Our Flick of the Week is Martin Scorsese`s revisionist, workaday mob drama ”GoodFellas,” which begins by showing the power and the glory and the humor of being a mobster, and then rather quickly shows not just the dark side but the dark totality.
Ostensibly the central character of the story is its narrator, Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), who joins the New York syndicate as a teenage gofer and ends up participating in mob hits, truck hijackings and air-cargo thefts. His is a true story-Henry Hill would go on to become a major mob informant, as recounted in Nicholas Pileggi`s book ”Wiseguy”-but the centerpiece of Scorsese`s adaptation is contained in the character of tough guy Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci), who repeatedly explodes in violence simply because he`s an animal and no one in his world cares to stop him.
The strength of ”GoodFellas” is that, unlike so many mobster movies, it is anything but a recruiting film for the Mafia. These criminals throw away loyalty when self-interest comes first. Marriage means nothing to them. They view the honorable workingman`s life as a sucker`s life.
Tommy and his buddy Jimmy ”The Gent” Conway (Robert De Niro) are portrayed as thugs first and foremost as they lead the ready and willing Henry into a life of crime. Henry breaks out of the pack only to deal drugs. He picks up a wife (Lorraine Bracco) along the way, but she is merely a human accessory to his first love, the life of self-described ”wiseguys” and
”goodfellas.”
In terms of directing, Scorsese is in top form, with an energetic camera that darts, strolls and struts around rooms. In editing, he clips dialogue tightly and packs the soundtrack with pop music that unifies the movie`s time span of nearly 30 years.
Beyond that, what is so excellent about Scorsese is that his visual strategy underscores his moral sensibility. When Henry`s wife Karen agrees to hide his gun, Scorsese photographs it from above as if it were a sacrament (as he did with the guns in ”Taxi Driver”) and then cuts to a religious marriage ritual that emphasizes the importance of what Karen has done.
All of the performances are first-rate; Pesci stands out, though, with his seemingly unscripted manner. ”GoodFellas” is easily one of the year`s best films.
”GoodFellas” is playing at the Burnham Plaza, Esquire, Webster Place and outlying theaters. Rated R. (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
Flicks Picks guide
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New this week
– FUNNY ABOUT LOVE (Water Tower, Webster Place and outlying). An awful romantic comedy about the pain of a couple of parents (Gene Wilder and Christine Lahti) who can`t conceive children naturally. Or at least that`s what the movie might want to be about-it`s hard to tell. Wilder continues his streak of shockingly bad films by playing another infantile character who doesn`t belong at the center of a feature film. He`s an emotional baby, and we have to sit through his tortured relationships with intelligent women. The usually fine Mary Stuart Masterston is wasted in a bimbo role. PG-13. (STAR)
– GOODFELLAS (Burnham Plaza, Esquire, Webster Place and outlying). This week`s Flick of the Week. See above. Rated R. (STAR)(STAR)(STAR)(STAR)
– NARROW MARGIN (Biograph, Burnham Plaza, Esquire and outlying). Gene Hackman and Anne Archer star in an old-fashioned, boring and stilted train melodrama about an innocent woman pursued by mobsters after she accidentally witnesses a mob hit. Hackman plays the deputy district attorney who tries to protect her on a train ride through the Canadian Rockies as they evade hitmen on the train. Long dialogue passages between Hackman and a variety of characters shut the story down. Archer is not allowed to play a character of intelligence. Logic is repeatedly thrown out the window. R. (STAR)(STAR)
