Goodfellas (1990)
After reading Robert Warshow’s essay, “The Gangster As Tragic Hero” (1948), I decided to do my own research to discuss the portrayal of the mob in the eighties, nineties, and now and how those portrayals were influenced by the ideas of Warshow’s essay. As well as discuss the use of technology in those movies.
The one movie I thought to use for this essay is said to be one of the best mob movies of all time. Martin Scorsese’s 1990 film, “Goodfellas,” tells the story of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), James “Jimmy” Conway (Robert DeNiro), and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) and their climb to the top of the mafia game. The movie takes place between the years of 1955-1980 in New York. Throughout the film, the use of camera angles and different techniques enhance the audience’s viewing pleasure. Rather than just keeping the camera stationary and at one distance and one angle, the camera pans out, uses close-ups and moves quickly.
There were three scenes in particular that I found visually pleasing as far as the use of camera angles went. The first was the scene in which Karen (Lorraine Bracco) was sitting on Henry holding the gun to his face. As the shots alternated between characters, the audience felt as if they were looking through the eyes of each character. When the gun was pointed at Henry, the camera was looking down Karen’s arms and the gun, over Henry’s face. When the camera was on Karen, it was pointed up the barrel of the gun and was situated under Karen. The second scene was when Karen goes to visit Henry in jail. As she goes to sign in, the camera is situated slightly above her and angled down. She sees the name of Henry’s lover signed in the book and the camera catches her eyes and the anger she has in them. I thought it was a clever camera angle because this way, the majority of Karen’s face was her eyes, which were the most important feature in that moment. The third scene, which was really two scenes, was when Tommy DeVito shoots Stacks Edwards (Samuel L. Jackson). The first time the murder is shown, it is shown without Tommy being in the shot. All that is shown is Jackson’s back and the barrel of the gun. A little bit later in the film, it cuts to a shot of Tommy holding the gun. The shot shows the audience what Stacks Edwards could not.
Something else I found interesting and a good choice by the director was the use of foreshadowing. The movie opens with a scene that comes back later in the film, and I think the choice of scene really shows how deep Tommy, Henry and Jimmy have gotten themselves in the business. The third thing I found intriguing was the use of parallel action. In the last few scenes when Henry is testifying against Paulie and Jimmy, the shots change between the courtroom and the rest of the mob being arrested. Throughout these cuts, the audience continues to hear Henry’s voice giving his testimony, adding the aspect of diegetic sound to the movie. The last piece of the filming I found interesting was in the last two scenes. At the end of the courtroom scene, and in the very last piece of the movie, Henry pulls a “Ferris Bueller” and breaks the reality of the film by talking to the audience. Ray Liotta looks directly into the camera and speaks to the viewers at the end of the courtroom scene, and just stares directly into the camera at the end of the film.
In his essay, Warshow describes the main idea of the gangsters. He tells why they are what they are. He says:
“The gangster is the man of the city, with the city’s language and knowledge, with its queer and dishonest skills and its terrible daring, carrying his life in his hands like a placard, like a club. For everyone else, there is at least the theoretical possibility of another world – in that happier American culture which the gangster denies, the city does not really exist; it is only a more crowded and more brightly lit country – but for the gangster there is only the city; he must inhabit it in order to personify it: not the real city, but that dangerous and sad city of the imagination which is so much more important, which is the modern world. And the gangster – though there are real gangsters – is also, and primarily, a creature of imagination. The real city, one might say, produces only criminals; the imaginary city produces the gangster: he is what we want to be and what we are afraid to become.”
In the film, Henry Hill had to become the city. He had to know it inside and out. He had to learn who to trust and who to turn away from. He always wanted to live the mafia life, but feared the repercussions it held. Tommy DeVito became the gangster that the world feared to become; he became a cold-blooded killer. The fortune and adrenaline rushes went to his head.
Another quote from Warshow’s essay that I felt tied in with Scorcese’s “Goodfellas” was:
“Usually, when we come upon him, he has already made his choice or the choice has
already been made for him, it doesn’t matter which: we are not permitted to ask whether
at some point he could have chosen to be something else than what he is.”
The movie opens with a scene that comes back later in the film. Technically, the story begins in Brooklyn in 1955 when a young Henry Hill begins working for Paul “Paulie” Cicero. Therefore, the audience does not know what Hill’s decision is at that moment, though we can surmise what his choice will be.
The next two quotes discuss the means by which the gangsters will go to get whatever it is that they desire. The first one is:
“The gangster’s activity is usually a form of rational enterprise, involving fairly definite
goals and various techniques for achieving them.”
The second quote is:
“Thus brutality itself becomes at once the means to success and the content of success – a success that is defined in its most general terms, not, as accomplishment or specific gain, but simply as the unlimited possibility of aggression. (In the same way, film presentations of businessmen tend to make it appear that they achieve their success by talking on the telephone and holding conferences and that success is talking on the telephone and holding conferences.)”
Both quotes discuss how a gangster would go about their business, and the movie demonstrates both quotes very well. The characters in the film do what they can to make their money and control the town. They are successful, until Henry Hill testifies against the mob in court. The gang uses brutality to intimidate everyone underneath them, and they are successful with that as well. No one crosses them until Tommy DeVito crosses someone else.
Robert Warshow’s essay made some excellent points that helped me elaborate on my argument of how the essay influenced the portrayal of gangsters in recent films. While screening “Goodfellas” I automatically remembered the quotes from the essay. Not to mention, the film was incredibly entertaining.