goodfellas (1990)

as i will be looking at goodfellas on a larger scale in a few weeks im not going to say too much about the film at this point, but will admit that going into this screening the film was a long time favourite.

goodfellas has one quality in abundance that is severely lacking from many of the films that it is often compared to. it is incredibly watchable. i cannot think of a single film in my life that i have seen as many times as scorsese's understated epic, nor can i think of many that are as downright enjoyable. from the pitch perfect voice-over (something im not usually a big fan of), to the pitch perfect soundtrack, goodfellas marks the pinnacle of martin scorsese's cinematic achievements.

the story of wiseguy henry hill (ray liotta), and his rise to notoriety, goodfellas is a truly epic story, which somehow conveys it in an intimate manner, in keeping with the close-cut nature of the "family" that hill is so proud to be a part of. while the tale is grand, the telling of it isnt, its close knit and specificly focussed, therefore thematically matching the backbone of the film. jimmy conway (robert de niro), hill's surrogate father figure of sorts, lends a level of cinematic authenticity that gives the film the draw it needs in terms of tying itself to the crime-drama genre, with joe pesci, in the films only academy award winning performance lends terrifying believability to the role of tommy deniro, hill's brother-in-arms.

for me it is the films sense of style that holds it above its contemporaries and fellow gangster-flicks; its use of freeze frame and close ups being among the finest examples of such behaviour. its apt that goodfellas came out in the first year of the 1990's, prior to the use of such techniques becoming overtly commonplace, as it maintains an air of authenticity somewhat lacking in much of the 1990's mtv-cut cinema. the key use of the freeze frame comes for this viewer at the point where hill tells of the respect his mother received from local kids, due to his connections. the accompanying shot, of hill destroying a fleet of cars via force of explosion not only contradicts the nature of his converse, showing faults within his character that will become more than apparent later on in the film, but aesthetically the frozen frame attaches it so well to the words that it spins the story into something more than simple boasting. its the same with the use of close-ups; there's a particular moment whereby hill's wife karen holds a gun to his sleeping head. the way in which the key details of the gun are focussed upon, piece by piece, at a pace that is forthright but leisurely spells out the tone of the film in that one scene. its very assured filmmaking.