Goodfella (1990) and Scorsese

For this week, you will watch Goodfellas (1990), either in the library or on Amazon.com.

Readings:

1) Whiteness and the history of white ethnics-Roediger

2) Paula Massood, “From Mean Streets to The Gangs of New York: Ethnicity and Urban Space in the Films of Martin Scorsese” in The City that Never Sleeps

3) Hayden-The Power of Place

Prompt:  I would like you to address the film in terms of the question of whiteness (and please review our conversation/readings from Richard Dyer).  Is Henry (Ray Liotta) white–and does he become white in the course of the film?  And do you think his neighborhood is white?  Also can you relate the neighborhood Hill grows up in–and is strongly identified with–to Delores Hayden’s project of helping to preserve the memory of vernacular space?  Please also feel free to raise your own questions about the film and to comment on  other films we have watched or that this film brings to mind.