Goodfellas Literary Elements

Martin Scorsese

Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro

Joe Pesci, Paul Sorvino, Lorraine Bracco

Crime Drama

English

Academy Award Nominations: Best Supporting Actress, Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Adapted Screenplay. Academy Award Wins: Best Supporting Actor (Joe Pesci)

1990

Irvin Winkler

Brooklyn, New York, beginning mid-1950s and ending in the 1980s

The narrator is Henry Hill and this is his story told mainly from his perspective, but then it also switches to Karen's perspective throughout

Violent, threatening, fast-paced, vivid, abusive, comic, and sordid

Henry Hill is the protagonist and at varying times throughout the movie each of the characters has an antagonistic relationship with the others. At the end, the antagonists are Jimmy and Paulie, who threaten to kill Henry

There are several major areas of conflict. There is conflict between the gangsters and the authorities. There is conflict between Tommy and the Lucchese bosses who feel he is a liability. There is conflict between Henry and Karen when she learns of his infidelity and major conflict between Paulie and Henry over his drug trafficking.

Henry's decision to become an informant is the climax of his story.

Jimmy's warning to Karen foreshadows the threat to their lives that Henry perceives from the insinuated threat. The opening scene, in which we see the brutalized body of Billy Bragg (before we know who he is) foreshadows his murder. Additionally, the retrospective voiceover narration often foreshadows events.

Jimmy's team members claim to be only buying the odd nice thing for their wives, but this is a big understatement as they are buying flashy jewelry, furs, and expensive luxury cars that all but announce that they have committed a heist. Much of the violence in the film is treated lightly and casually, which is an understatement. Much of the humor of the film involves a character making a dramatic event or occurrence seem more casual than it really is.

The lighting is kept deliberately dark, which Scorsese believed would add to the sordid atmosphere and also reflect the fact that this was a world that operated in darkness. While not a formal innovation, Scorsese sought to edit and shoot the film in a very quick and abrupt way to heighten the drama. Also, at the time of its release, this became the film with the most on-screen profanity of all time. Scorsese has since topped this record himself.

The use of The Sex Pistols rendition of "My Way" at the end of the film metaphorically alludes to Frank Sinatra and his own supposed mob connections, while also alluding to the punk music of the time being depicted.

Henry wants to be accepted by Paulie, but the paradox within him is that he continues his drug operation, thus disobeying Paulie's instructions. Another paradox is that while the mafia protects its members, they are also perhaps the biggest threat to them.

There are no major examples of parallelism in this film.