Ends and Odds: The Ravings Of An Old Man by Dave Jaffe. Review Of An Old Movie

   Review Of An Old Film "Goodfellas': "Crime Doesn't Pay'




      'Goodfellas' by now is an ancient film. It came out in 1990, nearly thirty years ago. Yet I bought a DVD version of the film from a video store about a week ago.( I am lucky. This video store called 'Black Dog Video' is one of only two or three video stores left in Vancouver.)
      What is 'Goodfellas' about? Mostly crime. It's full of violence murder and bloodshed done by gangsters. Some of these men are Italian-Americans: some aren't. They live in New York City from the 1950's to the 1970's. What the film proves simply is that crime doesn't pay. "Any new criminal starting out on  a life of crime," writes the American sociologist Randall Collins, "has a lot to,learn and many connections to make."
    In this sense the young Henry Hill (Ray Liotto) is lucky. Growing up in Brooklyn in the early 1950's, he learns a lot and makes connections as a young adolescent. He runs messages for criminals, survives beatings by his father, and by his early 20's is a full fledged criminal. Now he has made friends with Tommy De Vito(Joe Pesci) and Jimmy "The Gent" Conway (Robert De Niro). These three and others do horrible things. They extort money, sell stolen goods, brutalize other people and in the case of Conway and De Vito kill quite a few people.
     As a very young man Hill admires the Mafia don played by Paul Sorvino. Near the film's end he denounces him and Conway to the police. Tommy De Vito is by now dead, killed by another gangster.
     The film directed by Martin Scorsese and scripted by Scorsese and Nicolas Pileggi is based on Pileggi's book called "Wiseguy: Life In A Mafia Family'.The movie is told in a semi-documentary style by Hill and his wife Karen (Lorraine Bracio). 'Goodfellas' is full of scenes of meals which serve up delicious food, visits to night clubs and robberies and murder. Yet  the old adage  "Crime doesn't pay" comes true. Nearly all the criminals end up killed or behind bars. Hill survives but only be turning state's evidence. "Never rat on your friends," Conway tells Hill  near the film's beginning. Hill breaks this rule and survives.
     Scorsese's film is one of the finest gangster films I've seen. Yet it's not for the faint of heart. These 'Goodfellas' are anything but good. They're mostly killers who end up dead or in prison. And its's in prison where they belong.