When I watch a movie or hear the words, "Based on a true story", I question a director's and screenwriter's motives of trying to persuade us to watch it for simply entertainment because we might think it is a true story but sometimes the studio would like to interfere and create more fluffy action or suspense to generate income from ticket sales. However, when you have a capable and talented director like Martin Scorsese, audiences and people who work with him trust him because he is prepared and he does whatever is necessary to take a story like this movie I will talk about and transcend the story into something revolutionary and essential like we are a part of the certain world depicted on-screen.
Now, crime movies today attempt to have that vibe like Goodfellas had and make the story not as aggressive or true it could have been because the movie is so masterful in its craft. Like Black Mass, a solid mob movie starring Johnny Depp, had a gritty vibe to the movie and to its main character but the movie tried so hard to be the Martin Scorsese masterpiece that the movie is too laid back into creating the dynamic between certain characters that the movie never becomes as suspenseful as it was presented in its promotional campaigns. The movie is one of my favorite mob movies next to The Godfather I and II and it is one of my favorite movies of all-time.
Henry is taken under Paulie's wing and works with Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) for most of the robberies including the Air France Robbery in 1967. While enjoying their perks of the criminal life, they spend most of their nights in different nightclubs including the Copacabana. While burning a business joint down, Tommy asks Henry a favor to go out with his girlfriend's friend who is named Karen (Lorraine Bracco), a Jewish woman living in Long Island. After a very awkward first date and being stood up, Karen stands up for herself looking like Liz Taylor to Henry saying that he forgot the date and she will think about going out with him again. Later, they fall in love and get married. Karen is worried whether Henry will go to jail because of his criminal activities but Henry assures her that everything will be all right as long as they are careful.
In 1970, Henry, Jimmy and Tommy are reunited with a head mobster, Billy Batts (Frank Vincent) who insults Tommy about his time of being a shoeshine body. Tommy gets infuriated as he leaves but comes back for he and Jimmy to severely beat him. The murder of a made member spreads the news as Paulie questions Henry about the event whether or not he witnessed it. Jimmy, Henry and Tommy cover up the murder as they transport the body in the trunk of Henry's car and bury it upstate. Someone is in big trouble and someone is going to get killed for the consequences of one's actions.
Obviously, this is an excellent mob movie as this movie is structurally organized with such precise detail in its screenplay, direction, production design, costume design, acting and even music choices. As Scorsese places his camera to take us behind-the-scenes of what the mob looks like and where they hang out and what they discuss. In a very funny scene, we listen to Tommy reciting a story to Henry and his friends regarding him beating a guy in a very clever and humorous manner. But, also, we see Joe Pesci's character of Tommy being enigmatic of what the mob represents when he starts to scare Henry as to how funny he is. Watch the clip below. It is masterfully framed as we back away from Tommy's hidden rage and Henry's hidden fear thinking that he may get beaten.
All of these gangsters have the pleasure of having to steal from innocent bystanders. Like I said in my Wolf of Wall Street review, the guys on Wall Street are terrible people who have the pleasure of stealing from innocent bystanders but they keep going on in being excessive by having more money, drugs and hookers. They cannot seem to stop and their excessiveness is the point and it gets tiring but entertaining. With this movie, they are gangsters and artistically, behind the glamour, Scorsese is saying that they are scum but somehow they are likable characters who are scum because these interesting people have the experience of knowing the ins and outs of their inner circle and the law because nobody else from the outside knows about them. Even though they steal, they are intelligent in knowing what one mobster is up to. If witnessed about their activity, the citizen will be whacked.
Continuing with the world of the mob, the mobsters seemed to not care whether or not they get in trouble with the slightest problem but regarding a big problem, we will get to that. When mobsters go to prison, for example, in a scene in which Paulie and his friends are in jail cooking authentic Italian food, slicing onions so thin that it would liquefy the pan, Henry and his mobster friends seem to enjoy the lifestyle in prison. Even when Henry is taken away to jail, he casually says to the driver to take him to jail and is not afraid nor scared. Agains, he knows the system with the mob and the law.
Now, speaking of problems, when Tommy is receiving news from the mob that he is getting made, he, Jimmy and Tommy celebrate after being a part of the Lufthansa heist. Jimmy and Henry can never be made because they are both Irish and half-Irish, half-Italian respectively. A member of the mob has to be 100% Italian so the crew can trace you back to your relatives when something comes about. But, unfortunately, Tommy is whacked because of the Billy Batts situation because he did not get approval to kill a made man and other things that the mob had enough of. This event triggers the movie into a descent to paranoia and the mob's power.
This paranoia and anxiety is chronicled in a virtuoso sequence in Henry's last day as a wiseguy as he observes a helicopter flying in the air supposedly keeping an eye on him. Henry is also fueled by an excessive amount of cocaine and amphetamines as he and Karen have to take care of certain things regarding his Pittsburgh connections. Ray Liotta was actually driving under the influence to portray Henry's stressful day as certain camera angles are focused on his paranoia as he is so flushed. When he gets caught, Henry recites some astute dialogue in which he is worried about the mob finding out about what he is doing with the drugs. Henry narrates that people would never threaten him in a derogatory manner because it is usually police who speak in that manner, and if the mob were to threaten him by whacking him, he would never hear a thing and he would be dead. That is a moment of tension and fantastic observation. And, the ending with a wiseguy shooting at Henry referencing The Great Train Robbery symbolizes that Henry regrets that he is no longer a gangster.
(Only one part of the sequence because it is a long but excellent sequence.)
Martin Scorsese's mob movie is perfect as the cold and sudden violence depicts what the mob represents: a society of scum that wants to take everything for themselves for fun even though we like the characters in the end. There were moments in this film like I was in the setting or in the environment like the Christmas scene in the bar where they are celebrating the Lufthansa heist and also the holiday itself. It is also one of the best edited movies ever made as Thelma Schoonmaker makes fantastic decisions into where certain shots are shot especially Henry's drug-addicted sequence. The soundtrack is also tantamount to the different times and is equivocal to the sentimental and seemingly mirthful events. This is the best and most accurate true, in my opinion, representation of organized crime I've ever seen as it balances the violence, drama and comedy correctly.
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