GoodFellas

As a child, Henry (Ray Liotta) dreams about becoming a “goodfella”, one of the elite gangsters who control the New York suburb in which he lives. This exceptionally stylish film traces Henry’s rise from waiter to Mafia hit-man. Edited at an adrenalin-pumping pace, “Goodfellas” examines the Mafia from the inside, exposing the violence but also detailing the family kinships and rituals essential to the organisation’s existence. As we move along in time from the rock and roll fifties to the acid-drenched seventies, the carefully controlled world of organised crime begins to fall apart with the introduction of hard drugs. “Goodfellas” showcases Scorsese’s direction at its most dazzling, the camera dancing and weaving around the sumptous sets and the fiery performers. And what performers! Liotta, Robert de Niro and Paul Sorvino are all excellent. But the honours belong to Joe Pesci and Lorraine Bracco who are both outstanding: legends are made from performances such as these (Pesci won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for his role). The sound- track, which is integral to the film, features songs from across four decades. The film is based on the non-fiction book, “Wiseguy”, by Nicholas Pileggi.