Happy Pi Day Everybody!
This week we entered the world of the Mafia and the world of Scorsese. I was first introduced to Scorsese’s world last semester with Taxi Driver and The King of Comedy. I was expecting to see a lot of crazy shish kebab to go down in this film and Goodfellas didn’t disappoint.
According to Richard Dyer, whiteness is the norm and nothingness. And last I checked, being a gangster who steals and kills anything and anyone is not the norm…Although Henry and his Mafia family can put on the guise of whiteness (due to their skin color) they are not white. I think the film even discusses this idea of whiteness and reveals to us that they are not white. For instance, when Henry is describing the Mafia life he says how they don’t work at crummy jobs, commute on the train for little pay. What he just described is the norm, it’s being white. But what they do is a whole different story. There was another instance where Henry is being compared to an African American because he stole a man’s truck. Moreover, if they were really meant to be white I don’t think the director would have chosen to make their Italian culture part of the film.
But it all changed when Henry joined the witness protection program. He threw away his crazy lifestyle for the normal white lifestyle. The last scene of the film epitomizes this: Henry in a robe walking to get the paper and him saying, “I have to wait around like everyone else…I’m an average nobody, I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.” If that doesn’t scream out whiteness, I don’t know what does.
I saw the same power in this film’s voiceovers as I saw in the film noir voiceovers. I stand by my point that the environment and nature of the film demand the use of voiceover. I honestly, don’t think the film would be as good or powerful without the voiceover. We get to see what’s going on in Henry and Karen’s minds. Moreover we get to truly experience the Mafia and Henry’s thoughts on it as the film progresses. The film also made me think a lot about The Pawnbroker. Both these films address the notion of whiteness in film but also present an above the law, gangster and ghetto motif. Rodriguez would fit right in with the Mafia bosses like Pauly and Jimmy. It would actually be very interesting to see those two gangs fight.
