Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas

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Exploring and Critiquing Martin Scorsese’s GoodFellas
One of the most distinguished films to watch that reshapes the genre of the motion picture was GoodFellas. Directed by Martin Scorsese, the movie receives nominations to be one among the most significant cinemas in the crime category. Ten years after, the National Film Registry under the wing of the United States Library of Congress considers the film ethnically, traditionally, and artistically noteworthy. In fact, many film creators attempt to equal, match, and produce similar genres relative to the content, material, and style, but GoodFellas gains its fame through series of critiques and reviews. Inspired by Nicholas Pileggi’s book called Wise Guy, Martin Scorsese’s GoodFellas remarkably discloses the future of the mobster motion picture and the sickening embrace of corruption, desire for money, and seduction of control. Although the film holds some restrictions of its portrayal, Martin Scorsese substantially elaborates the increasing and growing social conditions and crimes in the United States.
The rendering of gangsters in Scorsese’s film tells the era of the modern criminals. In radical America, Scorsese endeavors to underline the crimes that endanger people in the society. It seems natural to consider that the film moves beyond its purpose of entertainment and pleasure and that it depicts realities (Friedman 3). Other critics say that films are reflections of the society and its standards and that they only want spectators to see and observe how people and their actions destroy their own lives (Castellitto 23).

