Goodfellas was the first movie that I saw as a teenager. I had seen other films like Bertolucci's Last Tango in Paris, but I didn't understand it then. Now, years later after reading the script and watching it twice, I understood the basic plot of the film. Goodfellas hit me like a rock. I had just gotten into high school. It was sophomore year. The high school I went to had two feeder middle schools from different parts of the small city I lived in. One part of the feed came from the West side and the Southwest side. The other came from the East side and Southeast side. This stayed divided in High school. The East Side stayed with the East side and the West side stayed with the West side. Over the years I've thought about both sides of town. How they are different, how they don't get along, and how they come together. Anyway, I fell in with a crowd that was East Side and Southeast side. My friend, who was also the pitcher on our City Championship winning Greenman league baseball team had a VHS copy of Goodfellas. He also had a copy of the Rolling Stones Exile on Main St. My friend never did good in school, but he had pretty good taste in film and music. We watched Goodfellas I don't know how many times. 5, 6, 7, and plenty of scene studies. I just wanted to watch one part, just one scene. I was particularly taken by the scene with DeNiro smoking a cigarette thinking about how he was going to kill Morry. He smoked, and thought, the Cream song In the Sunshine of Your Love played over his murderous intent.
I thought the film was great. Now watching it again years later it still has the same effect. Only I recognize things. I watched some clips of the film on youtube, Just one scene. Like where he is driving and almost crashes. Just great. When Henry gets busted for dealing coke, just great. So much visual and aural poetry. The music, the visual scenes, and of course the story make it truly Scorsese's underappreciated masterpiece. I know it has a cult following but it was not lauded with awards. Scorsese didn't win the Oscar for best director. Something that alluded him until the Departed. It's too bad. What were the other films that year? 1989? I don't know. Surely he got a nom. Didn't he?
There were other things that I noticed when watching the film after so many years. That most of the first hour is told in flashback. That fateful day when Joe Pesci murders a made man proves the crew's undoing. Years ago I never realized that it was in flashback. until 1980 when the film plays in real time. I also assumed that Paulie was the Godfather. When I watched it again I realized that he wasn't the Godfather. He was a boss, but not the chief. It occurred to me when he was pressing Henry about the whereabouts of Billy Batts.
Like most mafia films Goodfellas ends badly. Everyone gets whacked or sent to prison. I remember when Henry Hill died. Some years ago it was a newsclip on msn.com or something. It was before facebook and all that. I wonder whatever happened to Jimmy Conway? Did he ever get out of prison?
Goodfellas is a great film. Especially with it's changing of perspective. Often films only have one perspecitve that of the main character. Goodfellas has many narrative voices, not just Henry's but his wife, too. The changing in perspective is another thing I noticed about the film this time around. Again a great film.
Martine Scorsese's influence on film can't be underestimated. He's made many films. And his voice resonates in my mind about film history from his documentaries and scenes from his narrative films inform my education about film. It's too bad I didn't go to NYU Film school. Then, perhaps, I could have studied under him and been a Scorsese disciple. I've seen his films many times and look forward to watching more films with Scorsese as director. Can't wait for the next one!
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