Goodfellas and The Godfather saga tower above their competition and deserve their place in the pantheon of American crime pictures.
The introduction of the local mobsters hanging out in a night club is precious and worth the whole film. Cherish this scene as Scorsese's camera moves in and about the characters, pausing only momentarily to hear their greetings. To Henry, this was the life; civilians were suckers.
No, "Goodfellas" is not "The Godfather." Nor is it "The Godfather II," although it flashes back and moves through a good deal of time as "Godfather II" also does. "Goodfellas" hasn't the epic sweep of either of the Coppola "Godfather" films, and it wasn't meant to. Rather, "Goodfellas" takes a look at the life of gangsters at the ground level, and as such, it's never been surpassed. Remember, though, that the movie is rated R for extreme violence and profanity, much more so than any of Coppola's films. But as filmmaking, Scorsese's and Coppola's films stand shoulder-to-shoulder, bookends on the same sordid subject.
Video:
Warner Bros. issued "Goodfellas" in a bare-bones, single-disc edition several years earlier, and for an account of that rendering I would direct the reader's attention to Tim Raynor's review. Now, given the movie's importance, the studio has issued it in a two-disc, special-edition set. And about time.
The slim-line keep case informs us that the movie now sports an "all-new digital transfer," which has the distinct advantage over its predecessor of putting the film's entire 145 minutes on the same side of one dual-layered disc. There is no flip-over as Tim described it in the previous edition. However, as good as the transfer is, it still suffers from much the same conditions of the original print. Namely, the image is dark and slightly soft, sometimes more than a bit murky, especially in shadows and nighttime scenes. Colors are deep and solid, but a light grain powders most of the frames, giving the overall picture a somewhat gritty look, perhaps intentional since it works well to convey the flavor of the story. Faces are a shade too dusky for ultimate realism, as well, occasional moiré effects are noticeable, and in one scene a fine horizontal line shows up in the center of the picture for several seconds. The anamorphic (enhanced) widescreen image measures a ratio of about 1.75:1 across my standard television, and while the video quality is probably as good as it can be without a complete restoration, it's still not quite perfect.
Audio:
My guess is that the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is the same as Tim described it in the earlier edition he reviewed. Most of it sounds like good monaural, surprising for a big movie made in 1990. The impression one gets is that of strong, well-defined sonics, but to a small degree hard and metallic. Perhaps this, too, was intentional, because like the thin veneer of grain, the sound provides the film with an edgier feeling. The rear channels continue to do very little business, while the front channels display only a moderate stereo spread. The original fifties, sixties, and seventies musical recordings on the soundtrack, naturally, vary in sound quality, actually adding a touch more realism to the proceedings.
Extras:
Disc one contains the widescreen presentation of the film; the DD 5.1 soundtrack; English and Spanish spoken languages; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles. The movie also comes with two audio commentaries. The first is specific only to selected scenes and includes comments by director Scorsese; stars Ray Liotta, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino, and Frank Vincent; co-screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi; producers Irwin Winkler and Barbara De Fina; cinematographer Michael Ballhaus; and editor Thelma Schoomaker. The second audio commentary is with former mobster Henry Hill and former FBI agent Edward McDonald. The first disc concludes with a most-generous forty-seven scene selections but no chapter insert.
Disc two contains several informative documentaries on the subject of the film and gangsterism in general. The first documentary is "Getting Made," a twenty-nine-minute program of interviews and comments by the actors and filmmakers, then and now, including comments from the real Henry Hill. The second documentary is "The Workaday Gangster," eight minutes of reminiscences. In it, Hill calls "Goodfellas" 99% accurate, not the American Dream but the "American Nightmare." The third documentary is "Made Men: The Goodfellas Legacy," thirteen minutes of continued memoirs and observations. According to director Joe Carnahan ("Narc"), the film is "American pop cinema at its most powerful." Finally, there's a four-minute storyboard-to-film comparison, "Paper Is Cheaper Than Film," showing us some of Scorsese's notes and sketches compared to several completed scenes; and a widescreen theatrical trailer.
Parting Thoughts:
Thanks to Scorsese's visceral cinematic style, what could have been a run-of-the-mill gangster story becomes one of legend. The director is able to capture the base nature of the human product, a portrait of the good life in America gone completely awry. With the help of a literate script, superb acting, and a realistic sense of time and place, Scorsese's account of the rise and fall of a single gangster is a masterwork of crime and corruption in microcosm. The movie is to "The Godfather" as Cagney's "The Public Enemy" was to Robinson's "Little Caesar," flip sides of the same dirty coin.