The presentation of wrongdoings and the choice of characters reshape characters and personalities that tend to label these people. In other words, the film illustrates certain stereotypes that visually tell the social constructs of callousness and cruelty. As the film exhibits the forms of crimes, Scorsese mentions the clear picture of the society. The promotion of cocaine, the occurrence of robbery and burglary of millions of dollars, and the existence of criminalities such as the hijacking of vehicles, murdering people and participating in acts of violence against others. The depiction of self-centered and incredulous actions of the offenders such as James Conway, Henry Hill, and Tommy DeVito lurks under the magnificent direction and observance of modern-day realities. GoodFellas cunningly weakens the arrogance of the criminals instead of showing their pitiable characters. Scorsese underscores this spectacle in film genre to emphasize social realities concerning delinquents as ordinary people who always create acts of crimes in the society. However, Scorsese highlights this situation as destructive as his film contains some elements of insatiability, individuality, and venality that gratifyingly collaborate against them. In other words, GoodFellas persuades spectators and critics to believe that the society those days inhabits numerous groups of giant criminals.
Of course, GoodFellas as a crime film attracts more viewers due to the crime genre itself. It does not mean that spectators love to view the violent movie due to the choice of the characters but that they find the film quite apt to the time and the social environment. Many watchers have a preference to watch crime movies as the theme of the film remains perceptible and conspicuous in the culture (Kracauer vii). Unquestionably, they continue to be delighted to see sequences of thematic events such as adultery, coercion, drugs, infidelity, penitentiary, and aggression in the films despite the leitmotif entrenched in the film narrative. From 1990 to 2010, filmgoers still choose to see crime films due to the presence of crime elements (Kracauer 58). Indeed, people want to see great filmmaking that shows actions close to realities. In other words, the film GoodFellas catches the hearts of the viewers since people closely observe and experience these actions – robbery, murder, and terrorism. Others prefer to watch sci-fi films and horror films as a scapegoat to see those crimes happening in the community and across the country in general. Most likely, filmgoers watch crime, horror, and sci-fi films as channels to escape from their daily undertakings in the world. The films, which accentuate certainties from the societies, swing their purpose to entertain the spectators. Scorsese’s picks of characters, skills in cinematography, and capabilities in film directing, however, do not reduce the perpendicular pleasure in camerawork. He still maintains the display of the certainties for those who do not like the genre. In fact, his film receives care and focus from the audience due to its exceptional nature of cinematic revelation (Kehr 46). In other words, spectators, sometimes, want to see the full ingredients of the films GoodFellas such as drugs, disloyalty, pressure, betrayal, annihilation, jail, and aggression as the film creators bear these components to catch the attention of the viewers. Towards the end of the film, Scorsese prospers to divulge the nature of the crime and its impact on the society in spite of the quick film editing, the freeze-framing, and the effect of long takes in the various film venues.
GoodFellas carefully crafts the thematic portrayal of robust comradeship, economic security, and violence. However, watchers can also see the disintegration of friendship due to betrayal, the search for money and wealth through robbery, and the destruction of the social order. The highlights of the characters resemble the mafia tales epic that exists in New York City twenty-years backward. It emphasizes the scenes of Henry and his first life in the Brooklyn district of East New York. In other words, the film itself creates a link of some events that occur many times over in the New York, Long Beach, Connecticut, and many others. It means that Scorsese makes a tremendous effort to depict scenes of crimes and violence in the film to accentuate social realities in the United States (Kracauer 56). Using the film’s visual and artistic elements, the film accomplishes its purpose of informing the spectators that crimes at all forms dampen the progress of the society and the people themselves. Scorsese at the deepest core of the film wants to send a message to the government to reform its security policies to protect the people from the different forms of aggression and violence. GoodFellas discloses such violence to educate the people and warn them to stay safe amidst the growing perils in the community or society as well. The reported incidents in the news media and radio channels remain alarming as these news stories help the government officials to enforce laws and policies to protect and promote safety among others. The film GoodFellas bizarrely reveals the contemporary and the imminent culture of the gangster, but it hopes to teach a lesson the danger and the risk of the flock. Of course, attending in a group convinces members of the power and money, but it also promotes exploitation, fraud, and violence. Thus, Scorsese’s GoodFellas knowingly gives details of the increasing and escalating circumstances of misconducts in the United States of America.
Furthermore, Scorsese’s GoodFellas remains an archetypal movie about a systematized act of wrongdoing. It describes Henry Hill and the social conditions of people in New York City, and perhaps, some states and countries around the world. It even captivates the viewers due to the combination of elements and observations of the events occurred in the United States. GoodFellas appoints these elements to allow these audiences to reproduce and perceive the common crimes materialized in the public and metropolitan (Viano 44). Scorsese even arrests the viewers with shocks how the characters create crimes that happen at present or in the future. Scorsese’s GoodFellas grasps the paramount depiction the characters and the elements based on its artistic, historical, and social relevance, which brings a great film-making.
In the end, GoodFellas astounds and fascinates the viewers due to the amalgamation of elements – plot narrative, setting, atmosphere and tone, cinematography, editing, and the like. It employs these elements to let the spectators reflect and observe the standard crimes that most likely happen in the community and city. Scorsese even captures the images and the events of the characters as representations of crimes that exist and may emerge in the future. As Scorsese produces films that hold the artistic, historical and social relevance, he merely embodies natures of crime rates and issues that discoursed in the societies. It sounds ordinary to witness crimes, but this film artistically warns spectators to be cautious about their lives since crimes happen. Moreover, GoodFellas highlights the presence of violence in the community as reported by news media and radio channels. Of course, the film GoodFellas strangely discloses the present and the future culture of the hoodlum, and it endures to cuddle the sickening influence of corruption, money, and power. As the film embraces boundaries of its depiction, Scorsese’s GoodFellas significantly particularizes the snowballing and mounting conditions of crimes in the United States of America.

Works Cited
Castellitto, George P. “Imagism and Martin Scorsese: Images Suspended and Extended.” Literature and Film Quarterly 26.1 (1998): 23.
Friedman, Lawrence S. The Cinema of Martin Scorsese. New York: Continuum, 1997.
Kehr, Dave. “Goodfellas Movie Review.” Chicago Tribune, (September 21, 1990), Section 7 (1990).
Kracauer, Siegfried. Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality. Princeton University Press, 1960.
Viano, Maurizio. “Review: Goodfellas.” Film Quarterly 44.3 (1991): 43-50.