Goodfellas (1990) is another famous Scorsese movie, amounting to 44 wins from 1990-2011. In 2011 it won the Felix Awards at the 20/20 Awards for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor, Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Film Editing, and Best Cinematography. Goodfellas was nominated for six Oscars and won one: Best Picture (Irwin Winkler), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Lorraine Bracco), Best Director (Martin Scorsese), Best Writing-Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium (Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese), Best Film Editing (Thelma Schoonmaker), and Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Joe Pesci) which it won. Directed by the New York University English Literature and Tisch alum, Martin Scorsese, Goodfellas is a film adaptation of the 1985 nonfiction book Wiseguy written by Nicholas Pileggi. Scorsese was drawn to the documentary aspect of Pileggi's book, not following one storyline but choosing to showcase the day-to-day workings of the Italian mob. The movie holds strong at its 18th position on the IMDb Top 250 Films list.
The movie follows the story of Henry Hill and his life in the mob, covering his relationship with his wife Karen Hill and his mob partners Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito in the Italian-American crime syndicate in a documentary-esque format. Ray Liotta plays the protagonist, Henry Hill, with the supporting characters played by Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, and Paul Sorvino. Goodfellas was Bracco's breakthrough film role after being in the modeling agency. The movie was shot in Queens, New York state, New Jersey, and parts of Long Island during the spring and summer of 1989, with a modest budget of $25 million. The gang members are rarely fussy with mess and other things; however, whenever food is mentioned, they become Michelin-star chefs. How does the juxtaposition between violence and food affect the film's tone and the story's direction?
Goodfellas has the hilarious juxtapositions I've ever seen in a movie. The mobsters, known for their blunt force, intimidation, and brutality, are fussy in the kitchen. One of the first brutal scenes is when Tommy and Jimmy bludgeon Billy Batts to death after insulting Tommy at the bar. Blood-covered Tommy goes home and enjoys a home-cooked meal of what looks like Italian sausages and meatballs with bread and wine. Tommy's mother shows Jimmy and Henry a painting she made of a man and two dogs when Jimmy laughs and says it looks like someone they know. Tommy agrees and laughs maniacally while the camera pans to the car's boot, where they hid a (supposedly dead) Billy's body. Six months later, Jimmy tells Henry that he needs to dig up Billy's body because he wants to build a condominium there. The cinematography in the next scene (where Tommy, Jimmy, and Henry dig up the body) is stunning. It's like they're on the top of a desert dune with the red sun hanging above them when in reality, they're in a forest with the red brake lights lighting up their view. Henry is heaving over the smell of decomposing Billy Batts, while Tommy is annoyingly telling him to hurry up because his mother "is going to make some fresh peppers and sausage for us." Jimmy then shows Henry a limp arm and a leg, while Tommy adds, "look, here's a wing," comparing the dead body to a chicken. Pretty psychotic.
After Henry, Paulie, Vinnie, and Johnny go to prison, we see that they're living life over there. They have their apartment separate from the other prisoners, they get fresh food daily (lobsters, fish, steaks, bread, cheese, and wine), and they get to cook their food. Their status as mafia members affords them a cushier lifestyle. The central elements of their incarceration are their food preparation and enjoyment of a shared meal. As Henry puts it, jail for them is "not that bad." They have the luxury of pairing their food with the choice of red wine, white wine, and scotch. My favorite part of this whole scene is when Henry unpacks the groceries and shows Paulie the alcohol, and he comments, "well, great, now we can eat!"
Lastly, on the day of Henry's arrest, he's running around town trying to get a drug dealer off the ground while also juggling the preparation of an Italian family dinner. He puts his brother, Michael, in charge of his famous sauce and maintains an overscrupulous concern about how it will turn out. Henry runs between his house, his girlfriend's house, and other places around town to ensure that the drug deal goes smoothly. All while HAF on cocaine. The cocaine he's trying to sell. If he wasn't so high, he might have gotten away from the police, and his drug deal would've been smooth sailing. That wasn't the case. The film ends with Henry in the Witness Protection Program, safe from the mobsters who want to kill him. He complains the whole time about his conditions, famously that he "can't even get decent food." It makes you wonder if he wishes he never went to the FBI in the first place.
The movie expertly juxtaposes the hardships of the characters with food preparation. Scorsese pairs the two perfectly. Cooking can be very hectic and meticulous but sloppy if not done right, much like the doings of the Mafia. You have to do everything correctly to have a good life there, or it all goes to crap. Fun fact, Vinny and Tommy's mother are Scorsese's real-life parents! They often visited Scorsese's sets and sometimes helped with production, but this was the first time they ever starred in one of his films. I thought it was pretty neat. Also, does anyone else think that Ray Liotta looks a bit like Chris Pine and Joaquin Phoenix?
Yorumlar