Molly Forke: Goodfellas

               

              GoodFellas (1990)  

               Not only does Goodfellas have an incredibly crazy plot and story line, but the way it is told through imagery, story-telling and narration is what truly captures the audience.  I was hooked from the first couple scenes where the story-line somewhat goes back in time from him as a twenty-one year-old burying a dead body, to him as a teenager running errands for the mafia.  It was a nice way to show in only a few seconds that his life didn't start out as a malicious mobster.

                Another aspect of Goodfellas that I loved was the narration; almost as if a character each tells a chapter of the story.  It gave a good insight from not only an audience point of view, but also the character’s point of view.  It gave me a chance to listen and understand what was going through their mind while I also watched what was going on around them.  For example when Karen was stood up by Henry the first time they were supposed to go on a date; watching the movie it was very obvious she was mad as she stormed up to him, but she also told what was going through her mind as she approached him.  It’s a nice touch to get a more two-dimensional point of view.  The fact that the narrator changes throughout the movie allows the viewers to get inside more than one person's head, allowing understanding of not only that character speaking, but also the relationship between each other.

                I also noticed that a wide variety of framing and cropping techniques were used throughout the movie, but the scene that stood out to me the most was toward the end when Jimmy is trying to kill Karen by telling her to go pick out a fur coat next door.  As she is walking down the sidewalk it crops to her face to show excitement slowly fade into worry.  As she realizes what is going on, the shot shows the entire street, including Jimmy at the end.  As Karen speeds off in her car, it stays zoomed out to show her exiting.  The way each shot was cropped and framed highlighted emotions from the characters, for example when the audience was forced to watch just Karen's face.  As she walked, the audience can see her eyes, mouth, smile/frown, and brow change as trust and happiness becomes worry and distrust when she realizes this close family friend is actually trying to have her "offed".

                This movie is definitely a classic, I thoroughly enjoyed watching it.  I not only enjoyed the storyline, the characters, and the plot, but also the way it was all set up.