Is GOODFELLAS your favorite movie of all time?

scorsese is one of those guys where the famous official classics are the good ones and the minor 'overlooked gems' that everyone makes a big deal about preferring to the famous ones turn out to be overlooked for a reason.

like what?

well, i mean after hours isn't bad but saying it's better than goodfellas or taxi driver just seems crazy to me.

it's neither bad nor overlooked imho

No way is this better than back to the future or jaws! Sorry not my favorite then.

I mean it lacks a shark for christ's sake!

not my favorite scorcese film and hence not my favorite film of all time (I don't know what is, but it isn't this)

sorry goodfellas is not my favorite movie of all time :(

And certainly there's a lot to be said against the shocking violence --> cue up beloved pop song M.O. of the movie. (honestly I have no idea how often that actually happens but it seems to be my enduring impression of the movie.)

It does float along painlessly but it's never burrowed its way into my imagination because I hate the people it's about, it resembles my life in no respect, it has nothing (like a giant maneating shark) that seems to bubble up from my subconscious. And I'm kinda tired of that breezy editing style.

i can see how you might tire of really skilled and artful editing

never got it. preferred casino. find it hard to empathise/get into most scorsese flicks or de niro leads.

Well I agree it's artful and skillful and that the the movie is a masterpiece of it's type. It's slick and entertaining as hell. But eventually I feel like it's neither a nihilistic sensationalistic gangsta movie nor does it really seem to say anything about these people that strikes me as insightful. The interest of the movie, its reason for being, seems to be the vicarious thrill we get observing these people on the margin. Thats more thrilling for some than others. It makes me a bit queasy.

you really don't think goodfellas doesn't offer a perspective on gangsters & organized crime that is insightful to say the least? esp at the time it came out. i mean who else showed the details, teh working joe element of that lifestyle, the attraction, the petty politics like that, with that sense of realism?

Yes you have a valid point there.

i mean, i dig it if it's not your thing, esp as subject matter goes, but to dismiss it as un-insightful and merely 'breezily' edited is to miss out on a lot imo

xp

Henry Hill: All they got from Paulie was protection from other guys looking to rip them off. That's what it's all about. That's what the FBI could never understand - that what Paulie and the organization offer is protection for the kinds of guys who can't go to the cops. They're like the police department for wiseguys.

I think I preferred the sopranos because you could often detect an almost shocking amount of contempt and venom towards the characters. Maybe I'm being puritanical tho.

ya think?

It's an excellent film for sure, but I like a whole load of other movies better than it.

just a little tho! Look, I suppose relative to the world the movie inhabits these are interesting and rich characters with a fascinating and complex set of internal ethics. But you've got to want to enter that world to enjoy the movie. I recognize it's genre too and as such uses genre to explore America, comraderie, business, etc...

Xpost

i've been meaning to rewatch After Hours (it's prob been 10 years), partially based on Alex in NYC's lavish praise for it on ILX, but it really bugged the shit out of me when I saw it the first 1 (or 2?) times. And not in a good or interesting way.

It's not very good; most of the movie is like being trapped with five or six "SNL" skits that run on. John Heard and Linda Fiorentiono are the only ones who registered.

I don't know I don't think Goodfellas has any brave robots so it probably isn't my favorite movie.

Actually in the director's cut Morrie the wig salesman guy is a robot. But he isn't very brave.

yes OTM Alfred

Well I agree it's artful and skillful and that the the movie is a masterpiece of it's type. It's slick and entertaining as hell. But eventually I feel like it's neither a nihilistic sensationalistic gangsta movie nor does it really seem to say anything about these people that strikes me as insightful. The interest of the movie, its reason for being, seems to be the vicarious thrill we get observing these people on the margin. Thats more thrilling for some than others. It makes me a bit queasy.

Actually, if any film counts as a "shallow masterpiece," to quote Pauline Kael on Citizen Kane, it's Goodfellas. I'm willing to acknowledge how much fun this is, without noting the faint stirrings of conscience in Henry Hill. The Departed clearly shows the limits of shallow casting and writing, though.

im trying to avoid running any moralistic arguments against the movie to rationalize why i dont think it's all that....and mostly failing. but it does remind me why i preferred Godfather 2 to 1: because you can read against 2's pretensions to grand tragedy and decide that it's really about michael being a lonely petty little shit.

If the young Ray Liotta, fresh off Something Wild, had been cast in The Departed instead of Leo, the conflicts would have been more interesting...but that's another thread.

....and another movie.

goodfellas is just scarface for honkys

OK, I'll say it:

Tuomas, if you like "King of Comedy", you'll enjoy "Goodfellas".

I expect "some other movie" to win this poll, but I'm curious what the over/under is gonna be.

this was a great idea for a poll btw

...WHATEVER happens.

I expect "some other movie" to win this poll, but I'm curious what the over/under is gonna be.

― •--• --- --- •--• (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 17 February 2009 15:44 (4 minutes ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

I'm gonna guess maybe 20, 25% go for Goodfellas.

I mean, I voted other, but it may be third behind 12 Angry Men and Heathers.

My guess is 10% or less, Goodfellas.

If they ever make a movie called 12 Angry Heathers, I may have to change my vote.

some other movie: dazed and confused

http://www.burgerworldchronicles.com/domo/goodfellas_painting.jpg

one dog goes one way the other dog goes the other way and this guys sayin whadda ya want from me

Gonna watch this tonight, btw.

Three Kings!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! wtf did they even watch it.

wrong thread! sorry.

nice head of white hair

i kinda love that painting.

dis Mama S actually do the painting?

i think so

i like goodfellas, but it's not weird/geeky enough to be a favorite (no outerspace monsters, no "artistic" pornography, no creepy dream sequences, no all-dwarf casting, no animation, no nine-minute static shots, no relentless zombie holocaust, no klaus kinski, no homemade WTF charm, no fourth wall in tatters, no pretentious art nonsense, etc.)

uh dude it definitely breaks 4th wall