Goodfellas Film Retrospective

By Mia Ramsburg

“To me, being a gangster was better than being the president of the United States.” Martin Scorsese’s critically acclaimed film Goodfellas was originally released in 1990 and has since been named one of the greatest movies of all time. The film was originally inspired by author Nicholas Pillegis’ novel Wiseguy which is based on the true story of American mobster Henry Hill (played by Ray Liotta). The storyline follows Henry throughout the course of his lifetime. From a very young age, Henry is exposed to the both frightening and luxurious mob lifestyle. He is fascinated by the things you can get away with as a member of the mob. These gangsters had more than enough money to live comfortably. They easily got wives and girlfriends. And through Henry’s eyes, they had it all. From that point on, Henry was just infatuated with what it meant to be a mobster- and that’s when he realized that the lifestyle was just what he wanted.  

The central theme of Goodfellas is about what loyalty means to people. You can see this from the very first time that Henry is getting in trouble with the law. He’s praised for protecting his friends by not admitting to any criminal activities. After this, one of the most important lines of the movie is delivered: “Never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut.”  This sentiment is echoed by many members of the mob throughout the film, building it up as one of the most important parts of their lives. Scorsese does a phenomenal job at demonstrating that this idea of mob loyalty is all actually just one big lie to protect gangsters from trouble. Warmest before the hit, a mobster will do anything to promote themself and their own reputation. 

Supporting character Jimmy Conway played by Robert Deniro orchestrates a money heist that is very successful, but he ties up loose ends by killing everybody that he thought might talk to the cops. Even though Henry was loyal to Jimmy, the reason he doesn’t get killed isn’t that he was loyal- it’s actually because he wasn’t involved in the heist. The people who did get killed didn’t deserve it any more than he did. For example, Frankie Carbone was a robber who didn’t do anything wrong but still got “whacked” because he was tied into the theft. All this goes to show that in the end, mob loyalty only matters when it protects the people at the top. 

All together, the actions of the characters in Goodfellas prove that even though the mafia saw loyalty as very important, they weren’t actually loyal to each other in the way that normal people should be.