GoodFellas
Academy Award × 1·AFI #92·BFI #64·National Film Registry
Rent/Purchase
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 critics thought
GoodFellas landed as an immediate landmark, with nearly every major critic ranking it among the best films of its year and placing it in conversation with The Godfather as the definitive screen portrait of organized crime. Scorsese's kinetic direction — freeze frames, fast cuts, long tracking shots — drew particular attention, as did the ensemble performances, especially Joe Pesci's volatile unpredictability. The lone serious dissent came from Pauline Kael, who argued the film's real flaw wasn't its morally bankrupt characters but that Scorsese conceived them with the same shallowness as old B-pictures — a charge that didn't stick with posterity but still defines the fault line in the film's reception.
“No finer film has ever been made about organized crime – not even The Godfather.”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“More than any earlier Scorsese film, Goodfellas is memorable for the ensemble nature of the performances... The movie has been beautifully cast from the leading roles to the bits. There is flash also in some of Mr. Scorsese's directorial choices, including freeze frames, fast cutting and the occasional long tracking shot. None of it is superfluous.”
Vincent Canby·The New York Times
“Every crisp minute of this long, teeming movie vibrates with outlaw energy.”
David Ansen·Newsweek
“what flattens the movie isn't that [its central characters are] shallow sociopaths; it's that these sociopaths are conceived shallowly, the way they used to be in B pictures.”
Pauline Kael·The New Yorker
Genres
Biography, Crime, Drama
Cast & Crew
DirectorMartin Scorsese
StarringRobert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino
GoodFellas
Academy Award × 1·AFI #92·BFI #64·National Film Registry
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 critics thought
GoodFellas landed as an immediate landmark, with nearly every major critic ranking it among the best films of its year and placing it in conversation with The Godfather as the definitive screen portrait of organized crime. Scorsese's kinetic direction — freeze frames, fast cuts, long tracking shots — drew particular attention, as did the ensemble performances, especially Joe Pesci's volatile unpredictability. The lone serious dissent came from Pauline Kael, who argued the film's real flaw wasn't its morally bankrupt characters but that Scorsese conceived them with the same shallowness as old B-pictures — a charge that didn't stick with posterity but still defines the fault line in the film's reception.
“No finer film has ever been made about organized crime – not even The Godfather.”
Roger Ebert·Chicago Sun-Times
“More than any earlier Scorsese film, Goodfellas is memorable for the ensemble nature of the performances... The movie has been beautifully cast from the leading roles to the bits. There is flash also in some of Mr. Scorsese's directorial choices, including freeze frames, fast cutting and the occasional long tracking shot. None of it is superfluous.”
Vincent Canby·The New York Times
“Every crisp minute of this long, teeming movie vibrates with outlaw energy.”
David Ansen·Newsweek
“what flattens the movie isn't that [its central characters are] shallow sociopaths; it's that these sociopaths are conceived shallowly, the way they used to be in B pictures.”
Pauline Kael·The New Yorker
Genres
Biography, Crime, Drama
Cast & Crew
DirectorMartin Scorsese
StarringRobert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino
Rent/Purchase