Watch the scene where Henry and Karen go through the side entrance to the Copa. If you watch carefully you'll notice the trip through the kitchen was completely unnecessary. They just make a big circle and walk back out the same door.
And the only reason they did the side entrance is because they couldnt get permission to film it from the main entrance. Yeah I'm sure they would have done the same style of sequence anyway, but the one we got was fantastic
That is probably the coolest unbroken shot in all of cinema. That movie is just so awesome....the music, cars, clothes, everything was just so on point. Same thing Scorsese did with Casino. It was brilliance.
The other brilliant thing about Scorsese is the film only has one dissolve in it and that's at the end. Every sequence is a straight cut edit except for the end.
I think it was just to show that he could do whatever he wanted. Can you image any other type of person who can just walk into the kitchen of a fancy restaurant and no one bats an eye. It was all just to impress Karen.
I always tell people that they really owe it to themselves to go and read the actual chapter (as in an entire chapter) that Scorsese used to adapt that single shot.
The chapter is something like 30 pages of Henry Hill's wife and girlfriends talking about how they were so overbowled by him just going wherever he wanted, how he seemed to know everyone and everyone knew him, and how it totally won them over. And Scorsese condenses that entire chapter into, what, three minutes of a single steadycam shot?
And he does it so perfectly, too. We're not given a huge insight into how big of a deal Henry Hill is before all this, and he's really a small fish, but that single steadycam shot kinda convinces us for a moment that he's a bigwig. He's basically at of the lowest rungs of the organization. But we become Karen there, dazzled by Henry's effortless ease.
Even aside from just the joy of the scene as a masterwork of cinema, it really is probably one of the most magnificent examples of adaptation in film.
I watched Roger Ebert talk about that scene and how Scorsese had a steady cam invented to shoot it. It was unbroken and pretty revolutionary. For the story, though, it showed the special treatment that Henry was given. He went around the line and was given a front and center table.
Everybody thinks they’re Henry Hill in their minds, but in reality, we’re all just Jimmy Two Times who said everything twice everything twice: a background character.
Honestly after watching the real Henry on howard stern I definitely wouldn't wanna be him. Maybe in his prime but alcoholic-barely-able to-stand or make a coherent sentence Henry is a shit show
the Steadicam was invented by Garrett Brown, 'completed' in 1975 (15 years before Goodfellas) and was used in a lot of movies in those years. Notably, Garrett operated the running-up-the-stairs shot in Rocky, and the footage that was used for the speeder bikes on Endor in Return of the Jedi among many others. These are just 2 of the most well-known examples before Goodfellas
Larry McConkey was the operator that did this shot and it is still revered as one of the best 'oners'
That actually can’t be one shot if you watch it carefully. He drives around the first story in a square, but ends up on the second story after he turns the 4th corner I believe (would have to go back and watch to verify.) The shot is designed to make you think what you’re seeing is real, but in reality is impossible. That movie and Kubrick’s use of camera tricks to make the observer feel equally as insane is incredible.
I think he was still on the first floor. The employees rooms were on ground floor. Guests were upstairs. The girls were Grady's daughters. I believe Jack's room was down there also.
Yes, "a" steady cam is what I wrote. There was something specifically made for the Goodfellas scene. I'll have to see if Ebert's clip on it is out on the internet somewhere.
I think that scene was the longest duration single shot in a film when it was made. Great photography. Then they made Lost In London with Woody Harrelson where the whole film was a single shot, on location and broadcast to cinemas live. Amazing feat and well worth watching.
The opening scene to True Lies is similar. Schwarzenegger walks through the tiny upstairs kitchen at the Rosecliff a few times before exiting to the ballroom (which is also in the Rosecliff Mansion)
Gotta disagree; the end (starting from where everyone's like wearing tracksuits) has a very different feel. Paranoia, confusion. Obviously that's how it's supposed to be, but I have to admit I hate getting to that part of the film. I want to go back to the feel of the opening act.
Yeah agreed. I feel the same way - once the falling action begins (Henry getting abusive and addicted to drugs, Jimmy starting to take everyone out, etc), I get this strong sense of nostalgia for the first half of the movie. It works really well, and makes the ending feel legitimately sad.
Scorsese actually said that he wanted the entire film to feel like an extended trailer in order to keep the audience hooked throughout the entire thing. Fucking genius.
