GOODFELLAS Blu-ray

Martin Scorsese is the greatest filmmaker in the history of the cinema. It’s a bold statement, but after watching GoodFellas again, for what must be the 10th or so time now in my quarter century (and change) of existence, I can say that with relative certainty. Now, there are directors who I enjoy more – who mesh with my sensibilities on style and content, like Michelangelo Antonioni, Brian De Palma, Robert Bresson and John Carpenter, but none are as inherently “good” at storytelling as that mousy little Italian from the Bronx. Compared to his contemporaries (like De Palma or Carpenter) or to the celebrated auteurs of the genre (Antonioni and Bresson, among many others), Scorsese demonstrates an almost effortless command of genre, able to switch gears from period melodrama to hard-nosed gangster pictures with utter ease. While he certainly shows an affinity for the movies on the mean streets, he’s proven with black comedies like The King of Comedy and After Hours to period dramas like The Age of Innocence and The Aviator and even musical (New York, New York) and documentarian (My Voyage to Italy) interludes in between, that he can handle anything. And he can do it so well that his skill is virtually transparent.

We’ve come to expect things from Scorsese’s work – a roaming camera, quick cuts, insular leading men, bursts of emotional violence and deep seeded religious torment, and usually we get them. But what makes Scorsese so good is the way he we’ve these auteur trademarks into his work with such transparency. In Carpenter films I’ll pick out the Hawksian line exchange, the arbitrary four actor cinemascope composition, the Western outlook. I’ll see Carpenter in those moments, shining through whatever story he is telling. With Scorsese, his common storytelling recipes instead only help spice his actual story. They serve the material first before the director, even if they are obvious marks of his authorship. Case in point that virtuoso tracking shot when Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) takes his bride to be Karen (Lorraine Bracco, who'd land The Sopranos based on her work here) from the street, between the crowd, in through the basement and up and seated into the night club. It’s one of the most complicated and choreographed sequences I’ve ever seen, requiring virtually a city block worth of lighting, extras and blocking, and requiring nearly a full 1000 footer of 35mm film stock per take. Looking at the scene in a film class, it’s simply amazing. Scorsese’s defining shot. But looking at it within the scene, you’re hard pressed to even notice the complexity of the shot itself because it integrates so clearly with the fluidity of the moment. This is Karen discovering a whole new world, and the shot shows the interconnectedness the mob has with people and place. It may have Scorsese’s stamp all over it, but it works so well within the context of GoodFellas that you’d be hard pressed to point it out. That’s what makes a master of the medium.

Now when it comes to GoodFellas specifically, we could talk about the performances – how pitch perfect Liotta, De Niro, Pesci and Sorvino are in bringing depth, range and volatility to characters usually conceived of as shallow heavies in the Hollywood era. We could talk about the kinetic cinematography, the crisscrossing editing or even Saul Bass’ pitch perfect title cards. All these things are great, and all further demonstration of how strong a collaborator Scorsese is with both his cast and crew. But what makes the film for me is how accessible, enjoyable and in motion his film is. When you hear Scorsese speak at award ceremonies (and we’ve heard plenty these last few years!) he’s always motoring a mile a minute with endless tangents of interest, and when you watch how fast and observant GoodFellas is with time, psychology, characterization and metaphor, you can see that energy bleed through into his films. It’s not a “gangster movie” as we know it, like The Godfather or Scarface or Angels with Dirty Wings. It’s a biopic, it’s a period piece, it’s a drama, hell, it’s even a thriller for that tricked out bit of drug-induced paranoia that closes off the third act of the film. It’s so many things rolled into one, and each and every aspect is so compelling, from the little things like the observations about gangster names (“everyone is named ‘Peter’ or ‘Paul’!”) to the bigger things like Tommy’s (Joe Pesci) little guy complex or the thin line between laugh and death (“funny how?”). Whatever it is, it never feels like it’s a film about a theme or a story – it just feels like it is. It lives.

GoodFellas is probably the most visually stylish and kinetic film I can think of that still manages to come off as almost documentarian-like in its truths and closeness to character. You really feel like you are that camera following Henry into the night club, or the guy taking those stabs to the stomach for telling Tommy to fetch his shine box. Scorsese throws you right into the story (with that opening “from as far back as I can remember, I wanted to be a gangster” line) and never lets you out until those last frame gun shots hit you like a sobering alarm clock. It’s an upper, it’s a downer and it’s an all around jolt to the safe artificiality of the cinema. GoodFellas is a movie that is so bustling with life you almost feel like a character is going to come out of the screen all Purple Rose of Cairo style to whisk you into Scorsese’s fabulous world. And you wish it could be so. It’s as vivacious a film Scorsese has ever made, and as long as I’m living I’ll have comfort knowing that GoodFellas will be living right there beside me.

presentation...