No, "Goodfellas" is not "The Godfather." Nor is it "The Godfather II," although it flashes back and moves through a good deal of time as "Godfather II" also does. "Goodfellas" hasn't the epic sweep of either of the Coppola "Godfather" films, and it wasn't meant to. Rather, "Goodfellas" takes a look at the life of gangsters at the ground level, and as such, it's never been surpassed. Remember, though, that the movie is rated R for extreme violence and profanity, much more so than any of Coppola's films. But as filmmaking, Scorsese's and Coppola's films stand shoulder-to-shoulder, bookends on the same sordid subject.
Video:
Warner Bros. issued "Goodfellas" in a bare-bones, single-disc edition several years earlier, and for an account of that rendering I would direct the reader's attention to Tim Raynor's review. Now, given the movie's importance, the studio has issued it in a two-disc, special-edition set. And about time.
The slim-line keep case informs us that the movie now sports an "all-new digital transfer," which has the distinct advantage over its predecessor of putting the film's entire 145 minutes on the same side of one dual-layered disc. There is no flip-over as Tim described it in the previous edition. However, as good as the transfer is, it still suffers from much the same conditions of the original print. Namely, the image is dark and slightly soft, sometimes more than a bit murky, especially in shadows and nighttime scenes. Colors are deep and solid, but a light grain powders most of the frames, giving the overall picture a somewhat gritty look, perhaps intentional since it works well to convey the flavor of the story. Faces are a shade too dusky for ultimate realism, as well, occasional moiré effects are noticeable, and in one scene a fine horizontal line shows up in the center of the picture for several seconds. The anamorphic (enhanced) widescreen image measures a ratio of about 1.75:1 across my standard television, and while the video quality is probably as good as it can be without a complete restoration, it's still not quite perfect.
Audio:
My guess is that the Dolby Digital 5.1 audio is the same as Tim described it in the earlier edition he reviewed. Most of it sounds like good monaural, surprising for a big movie made in 1990. The impression one gets is that of strong, well-defined sonics, but to a small degree hard and metallic. Perhaps this, too, was intentional, because like the thin veneer of grain, the sound provides the film with an edgier feeling. The rear channels continue to do very little business, while the front channels display only a moderate stereo spread. The original fifties, sixties, and seventies musical recordings on the soundtrack, naturally, vary in sound quality, actually adding a touch more realism to the proceedings.
Extras:
Disc one contains the widescreen presentation of the film; the DD 5.1 soundtrack; English and Spanish spoken languages; and English, French, and Spanish subtitles. The movie also comes with two audio commentaries. The first is specific only to selected scenes and includes comments by director Scorsese; stars Ray Liotta, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino, and Frank Vincent; co-screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi; producers Irwin Winkler and Barbara De Fina; cinematographer Michael Ballhaus; and editor Thelma Schoomaker. The second audio commentary is with former mobster Henry Hill and former FBI agent Edward McDonald. The first disc concludes with a most-generous forty-seven scene selections but no chapter insert.
Disc two contains several informative documentaries on the subject of the film and gangsterism in general. The first documentary is "Getting Made," a twenty-nine-minute program of interviews and comments by the actors and filmmakers, then and now, including comments from the real Henry Hill. The second documentary is "The Workaday Gangster," eight minutes of reminiscences. In it, Hill calls "Goodfellas" 99% accurate, not the American Dream but the "American Nightmare." The third documentary is "Made Men: The Goodfellas Legacy," thirteen minutes of continued memoirs and observations. According to director Joe Carnahan ("Narc"), the film is "American pop cinema at its most powerful." Finally, there's a four-minute storyboard-to-film comparison, "Paper Is Cheaper Than Film," showing us some of Scorsese's notes and sketches compared to several completed scenes; and a widescreen theatrical trailer.
Parting Thoughts:
Thanks to Scorsese's visceral cinematic style, what could have been a run-of-the-mill gangster story becomes one of legend. The director is able to capture the base nature of the human product, a portrait of the good life in America gone completely awry. With the help of a literate script, superb acting, and a realistic sense of time and place, Scorsese's account of the rise and fall of a single gangster is a masterwork of crime and corruption in microcosm. The movie is to "The Godfather" as Cagney's "The Public Enemy" was to Robinson's "Little Caesar," flip sides of the same dirty coin.
Average user rating (1-5):
[release]12271[/release]