RPM GoodFellas Movie Review

Martin Scorsese, known for his vulgar and violent direction delivered one of his best films to date in 1990 with GoodFellas. A film based off of the book WiseGuys, it follows the true story of the life of Henry Hill. Henry grew up poor, and his life dream since the age 13 was to become a gangster, so at age 13 he began working under Pauly Varrio, a made man in the Lucchesse crime family. Fast forward 8 years, Henry (now played by Ray Liotta) is 21 and in the middle of crime. Jimmy (Robert De Niro) and Tommy (Joe Pesci) are men not to be messed with, they do what they want, when they want. All working under Pauly, these men are mobsters, and do illegal airport robberies, fix basketball games, and rob banks to stay at the top of the world. Things for the three men are great until a made man is killed brutally by Tommy and Jimmy. People go to jail, and Henry begins messing with drugs. Henry realizes that the mobster life might be more than he can handle. GoodFellas goes through thirty years of Henry’s life in the mob. It is vulgar, violent, and extremely entertaining. One of my all time favorites, GoodFellas has dialogue that keeps viewers wondering what crazy thing will happen next. And the acting is phenomenal. Robert De Niro delivers perfects lines as Jimmy, and Joe Pesci scares the audience with his reckless behavior. The first scene sets the tone for the rest of the film. (Describing that scene would spoil.) The soundtrack of the movie was great. Not having a main score the film relied on songs from the 50s, 60s and 70s like: “Rags to Riches” and “Baby I Love You.” Martin Scorsese as a filmmaker was already on the map as one of the best in the business from movies like Taxi Driver and Raging Bull. However, GoodFellas really made his violent persona grow even more. This film also helped him cast his 1995 hit Casino with a new relationship with Joe Pesci. GoodFellas was nominated for 6 Oscars and sadly only won one. Joe Pesci won the Oscar for best actor in a supporting role. GoodFellas in my opinion should have won best picture of 1990. It is still considered the third best Mafia film in American Film history behind The Godfather Part 1, and Part 2. Without GoodFellas, Scorsese wouldn’t have dipped his toes into Mafia films, after GoodFellas he began making films about crime. And because of this movie that is what he is known for now. In conclusion, GoodFellas is one of the best movies in American Film history, and will be forever, it was the best movie from 1990 in my opinion, and the story and acting make it a Mafia/Crime classic and masterpiece. 

iMDb users give GoodFellas a 8.7 out of 10, and a metascore of 89. This is extremely high and makes GoodFellas the third highest rated mafia film on iMDb (behind The Godfather: Part I, and Part II.)

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099685/?ref_=nv_sr_1