Analysis of Goodfellas

Paige Dahlke 12/5/14 Introduction to Film Studies Paint them Red Considered to be one of the best gangster films of all time, Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (Warner Bros., 1990) follows the experiences of Henry Hill as he makes his way up the Italian mob hierarchy. Henry has placed mobsters on a godlike pedestal since he was a young boy, so with him as the main narrator, the film could have easily glorified the violent acts that were committed by the mobsters. Scorsese, however, was able to manipulate the audience’s perception of them with cinematic techniques. He doesn’t deny the thrilling feeling that comes with being in the mob; this can be seen in the scenes in which Henry is young and the gangster life appears much more desirable. It is the perpetual love of the life and the thrill that leads to the inevitable downfall of the gangsters in this film. They become overconfident in their status and/or too comfortable with murdering people, which turns them into unlikeable characters. In youth, Tommy was bearable, but as he grows older, he becomes more and more psychopathic. Scorsese allows the audience to experience the good years of excitement along with Henry and Tommy, but he also doesn’t cover their eyes when the blood and guts make an appearance. The scenes that depict the unfavorable side of mobsters resonate with the viewers more so than those that display the thrill. Scorsese wanted the violent and lethal qualities of the gangster to be unsettling and memorable, so he set up the scenes to accomplish that. The choices he made regarding shot composition and mise-en-scene, in particular, clarify that the gangsters in Goodfellas are meant to both appear dangerous 1 and make the audience feel uncomfortable. Most of the scenes that accomplish this effect have one obvious thing in common: their use of red lighting. While the opening scene, the “funny guy” scene, and the burial scene all share this hazy red lighting, Scorsese also delves deeper into his technical knowledge with each of them to successfully portray the corrupt gangster as a dangerous, unsympathetic character. His first attempt at this is made less than two minutes into the film (1:20- 2:12). Three central characters are presented in low-key lighting with deep red filters: Henry (Ray Liotta), Tommy (Joe Pesci), and Jimmy (Robert De Niro). They stand facing the trunk of the car, in a classic “us” versus “them” fashion; except in this case it is “us” versus “whatever is inside the trunk”. Alternating between a shot of the trunk and a medium long shot of the gangsters, Scorsese infers the impending confrontation. The audience may have their suspicions as to what’s inside the trunk, but it isn’t until Henry opens it that they know for sure that these guys are bad news. The man inside, who is later revealed to be Billy Batts, is almost completely covered in a white tarp, which allows for his bloodied state to be more evident. The way that the tarp is wrapped around his head makes him look defenseless – like a baby wrapped in a blanket. Batts is made to look even more helpless in the following medium shot, when Tommy looms over him in a stance of power and stabs him relentlessly. This is true a few shots after that as well, when Jimmy approaches the trunk and shoots the victim multiple times. There is a medium close up of Jimmy’s arm and hand as he fires at Batts, each shot clearly unnecessary. By placing the camera up close and personal to the brutal violence that occurs, Scorsese introduces the trio to the audience as ruthless murderers. Unlike Hitchcock’s Psycho, Goodfellas blatantly depicts stabbing on screen, giving the violence 2 a certain level of realism. Tommy’s motions aren’t exaggerated, and although Jimmy shot the guy a few more times than necessary, it seems like the kind of subtly viscous attack plan a gangster would use. The taillights are assumed to be the source of light, causing a red tint over the characters. In this case, the hue signifies the blood on the gangsters’ hands and their involvement in in harming the bloody man in their trunk. The low-key lighting paired with the color gives them a dominant and lethal aura. Seeing as the viewers watch Henry grow up after this scene, these first few moments are key; the shots give a sneak peak into Henry’s unfortunately inevitable life as a member of a murderous gang. Of course, Henry isn’t the only one that the audience expects to turn out rotten; later in the film’s iconic “funny how?” scene (20:40- 22:00), Tommy is the character in focus: everyone is circled around him and the restaurant seems to become quieter as he talks, which is a sign of respect. Because the shot contains many people, the line of the light in the middle of the table guides the audience’s eyes to the person speaking, so they keep their attention on the correct characters. These lights are also covered in thin red strips of plastic, giving the room and the characters a slightly red hue that is reminiscent of the gruesome opening scene. With that in mind, the red is a warning of the possible horror that might ensue. The fear that the other characters have of Tommy isn’t without reason, because in this scene, one minute he’s joking around and the next he’s staring at Henry like he wants a reason to kill him. The gangsters in this film are known to snap at any given second, especially Tommy. Over the shoulder shots serve to increase the tension as well, for the audience can’t see how Tommy is reacting as Henry tries to explain himself. There is also barely any open screen space in the scene; a vertical line 3 can’t be put anywhere on screen without passing over a person in the shot. The crowded table and restaurant make the audience feel suffocated in the tension filled space. Through these effects, Scorsese makes the viewers loose every last ounce of comfort they had felt with Tommy. If he’s willing to go after his close mobster friends, why should he be trusted? Once Henry realizes that to Tommy’s demented sense of humor, the situation must be some sort of joke, the tense atmosphere is lifted. But, like the red light used throughout the scene, the intimidation factor lingers for the rest of the shot. The most extreme usage of this sinister red tint is used about half way into the film, during the burial scene (65:29- 66:02). Varying from the other two scenes, the colored low-key lighting in this one doesn’t have an obvious explanation. It would be wrong to assume that the red hue is caused by the taillights of the car, for in the opening scene it shows that the location of the light source in the burial scene would have most likely been in the trees, somewhere a car would be unable to easily maneuver. That being said, Scorsese probably placed a red gel covered light behind the mound of dirt in this scene, where the light seems to be at its brightest, along with a fog machine to make the light less questionable. Point being, he wanted to have this red effect used again, whether it be realistic or not. The red, while reminding the viewers of the scene in which Tommy and Jimmy savagely murdered Billy Bates, also makes the shot appear toxic and hazardous, like a red flare has been lit in the middle of a battlefield. An extreme long shot of three dark silhouettes against the hazy red background makes them unrecognizable until one of them, Henry, jumps out of the grave in a coughing fit, separating himself from the others. The alternating medium long shots between Henry and Tommy with Jimmy that follow acknowledge two possible mental paths that a 4 mobster can go down: one, go mad and treat murder like a joke, or two, a slightly less dramatic version of one. While viewers might have seen the gangster life as being tempting in the beginning, despite the graphic opening scene, there is a very small chance that their views will remain the same after seeing the effects of being in the mob for too long. After all, it was Tommy’s overconfidence in his position that lead to his death; he loved his power too much to see that he wasn’t even at the top of the mobster food chain, and when he took down someone who was, he got shot in the head. Tommy, like Henry, became involved with the mob as a young boy. The thrills they experienced back then were undeniable, and the way that Scorsese allows the audience to enjoy the thrill with them acknowledges that. But as they grew older, the mob expected more from them; the two of them did the dirty work and were corrupted by it. Tommy, of course, let the power go to his head. Henry made horrible decisions too, but at least he didn’t end up with a bullet through his skull. Scorsese demands for the audience to acknowledge the dark life of the gangster in the moments leading up to their inevitable downfall, the moments in which they get too caught up in the thrill to realize the damage they do.

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