Speaking of life, this new 1080p transfer certainly is as close to it as we’ve come with the film on home video. Previously released on HD-DVD, the film gets a minor face lift here on Blu-ray, slightly richer colors and a bit more cleanup. Some of the scenes still play a bit darker than they probably should. Also, there were a few scenes where I noticed some artificial sharpening, but for the most part the picture looks solid without looking falsely crisp or processed. It’s not quite as sharp as the new films today, but as the film approaches its twenty year anniversary, it still looks pretty damn dapper. Not Jimmy Conway dapper, but hey, here’s a twenty, go buy a drink.

The sound is presented in disappointing Dolby Digital 5.1. I can see using that for the early days of HD-DVD, but a few years later on Blu-ray, when everyone is using lossless TrueHD or DTS-HD, and this certainly sounds dated. Not only is the track thinner and more muffled compared to HD audio masters, but there’s a pretty lazy use of the surrounds. There is very little depth to the track, and overall it’s merely passable. For a film of such pedigree, the sound deserved so much more.

extras...

On this Blu-ray you essentially get everything that was on the special 2-disc DVD and the HD-DVD in addition to a feature length Turner classics documentary on gangster films on a separate DVD. “Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film” if nothing else, will certainly give you a laundry list of interesting gangster films to add to the movie queue. It examines the big stars from the era, the big producers who made them, and the big studio, Warner Brothers, where many were made. It tries to make connections between the past and present, and offers up some interesting historic events that helped shape the course of the genre. Also included on the disc are some amusing gangster-themed cartoons. Neither are essential for the enjoyment of GoodFellas, but they do offer a nice perk for fans of the genre.

Now, on to the older stuff. There are two commentaries culled together from past interviews from the last two decades. The first, “Cast and Crew” contains Scorsese, Liotta, Bracco, Sorvino, Frank Vincent and a number of the top brass on the film. The second, “Cop and Crook” has the real Henry Hill along with former FBI agent Edward McDonald. Hill’s commentary isn’t quite as engaging or revealing as one would hope, but the cast and crew piece is just stuffed with interesting stuff. That’s five hours of extras right there.

There are also three featurettes. “Getting Made” again culls together a number of older interviews, including some with Pesci and De Niro, as well as a bunch of behind the scenes footage to really give you a sense of the production. The best bits are the candid shots of Scorsese directing on set. Totally engaging. The next doc, “Made Men: The GoodFellas Legacy” features a number of top Hollywood directors talking about how good the film is and the kind of influence it has had on their careers. Among the directors are the Hughes brothers, Jon Favereau, Joe Carnahan, Richard Linklater and Frank Darabont. Who knew Darabont screened it every Saturday while making Shawshank? The last featurette again goes for the “truth” angle by interviewing Henry Hill and others on the reality of the gangster lifestyle. Again, ehh, not so good, but I guess it’s good to have here.

Rounding off the set is “Paper is Cheaper than Film”, which is a sizable storyboard-to-screen comparison. Finally, the classic theatrical trailer is also included. Like Warner’s other HD product, this does not have a main menu and the movie just begins playing upon insertion. The package is in a nice shiny bookcase packaging similar to previous Blu-rays for JFK and Natural Born Killers. There’s a nice picture-laden booklet glued in between the two discs. The packaging gives the film class worthy of a fine plate of pasta at the Copacabana.

wrapping it up...

GoodFellas is a brisk and beautiful bit of filmmaking levity by Martin Scorsese. So stylized, yet so verite-like in its directness, it’s one of those rare movies that can just do it all and captivate you every step of the way. It’s so much more than just your standard gangster film, it’s a living, breathing document of life and death, family and friends and all the bumps in between. And a lot of violence. The video is slightly better than the HD-DVD but still not quite perfect, and the sound is sadly missing the HD upgrade it deserves. The bonus documentary is a nice addition, and the featurettes are great, but those with HD-DVD players would probably be better off getting that disc for a couple bucks rather than shelling out $34.99 for this modest upgrade. Regardless, though, this is a masterpiece that demands to be in your collection. Don’t be surprised to wake up to the gun shots of Joe Pesci if you don’t get it.

overall... Content: A Video: B Audio: B- Extras: B+ Final Grade: B