GoodFellas

Despite the nearly 2.5 hr runtime, this movie did not feel that long. Scorsese does a great job keeping the movie going while having to tell the whole life story of Henry Hill. I feel like this movie could’ve been so much longer considering it’s a mobster movie, but I’m glad it wasn’t. Scorsese perfectly captures the dog-eat-dog nature of the mob world with how often someone gets “whacked” in the movie, and the movie doesn’t shy away from the visceral gore.   I love the choice of narration throughout the movie; it always reminds you that Henry Hill is a real person who did all these things and stuck around long enough to tell the tale. I also like how they shared Karen’s perspective with her having some narration as well. Made for a well-rounded story. The characters were so well-written and they were made all the more real by great acting from the whole cast. Especially Henry Hill and Karen’s characters. You really get the sense that they loved and hated each other at the same time and that their marriage was built on rocky soil.  It’s so symbolic at the end when Henry testifies in court against Paulie and Jimmy because it marked the end of the family’s criminal ways. And having Henry essentially break the two rules that he says at the beginning of the movie (1. Never rat anyone out and 2. Always keep your mouth shut) made it come full circle. Such a great movie, glad I got to watch it