry Hill also inspired My Blue Heaven (1990).

Oscar: Best Supporting Actor (Pesci). BAFTA: Best Film, Direction, Adapted Screenplay, Editing, Costume Design. Venice: Best Director.

film movies robert de niro lorraine bracco martin scorsese ray liotta michael imperioli IMDb

Published 24 April 2008

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Remember This?

“There was a demon that lived in the air. They said whoever challenged him would die. Their controls would freeze up, their planes would buffet wildly, and they would disintegrate. The demon lived at Mach 1 on the meter, seven hundred and fifty miles an hour, where the air could no longer move out of the way. He lived behind a barrier through which they said no man could ever pass. They called it the sound barrier.”

Narrator (Levon Helm) (The Right Stuff, 1983)

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