GoodFellas
1990 · Directed by Martin Scorsese
Original language: English
- drama
- crime
The story
The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.
What it’s like
Restless, kinetic camerawork carries this crime film through decades of Brooklyn and Manhattan nightlife: long Steadicam tracking shots that wind through kitchens, back rooms and nightclub corridors, bursts of handheld urgency, freeze frames, and a soundtrack that jumps between doo-wop, Motown and rock like a jukebox played too loud. The palette is warm and saturated, all tungsten amber and red-velvet shadow, with sudden cold fluorescent flatness in prison and Florida sun bleaching the later scenes. Its vibe is brash, seductive and increasingly paranoid, a glamorous ride that curdles as the cost mounts. The tempo is fast and talky, with voiceover narration carrying you across years in a few breaths, and the emotional register swings from giddy camaraderie to sweaty dread. Violence is frequent and sometimes sudden: beatings, shootings and a graphic, drawn-out gore sequence, all of it harsh rather than stylised, along with heavy profanity, drug use and brief sexual content. It is not gentle viewing. It suits people who want a gritty, charismatic crime epic about ambition and self-destruction, and who can handle brutal moments without looking away.
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