Goodfellas

I'm glad that I had watched GOODFELLAS before Tarantino's Reservoir Dogs on Sunday because I think Scorsese's film really set the standard for the depiction of violent mafioso, their acts presented in unflinching, and very stylish, detail.

Just the scene where a trunk door opens and we see three criminals looking over a body, shot from a lower angle to establish the point of view from the victim towards his killers, it instantly recalls Reservoir Dogs in regards to the way men look down at us, in total control, the victim doomed.

I was quite staggered(this is only my second viewing of the film)at the potency of the opening as Pesci stabs a victim multiple times with a kitchen knife. It's really does set the tone. I think right away, you'll get a clear impression of Pesci's gangster, his psychotic tendancies(later elaborated when he shoots a kid bringing drinks to the gang playing poker because the young man tells him to go fuck himself)and explosive temper if someone hits the wrong nerve. The famous "funny guy" scene with Pesci ultimately provokes the feeling of dread in that one doesn't quite know how to approach him, delicately if you are not a close associate of his.



I was just blown away by the long takes as the camera follows Liotta into a mob's hangout as his narration introduces us to the many members of this exclusive fraternity..but, the camera following Liotta and Bracco into the back way of the club as he is saying hello to the cooks, gangsters, and other folks, establishing the character's reputation among the criminal underworld and how he's recognized among his peers, is nothing short of magnificent.

And, the rapid-fire final half, as Liotta has become immersed in a coke-fueled lifestyle, having hooked himself while participating in dope dealing as a means to satiate the appetite for all the fine things, is quite an editing masterwork. To be able to illustrate the absurd complications Liotta had created for himself through editing(and a dizzying pace where the narration speeds through a day in Liotta's life when he has a wheel-chair brother stirring a pasta sauce, having to take his babysitter drug trafficker to get her lucky hat, attending to his junkie lover who helps him cut the cope, her apartment a veritable coke den, and meeting with his suppliers to passage the drugs to Pittsburgh)is a work of pure genius by both Scorsese and his long-time collaberator, Thelma Schoonmaker.

I was also amused at how gangsters juggled their girlfriends and married life, it seemed rather a pain to orchestrate such relations, but Liotta somehow does so..for a while, although his wife isn't no dummy. The idea of having Loraine Bracco co-narrate is an interesting touch..you know two points of view regarding the mob life, two different angles. Bracco is our opposite viewpoint of the mob lifestyle. She gives insight on the mob wives, their personalities and behavior.

The highs and lows, ups and downs, GOODFELLAS is quite the inside story on a lifestyle that provided criminals with lots of cash and power, but the mafia was bound to crumble at some point, particularly when drugs find their way into the mix.