Goodfellas Martin Scorsese

Box office

Goodfellas grossed $6.3 million from 1,070 theaters in opening weekend, topping the box office.[39] In its second weekend the film made $5.9 million from 1,291 theaters, falling just 8% and finishing second behind newcomer Pacific Heights.[40] It went on to make $46.8 million domestically.[41][4]

Critical response

According to review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, 95% of 164 critics have given the film a positive review, with an average rating of 9.00/10. The website's critics consensus reads, "Hard-hitting and stylish, GoodFellas is a gangster classic—and arguably the high point of Martin Scorsese's career."[42] Metacritic has assigned the film a weighted average score of 92 out of 100 based on reviews from 21 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[43] Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale.[44]

In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert gave the film a full four stars and wrote, "No finer film has ever been made about organized crime – not even The Godfather."[45] In his review for the Chicago Tribune, Gene Siskel wrote, "All of the performances are first-rate; Pesci stands out, though, with his seemingly unscripted manner. GoodFellas is easily one of the year's best films."[46] Both named it as the best film of 1990. In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote, "More than any earlier Scorsese film, Goodfellas is memorable for the ensemble nature of the performances... The movie has been beautifully cast from the leading roles to the bits. There is flash also in some of Mr. Scorsese's directorial choices, including freeze frames, fast cutting and the occasional long tracking shot. None of it is superfluous."[47] USA Today gave the film four out of four stars and called it, "great cinema—and also a whopping good time."[13] David Ansen, in his review for Newsweek magazine, wrote "Every crisp minute of this long, teeming movie vibrates with outlaw energy."[48] Rex Reed said, "Big, rich, powerful and explosive. One of Scorsese's best films! Goodfellas is great entertainment."[49] In his review for Time, Richard Corliss wrote, "So it is Scorsese's triumph that GoodFellas offers the fastest, sharpest 2½-hr. ride in recent film history."[50]

Lists

The film was ranked the best of 1990 by Roger Ebert,[51] Gene Siskel,[51] and Peter Travers.[52] In a poll of 80 film critics, "Goodfellas" was named the best film of the year by 34 critics. Director Martin Scorsese was chosen as the year's best director in 45 of the 80 ballots.[53]

Goodfellas is ranked No. 92 on the AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) list, published in 2007. In 2012, the Motion Picture Editors Guild listed Goodfellas as the fifteenth best-edited film of all time based on a survey of its membership.[54] In the 2012 Sight & Sound polls, it was ranked the 48th-greatest film ever made in the directors' poll.[55] In the subsequent 2022 polls, it was ranked 28th in the directors' poll and tied for 63rd (with Casablanca and The Third Man) in the critics' poll.[56] Goodfellas is 39th on James Berardinelli's 2014-made list of the top 100 films of all time.[57] In 2015, Goodfellas ranked 20th on BBC's "100 Greatest American Films" list, voted on by film critics from around the world.[58]

Accolades

It became one of the eight films to win Best Picture from three out of four major U.S. film critics' groups (LA, NBR, NY, NSFC) along with Nashville, All the President's Men, Terms of Endearment, Pulp Fiction, The Hurt Locker, Drive My Car and Tár.