Goodfellas (1990)
Cast: Robert DeNiro, Joe Pesci, Ray Liotta,Lorraine Braco, Paul Sorvino
Director: Martin Scorsese
"As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster."
With
this background narration from Henry Hill (while he is closing the
trunk lid to conceal a bloodied dying Billy Batts ) opens Martin
Scorsese's gangster classic Goodfellas, which is based on the true story
of Henry Hill's and his associates's rise and fall in the Luchesse
crime family in the period 1955-80.
Growing
up in a Bronx neighbourhood in 1950s the young Henry Hill always
admired gangsters (for me, being a gangster was bigger than being the
president of USA), who according to him lived the ideal life as it can
be. He soon quits school and joins the Luchesse crime family under the
guardianship of Paul Cicero aka Paulie (Paul Sorvino) , where he rises
quickly doing things like distributing the "cuts" to the people that
matter from policemen to union leaders and collecting protection money.
He meets a very influntial part of the gang Jimmy Conway (Robert DeNiro)
whose main work is hijacking cargo trucks and both quickly take liking
to each other. Henry learns the biggest rule of a crime life from Jimmy
when he is paroled after being arrested - "Never rat on your friends and
always keep your mouth shut". Henry earns the respect of all the gang
members as he didnt give them away and his road to big riches is opened.
In
the 60s, a now adult Henry(Ray Liotta) alongwith Tommy Vito (Joe
Pesci),an increasingly psychopathic gangster and Jimmy, make a
formidable trio to spread the gang's influence.But both Jimmy and Henry
know that they dont have any chance of rising up the ranks of the crime
family as they arent Italians.Henry,Tommy and others hang around with
numerous women in nightclubs in an intimidating manner (If we wanted
something, we just took it. If anyone complained twice they got hit so
bad, believe me, they never complained again.) In a tragicomic twist,
the owner of a nightclub who is sick of Tommy's armtwisting ranging from
non payments of dues to physical assault, begs Paulie to become a
partner, hoping that this would save him. Paulie instead takes an
unreasonable share in everything and bleeds the place dry leaving the
owner with no other option but to burn the whole place down (ironically
with Henry and Tommy doing the honours) in order to collect the
insurance money.
In
1967, Henry successfully carries out the Air France
Robbery with Tommy , thereby making his entry into bigtime crime. Henry
attracts the attention of and later marries a neighbourhood Jewish girl
Karen (Lorraine Bracco) who is bowled over by his glamourous lifestyle.
She accepts her husband's crime filled life, which includes socializing
solely with his gangster collegues to his long abscences and
occasional police searches at their residence, mostly because it is
giving her an opulent living.
In
1970, Tommy's overtly violent behaviour causes mayhem when he brutally
beats Billy Batts (Frank Vincent) for insulting his poor origins,
Jimmy too taking part in the assault. They are clearly in trouble as
Batts is a "made man" in the Gambino crime family and the three could be
killed for laying their hands on him. They decide to get rid of him,
stopping midway to finish off the half alive Batts (the first scene of
the film) and then burying the corpse in the outskirts of the city, even
stopping to have a meal in Tommy's house en route . A few months later,
they are forced to exhume and rebury the decomposed corpse elsewhere as
they come to know that excavation will be carried out in the land due
to a new construction project.
Like
others in the gang, Henry too is two timing his wife (Friday was for
the girlfriends, Saturday for the wives) and soon takes a mistress. In a
memorable scene when Karen pulls a gun on him, he overpowers her and
tells her that he has bigger worries than her, like getting killed on
the street. Paulie meets him and orders him to go back to Karen, and
sends him with Jimmy to recover money from a defaulting borrower, who
they beat up pretty badly. Unfortunately, the defaulter's sister happens
to be a typist in the FBI, and she turns over the entire gang (her
brother included) to the police. In prison, the gangsters have a
luxurious life, thanks to their police connections, but still it is
Henry, who gets the longest sentence. In order to make his and his
family's ends meet, he resorts to drug running from jail.
