Plot: What’s it about?
As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.”
In the fledgling days of the DVD format, Martin Scorsese’s “GoodFellas” was one of the initial releases by Warner Brothers. The disc contained a couple of theatrical trailers, was spread across both sides of the disc and sported a non-amaorphic, grainy transfer. Thank God those days are gone. As it is, “GoodFellas” ranks as my personal second favorite movie of all-time (just behind “Caddyshack”). It’s been honored with just about every award out there except perhaps the one is so rightfully deserved, Best Picture. Losing out to “Dances with Wolves” (a great movie too, but not nearly as good as this), we’re still wondering when Martin Scorsese will pick up that Best Director statue. The movie, with its graphic violence and foul language, polarized audiences when it burst on the scene in late 1990. It reunited the DeNiro/Pesci team from “Raging Bull” and gave newcomer Ray Liotta the role that made him a star. People think movies about the mafia are all the same and it’s natural to assume that this and “The Godfather” are essentially the same movie. People, of course, are wrong. “GoodFellas” is the anti-Godfather, it’s tells the story from the street hood’s level whereas Don Corleone lived in a mansion. Scorcese, together with Nicholas Pileggi (who wrote the book this movie was based on – “Wiseguy”) penned the script and made movie history.
“GoodFellas” tells the true life story of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta). Raised in a poor Irish neighborhood, Henry idolizes the glamorous lifestyle of the gangsters at the taxi stand. He’s soon “adopted” by Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino) and emerges as a trusted insider in the Cicero family. He grows up with a life of crime that he only thinks is right and we view the world through his eyes. His two partners in crime are Tommy (Joe Pesci) and Jimmy (Robert DeNiro). Their lives don’t abide by the rules of a normal society. As Henry puts it “…if we wanted something, we just took it…”. Violence, lying, murder are all a part of their normal lives and Henry was right in the middle of it. Henry marries Karen (Lorraine Bracco), a Jewish woman who is infatuated by Henry and his lifestyle. She too becomes quickly immersed in the life and accepts that what he is doing is ok, so long as he doesn’t get hurt. As the decades go by, the family is getting more and more into drugs. This involvement leads to the inevitable downward spiral that Henry goes through during the last third of the movie. Greed turns to corruption and as the desire for more and more money grows, so too does the psychosis of Tommy. Family members and friends aren’t spared from his wrath. Someone talks or is thought to have said or done the wrong thing, they’re dead. It’s then that as the only way out, Henry enters the Witness Protection Program and sells out his “family”.
There’s no good way to really put a plot like this into words. Scorcese is such a master with music and editing, in the movie in particular, that the images tell the story much better than words ever do. The fact that all of this is true makes it that much more entertaining and interesting. As much as I liked the opening third of the movie, set in the 50’s, I now prefer the latter part of the film with the drug induced Tommy and Henry trying to outwit the authorities and keep Paulie from knowing what they were up to. The movie is famous for so many things, but none moreso than Pesci’s improvised “Am I funny” speech. Oddly enough, the movie won only one Academy Award which was for Best Supporting Actor (Pesci). It lost out to “Dances with Wolves” in the Picture, Director, Supporting Actress, Screenplay and Cinematography categories. “GoodFellas” is a great movie, no doubt about it. The poster hangs above my bed, for heaven’s sake! In the “Fun Fact” category, the “F” word is used 246 times, most of them by Tommy. I really can’t say enough great things about the film. It ranks at #29 on the Internet Movie Database and was selected to the American Film Institute’s list of 100 Greatest Movies (#94). If that doesn’t say something, then I don’t know what does. If you own the current disc, give it to someone who will watch it because buying this new DVD is a must.
Video: How does it look?
As mentioned earlier, the previous DVD was essentially featureless and contained a non-anamorphic transfer. This has all changed and Warner has digitally re-mastered the film and given it a new transfer to boot. The result, I’m pleased to say, is stunning. This isn’t quite as astonishing as their work on “Singin’ in the Rain” or “Citizen Kane”, but pretty close. There are still some flaws to be found in the 1.85:1 transfer, but not many. A few scenes do look a bit oversaturated and some scenes had a bit of dirt on the print, but apart from that, the new transfer makes watching it a pleasure (as if it wasn’t already). The movie has also been put on one disc, whereas with the other version, you had to get out and flip the disc (my how lazy we were). Edge enhancement is virtually non-existent and black levels are right on target. It was worth the wait and the new anamorphic “GoodFellas” looks splendid.
Audio: How does it sound?
This appears to be the same Dolby Digital 5.1 track that was used for the original release. Dialogue is very clean and clear, you’ll hear each and ever of those 246 words used in true 5.1 fashion. The soundtrack sounds great and much of the delight of watching the movie is hearing the songs that accompany most of the scenes. Scorcese picked a number of them out himself to be played in conjunction with the scenes, so if it seems like the movie was made to work with the music – it was. For the most part, the action takes place in the front stage, though when the surrounds kick in, the result is awesome. While this isn’t the best disc to hear sound, it sounds great and doesn’t disappoint.
Supplements: What are the extras?
There aren’t too many “Two Disc Special Editions” that don’t have extras. Thankfully “GoodFellas” isn’t one of them. The first disc houses the widescreen version of the film along with two commentary tracks…well, make that one and half (I’ll explain). The first track is a screen-specific one by Scorcese, Liotta, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino, Frank Vincent, Nicholas Pigletti, Irwin Winkler, Barbara DeFina, Michael Ballhaus and Thelma Schoonmaker. A lot of people to be on one track. But, they’re not as talkative as they could be. Scorcese and Pigletti tend to dominate the track and it’s nice to hear a commentary by Scorcese, as he doesn’t do a lot of them. The track I found more interesting was the “Cop and Crook” track with the real Henry Hill (who has since come out of the Witness Protection Program) and the FBI agent who arrested him, Edward McDonald. Hill is very frank when making his comments and I found it amazing at how many times he would say “this is exactly how it happened”. He later admits that 99% of what happened on screen is what really happened. My only complaint would be that he is a bit of a low talker and his words were kind of hard to make out.
The second disc contains four featurettes and the original theatrical trailer. First up is “Getting Made” which is a 30 minute segment on how the movie went from script to screen and so forth. Scorcese evidently read the book while he was making “The Color of Money” in 1985. He then collaborated with Nicholas Pigletti to write the screenplay and the rest, as they say, is history. “Made Man: The GoodFellas Legacy” tells how the movie has inspired some of today’s younger directors, among them: Jon Faverau, Antoine Fuqua, Richard Linklater and Frank Darabont among them. They tell of how brutally realistic the movie was and how it ushered in a new wave of how to make films. We then find “The Workaday Gangster” which is told by Henry Hill. He tells of the life he had versus the life he has now and how he couldn’t get out of the business. Lastly we find “Paper is Cheaper” which is a fancy way of showing some storyboard to screen comparisons by Scorcese. All in all, the wait is over and I couldn’t give a higher recommendation – add this to your collection now
