Classic Movie Review: "Goodfellas" (1990)

Minor spoilers contained within this review. But I don't care - you should've seen this movie at least once by now.

I have rewatched this film a few times over the years and with each watch I honestly start to think more and more about how well-acted it is. A Martin Scorsese movie, a cast of A-list actors, a top-tier story and some really memorable scenes, there is no reason why this film should not be on everyone's top films list. And if it is not on yours, then please continue on to a different article because we cannot be friends.

I remember being sixteen years' old and it was already some time after I had watched the film for the first time - I was in a bookstore and I managed to get a copy of the script (though, I cannot remember the name of the actual bookstore). It was very clearly a second-hand copy and had been completed with someone's annotations but, reading the script would actually change how I watched this movie then on. That's not only because everyone in the movie spoke too fast and used too much slang that I didn't understand either. It was actually because upon every watch afterwards, I would always argue that the best feature of this film would always be its phenomenal script.

You cannot argue with the fact that no movie in history does narration quite like this one. From the very beginning of the movie you are sucked in to the world of the movie and the narration is a brilliant gateway to it. With each turn the narration takes, whether its by the movie's protagonist or whether it is his wife - the narration shapes the movie and all the emotions that the audience feels towards it. The switch in opinion and empathy that you feel for Henry when the narration goes from him to his wife is just incredible. I have yet to see another movie do that with narration.

The fact that the dialogue basically foreshadows what is about to happen, especially regarding Tommy's death is absolutely brilliant. The speech about how Tommy is going to get 'chosen' sets up this brilliant tension where the audience already knows he is about to be killed. The more the characters talk about Tommy being 'chosen', the more the viewer knows what is about to happen and that is purely because of the way the rest of the movie has unfolded.

My favourite scene personally in the whole movie is when Tommy shoots Spider. It is a perfect representation of the kind of unhinged anger that is related to Tommy's character. In all actuality, nobody could have played this level of neuroticism as well as Joe Pesci. I mean, have you scene him as Dave in Oliver Stone's JFK (1991)? That is the same level of madness and it is absolutely brilliant. It changes and shifts the entire pace of the movie and for that split second, stuns the other characters into absolute silence. Silences are a big part of what makes this movie absolutely awesome. They too, are a part of the amazing scripting that went on to create this film.

I was admittedly rewatching this film recently and it brought back some really great memories. Many of the conversations that my older brother and I have had have been in quotations from this movie worked into our speech. I think that the cultural importance of this film is something that everyone knows about and it has since been referenced by many other media outlets - including the famous Simpsons TV show. But honestly, I do not think enough attention is given to how good the script really is in creating and reducing empathy and opinions just by shifting who says what and when.

I love rewatching this movie with the copy of the script that I have as well because you really get a feel of how things are being said - you get to look at speech patterns and how they change over the course of the movie. For example: you can see Henry's speech almost echoing Jimmy's at some points and then, as they start to pull apart, they don't anymore.