Upon
release from prison in 1978,he continues his cocaine trading which he
had started in jail, much to the disapproval of Paulie who sternly warns
him to stop it immediately. He not only ignores this warning, but ropes
in Jimmy and Tommy and various other people, including Karen, his
daughters babysitter and a new drug addict girlfriend.
The
same year, Henry along with Tommy, Jimmy and several crew, carries out
the Lufthansa heist in JFK airport , which is the biggest hijacking of
goods in US history.However, some gang members start spending the
proceeds from the heist immediately, buying expensive things that put
them in the spotlight . Jimmy, in chilling cold bloodedness has
them murdered along with their family and later on,also has one by one
all the other participants of the heist murdered, their corpses turning
up in different parts of the city for months.He also has the businessman
who had given them the inside info to set up the heist, killed in order
to avoid paying what he owes him. Henry understands that its Jimmy who
has all the cash from the heist, and he is merely eliminating the
partners to have it all to himself. But he cannot do anything.
Then
one day, Tommy is lured by promises to make him a "made man" and
killed, by his own gang members as a revenge for the murder of Billy
Batts eight years ago, in order to make peace with the Gambinos.
By
1980, Henry is a cocaine addicted wreck, sustaining himself solely by
drug running, due to which he has alienated Paulie and the others. He is
on the constant surveillance of the FBI , who finally tail him an
entire and arrest him. During his absence, his house is also raided, and
Karen in order to evade arrest and conviction flushes down the entire
cocaine stash, thereby rendering themselves virtually penniless.
Jimmy
goes to Paulie for help, who being angry with him due to his drug
operations, pays him $3200 and ends all association with him (3200
bucks. Thats all I got, for a lifetime. Not enough even to buy myself a
coffin). He gets a final shock when he realizes that Jimmy intends to
have him killed, by setting him up in a hit, in order to erase the last
link between him and the Lufthansa heist.
With
no other way to save himself and his family, Henry agrees to become an
FBI informant under the witness protection plan. As a result of his
collaboration and his testimony, Paulie, Jimmy and all the major members
of the gang are arrested and sentenced to long terms in prison without
parole. Henry himself gets a sentence which is further reduced due to
his collaboration.
The
last shot of the film shows a very vulnerable looking Henry Hill ,now
divorced, who in a final voice over says that the good times are over
and that he is penniless just like the average working people that he
used to ridicule (I'm an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my
life like a schmuck). The closing credits show his fate and that of all
the others in the gang , being put away for life.
The
film is based on the novel Wiseguys, based on Henry Hill's account and
Scorsese maintains the film as close to reality, keeping a good pace,
with a background narration done by Henry and in some places, Karen. The
surnames of the major characters except Hill were changed and artistic
liberty was taken for a few events. In no scene does it glorify the
organized crime that is being portrayed onscreen and it shows gangsters
as what they really are, vermin beneath the shining suits and opulent
lifestyle. It perfectly shows, with the example of Henry, that crime
never pays and nothing lasts which is earned from it. It gives this
message very subtlely, without any preaching or moral dialogues, instead
leaving the viewer to figure this out himself as the film goes along.
Ray
Liotta portrays Henry efficiently, right from the background narration
to his transition from a brash gangster to a sorry shadow of his former
self. He gets the maximum screen time and justifies it fully. This sadly
remained his best performance which he could not better in his
subsequent films. Ditto for Lorraine Bracco. The real Henry Hill met
Liotta and told him that he loved the film. Robert DeNiro very
beautifully portrays the cunning and vicious Jimmy Conway who is a
friend one instant and a killer the next, his screen time is shorter
than usual but just as effective. But the performance that stands out is
Joe Pesci as the psychopathic Tommy Vito who is crazy and vicious at
the same time. He's played Tommy to perfection (for which he won the
best supporting actor oscar) as the one who jokingly intimidates
Henry or the one who calmly shoots a waiter just because he is late in
bringing him his drink.
Oscars
again snubbed this great work and Martin Scorsese and its only Joe
Pesci who got his due here. However, it rightly was a big commercial and
critical success and will always remain a favourite for any avid film
viewer. A must watch, for great story, acting and filmmaking.
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