Both sides of a tragic tale – the glitz and glamour and the nuts and bolts – are told by Martin Scorcese and Nicholas Pileggi, retelling Henry Hill’s journey from hijacker and street tough to drug dealer and gambler to federal informant. The two works exemplify the difference between film and literature; Goodfellas enables you to visualize the events and see how a character chooses a course of action and Wise Guy recounts exactly what happened and how it was done.
In retrospect, Goodfellas will be recognized as one of the top three films of the 1980s, although stylistically it seems to belong more to the 1990s. Scorsese utilizes his entire bag of tricks to bring the story to life: trailing shots, jump cuts, and extreme close-ups. A montage to Eric Clapton’s keyboard music of murders which were part of the aftermath of the Lufthansa robbery shows the absurdity of the violence. The audience may be unfamiliar with organized crime in the real world but they receive a bird’s eye view in the theatre.
These gangsters, members of Paul Vario’s crew were entirely out of touch with reality and method actors such as Robert DeNiro, Ray Liotta, and Joe Pesci bring this attitude to life. They remain despicable, but the audience understands how they made their choices. Jimmy the Gent, Henry Hill, and Tommy DeSimone are not tragic heroes but they do not seem to fall under a particular category of villain. They are merely people who feel a sense of entitlement and act however they please. Unrepentant, they follow a culture of violence where even death a prison sentences are treated indifferently.
Classic cinema usually focused on heroes that society could believe in. In the late 1950s, films began to portray cracks in the facade of the idealistic leaders, for example the inept President Merkin Muffley. By the 1960 and 1970s, films would feature anti-heroes ranging from Michael Corleone to Travis Bickle and some would even dare portray an outright villain as a sympathetic character, such as Norman Bates. Goodfellas takes three real villains and brings them to life in a new way; apparently, Henry Hill said that Joe Pesci’s portrayal of Tommy DeSimone was ninty percent accurate, save for his shorter stature.
Wise Guy book offers incredible insight. Not only does Pileggi interview Henry Hill but he speaks with his wife, mistress, and federal authorities. The conflict between the wife and mistress is intriguing; both see themselves as morally correct and the other as flawed. It represents the fight between Hill’s two distinct lives: wise guy and family man. Based on Hill’s comments, you wonder how whether he was ever much of a family man but he still followed the mafia routine of taking his girlfriend out on Fridays and his wife on Saturdays.
Hill and his cohorts were involved in an astonishing number of crimes. The film combines various schemes together or hints at other illegal activity because there are too many incidents to count. Henry Hill was only a member of the mob for fifteen years yet he seemed to have his fingers in many pies. Most of the crimes required the co-operation of many people, including the police. If these gangsters had devoted their creativity to nobler pursuits, they could have been something.
At the end, Hill is not remorseful and boasts that he would do it all again if he could. He merely views the Witness Protection Program as a tool to hit Paul Vario and Jimmy the Gent because they have a chance to whack him. He has been using the system his entire life so why not keep doing so? There is no catharsis after his arrest, he simply starts seeking the next scam.
The book without the film – or vice-versa – is worthless. They need each other to paint as complete a picture as possible. Is Hill lying or exaggerating? It’s hard to say. His testimony never resulted in a conviction for the Lufthansa heist. When you read the book, you learn that these people, who appear to slick in the film, have difficult backgrounds and were abused as children. Did this cause them to turn to crime? I don’t know. Nevertheless, it makes for a compelling tale from which you cannot turn away. ****