The film I chose to review is Martin Scorcese’s “Goodfellas”. The film stars Ray Liotta as Henry Hill, a real-life Irish-Sicilian mobster who rises up the ranks of the Italian criminal underworld starting in the 1950’s, alongside his friends Jimmy and Tommy, after being drawn in by the lures of money and respect. However, he later sees the risk this carries with it as he falls in a cocaine habit, the FBI comes down on him, and his fellow mobster friends are betrayed, jailed, or killed.
While the film doesn’t inherently concern itself with immigration problems, there are traces of it that come into play in the film. Early on, Henry and Jimmy are singled out because they aren’t Italians (and therefore, not trustworthy). Because they both have parents who are immigrants from Ireland, they cannot become “made” men – essentially untouchable mobsters. However, both of them learn to assimilate into the Italian-run mafia and their way of speaking is indistinguishable from the Italians. Somewhat contrary to our discussions of the children of immigrants being reminiscent of their countries’ cultures, the non-Italians are extremely enveloped, not in American culture, but of the Italian culture that is most useful to their survival. Henry heavily suppresses his Irish heritage; no mention is made of it outside of two of his voice-overs throughout the film, wherein he says it has negative connotations. Thus, we can see the pressure to fit in with the surrounding population.
Food, but more specifically, restaurants have a big role in the film. When Henry takes his future wife, Karen, to a date, he takes her to fancy Italian joint. His social status is immediately exemplified when they are allowed in ahead of the other patrons, Henry is greeted by numerous people as they walk through the restaurant, and when the restaurant is full, another table is brought out specifically for them. To top it off, as the two sit down, a group of gentlemen immediately send over a bottle of wine with their compliments. The first appearance we see of Jimmy in the film is also at a restaurant, albeit outside. Henry is working as the busboy there and quickly observes Jimmy throwing twenty dollar tips and surrounding himself with several other mobsters. Instantly, Henry sees that Jimmy is a person to be respected. This relates to our discussion about how one behaves in restaurants displays one’s power and social standing.
In two separate scenes in the film, Tommy is shown killing two characters, both in restaurants, because he believes they’re insulting him. The first time he is seen with Henry, he seems like he is going to have a similar reaction before he is calmed down by Jimmy. In the same way that one’s behavior shows one’s status, Tommy reacts very badly when his status is threatened.
There’s also a scene/voice-over wherein Henry and Tommy set fire to a restaurant after the local capo, Pauly, has sucked it dry, run up tabs, and used it to ship drugs and illegal goods. This demonstrates the concept of restaurants being used simply as a means for making money. Unlike the Vado Pao restaurant run by Mukherjee, there’s very little concern with bringing over culture so long as fire insurance money can be claimed.
However, food is also used to represent an aspect of freedom in a later scene, when Henry and several other wise guys are in prison. Henry has his wife smuggle in Italian bread, cheeses and meats for them, which they cook later on while laughing and joking. In a somewhat small sense, the Italian food brings them comfort and connectivity while they’re isolated from the world. In this way, while Henry was not born Italian, he has fully adopted the culture as his own and identifies as one of the Italians.
My review of the film, as a whole, is that it’s expertly directed and driven by amazing performances from the lead cast to display the aspects of the real-life Italian mob between the mid-50’s to late-80’s. The detail put into the story to match Hill’s version of the events is extremely close, considering the film is two and half hours and encompasses 30 years of activity. Many of Scorsese’s shots are perfect, including his 3-minute long shot of Henry and Karen entering the Copacobana restaurant. While the film does depict Italian-Americans in a generally negative light, I feel it’s more about the mobsters who happen to be Italian. Jimmy, an Irishman, is as cold and murderous as the Italian mobsters.
Goodfellas is a spectacular telling of a true story and, among it’s concerns with culture and identity, it gives an amazing look at organized crime of the time period and a brutal depiction of how it all leads to an eventual downfall.
