DRAY'S MOVIE SUMMARY/REVIEW

Movie: Goodfellas
Year: 1990
Director: Martin Scorsese

I watched this movie maybe 4 times now, and the reason why I watched this movie last night on my PC was not just because I LOVE it, but because after watching Do The Right Thing, I really was interested with the whole New York Italian scene… New York Italian movies are actually on the top of my ‘favourite movie’ list, because of the explicit violence, crime, dark humour, and their accent. (“Fuggedaboutit!”)

This is such a coincidence, because our next film to study is Raging Bull, an earlier Martin Scorsese film, which was released exactly 10 years before Goodfellas (Raging Bull was released in 1980). As you can see from the movie poster, Martin Scorsese loves using the same actors in his films… So hopefully you can recognise Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci!! (If you attended the Cinema class today you should definitely recognise them… Btw please post up what you thought so far of the film, probably after Easter break).

Ok so, I’ll begin with my analysis of Goodfellas.

Goodfellas is a true story, which basically reveals what it’s like living a day-to-day life as a member of the Mafia. Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) plays the protagonist of the film, where we first witness his childhood and slowly witness the later parts of his life. The plot also revolves around his two unstable friends- Tommy Devito (Joe Pesci), a real brutal gangster who also happens to be Henry’s best friend, and Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro), who is a master criminal that is famous for his high level of burglaries and hijacks. The three of these characters are seen from climbing the ladder to success and luxury, to falling down to violence and drug-use.

Tommy, Henry and Jimmy














Jimmy strangling a dude

Ok so the reason I really really love this movie is because it’s a Scorsese film. He is an amazing director, all of his shots are perfect, the music, the dialogue (New York Italian way of speaking), and of course the way he puts the story together. Scorsese loves making films about real life events, and then artistically shows them on film.

I’m a big fan of Mafia films, and this definitely is one of my favourites. I totally recommend you guys watch this movie if you liked Raging Bull, and Taxi Driver, which you will be watching in 2 weeks.