GoodFellas
“As far back as I remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”
It is my birthday today and I watched Goodfellas for the first time with my dad. Right after, I realised that it is also Robert de Niro’s birthday, and that I share a birthday with him, which is a funny coincidence.
The actual movie was incredible though. The story centres around Henry Hill as he grows up into a life of crime and becomes increasingly more involved with the mob. That is just an extremely compacted synopsis of the story, as I don’t want to just repeat the storyline in text form, as I don’t think I could do it justice, and with the amount of time covered during the runtime, I would definitely miss out key moments too. With that being said, the runtime absolutely flies by. The pacing and editing are both masterful and the story has some of the most interesting and engaging characters to watch that I’ve ever seen.
Speaking of the characters, the cast for this film really bring the whole movie to life. Similar to Mean Streets, the performances, especially by Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci and Robert de Niro, all complement each other so well, making the characters feel so visceral and realistic. The soundtrack is also amazing, as is pretty much everything else about this movie. My new favourite Scorsese film and honestly just one of the greatest films I’ve ever seen. Cannot wait to rewatch this when I get around to it again.