Goodfellas
In this stunning mafia story, master director Martin Scorsese chronicles the touching story of Henry Hill. With Robert de Niro, Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta.
For as long as he can remember, half-Irish, half-Sicilian Henry wants to become a mobster. And he succeeds: at the age of sixteen he joins the notorious Lucchese family. Together with his psychotic partner Tommy – a masterclass in acting by Joe Pesci – he rapidly climbs the social steps of the hierarchical family. Yet, he also secretly maintains links with the FBI. Despite (or thanks to) his initial success and wealth, it turns out to be difficult for Henry to keep his head above water in the cold-blooded mafia environment.
GOODFELLAS is one of Scorsese’s many successful explorations of the mafia genre. The roots of his passion are evident: as a kid Scorsese liked to listen to the dramatic and funny stories of mobsters on the street corners of New York. His favourite actor Robert De Niro, as usual, pulled out all the stops for his role as Jimmy: he reportedly called Henry Hill eight times a day during shooting to discuss the details of his character. The end result is an outrageous mafia epic and perhaps even Scorsese’s magnum opus. That is, until he decided to make THE IRISHMAN.