I watched the movie Goodfellas for my assignment on Martin Scorsese. The film is about a young boy who begins working at a cabstand owned by the mob and eventually becomes a part of their gang. Throughout the movie, the aspects of the mafia are portrayed in a both positive and negative light. The movie stars Ray Liotta, Robert Deniro and Joe Pesci who won an Academy Award for best supporting actor in 1990. The film is praised as "the best mob movie ever" and for good reason too. Scorsese's use of violence and gore display the mob in it's true essence and have become trademarks of his films.
In the very beginning of the film, the gruesome murder of a "made-man" is previewed and forshadows the violence that ensues throughout the movie. After that scene, Liotta's character is shown in his childhood when he begins to work for the mob and the mood of the movie is happy and awesome. It isn't until later however, that the mood of the movie begins to change. After an infamous mobster is let out of jail, the scene of his murder (which appeared in the beginning of the movie) is replayed and from that point on the film begins to show the actions of the mafia as negative. After a large heist, more and more people begin to be executed by the mafia and the violence and gore of these murders portrays the horror of the mafia's crimes. Finally, the downfall of the mafia is portrayed when Liotta's character rats out the rest of his crew in order to enter the witness protection program to avoid being killed. The ending of the film leaves a very profound impact on the viewer through the seemingly normality of the ex-mobster's new life and the way in which his life of fortune and happiness has fallen apart.
After viewing this film, it is clear that violence and gore are key aspects of Scorsese's influence on movies as a director. As in Gangs of New York, Casino and the Departed; violence and gore are strong themes in Goodfellas. I personally think that this is one of the greatest movies ever made and consider it to be Scorsese's masterpiece of filmmaking. Martin Scorsese is a true "autuer" in the way that he directs his films and is definitly one of the greatest filmmakers of his time.
what a surprise that the movie was about mobs and gangs. I thought that Goodfellas was a really good movie though. Since this comes chronologically before the other movies we watched for this project, it is easy to see the similarities between his earlier films and his more recent ones. There is nothing held back as far as violence goes, but what sort of Scorsese film would it really be if there was.
ReplyDeleteI agree, with Andy and Mike in that, once again, Scorsese focuses deeply on gangs and gore in his films. They are there in every movie we've watched, and I believe that Scorsese is trying to portray them as human so that we as readers can learn from them. The gore, however, is just there to gain attention and viewers, which is a good plan none the less. The scene where Liotta's character pistol whips his neighbor for trying to make a move on his wife portrays lots of gore, as blood is every where. However, if we look past the violence, we can learn that Scorsese thinks we should stand up for ourselves and our families in bad situations.
ReplyDeleteAnother example of a scene where Scorsese uses gore is in the shot that begins the film and is found later in the film- the scene is described by Mike. The three gang members are killing a "made-man" and after beating him countless times the face with various weapons. The goriest part yet was when they drive several miles away with the bleeding man in their trunk just to find that when they go to dump the body, the man is still alive, yet is extremely bloody. They then proceed to shooting him several times, once again showing the gore of the scene and film.
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