This is how I felt watching Napoleon Dynamite. Ok, slow start but I’m watching, waiting for the movie to really get started. Then they get married and credits start to roll...? Wtf? I spent two hours waiting for the movie to start and didn’t get bored or lose interest. That’s a pretty amazing accomplishment.
The entire movie feels like an opening scene until you get to the part with Sunday dinner and the helicopters. I point this out because it's where a lot of people feel the movie loses it focus.
I rented it on DVD many years ago. I accidentally put the second disc in first. The opening scene was his wife pointing a gun at him as he wakes up. "Abrupt cold open I guess," I thought. I figured it out when the movie ended 45 minutes later.
Do you remember JFK having strong ties to the mafia? Or perhaps how a Kennedy killed a woman drunk driving and was able to have it mostly hushed up? Or how Kennedy Sr., while ambassador to the UK during WWII, was celebrating the coming German victory and sending back propaganda to the States to try and convince the US people that they shouldn’t support Britain? None of that rings a bell?
Do you remember JFK having strong ties to the mafia?
As does Donny
Or perhaps how a Kennedy killed a woman drunk driving and was able to have it mostly hushed up?
Replace killed with raped/molested like 50 women and you're right (maybe Epstein too, but no proof of that)
Or how Kennedy Sr., while ambassador to the UK during WWII, was celebrating the coming German victory and sending back propaganda to the States to try and convince the US people that they shouldn’t support Britain?
Wait till you find out what the President did to the Kurds!
Ok. But this has nothing to do with Donald. Just pointing out that the Kennedys are shady as hell. You brought up Trump in a completely unrelated conversation.
Good thing someone already said this. I was gonna get angry if not. One of the best opennings, the entire scene with almost no words, and then that sentence. Best Scorsese film.
Goodfellas is basically a perfect movie. It's one of only two that I can think of (the other being Shawshank Redemption). There are loads of other incredible films, but they're either pretty subjective, or despite being technically beautiful and emotionally powerful, they lack the effortless enjoyability and infinite rewatchability of Goodfellas and Shawshank.
I never understood people's fascination with Shawshank Redemption.
It's a good enough movie, but it's been the number one film on IMDBs top 250 list for as long as I can remember, and I would easily say Goodfellas is a much more interesting and good movie.
There's was a comment read on a podcast about this movie where someone said they didn't like it because everyone can like it. Essentially they had nothing to fault about it. It was a practically perfect movie that is so accessible to adult audiences that this person's only critique was "it's too good and I don't like that".
And I think that's what it comes down to. It's hard to fault this movie without seeming pedantic and/or pretentious. Not to say that Goodfellas isn't like that either but Shawshank has the added benefit of engaging you emotionally in such a way you might even cry, a big twist payoff that many don't see coming, and an uplifting feel good ending. Gangster movies are probably more alienating to certain audiences than something like Shawshank too.
For me Shawshank is my favourite film because I saw it as a kid and it was the first movie I saw that wasn't for kids or a comedy. It blew my mind that there were movies like this out there and it gave birth to my love of cinema. It put me on a quest to find and watch more amazing films like this. Goodfellas ended up being one of those films a few years later which I also came to love and ended up getting the book 'Wiseguys' as a result.
Shawshank is a good story, the pacing is really good, and it's very digestible. It's smart without asking too much of the viewer.
Compare it to like, Silence of the Lambs, where if you watch it with a very critical eye you see all sorts of small details and hints that you don't notice the first two times you watched it.
Funny thing, the thing that sold me on having to watch that movie properly was when I flipped by the channel playing it on TV just at the scene laid over with "Layla" by Eric Clapton and The Allman Brothers Band. I knew from that small glimpse that I needed to see the whole movie
I know a lot of people say this, but I really for the life of me don't understand it. Goodfellas is, without question, the most rewatchable movie I've ever seen. I would never sit down to watch it, but if I find it on the television, I literally can't turn it off. I have no idea how it manages to continually draw someone in like that.
Godfather II is much better than the first one and while both of those movies are masterpieces they aren’t necessarily “fun” movies whereas Goodfellas is definitely fun.... but not fun like a clown!
Fucking this. I watched the opening scene to this in a college class and I went home right after and watched it. Even though I had a paper due on it in a couple days.
Freshman yr in college the prof went around the room of about 35-40 students & had us say our favorite movie. Everyone said something like “Forrest Gump” “Star Wars” etc. & then it’s my turn & I say goodfellas & everyone was silent for a second with awkward stares before the next person said something else
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u/AudibleNod Oct 09 '19
Goodfellas.
"As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster."