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Miller's Crossing is about friendship, character and ethics. GoodFellas is about friends who are colorful characters but left their ethics at the baptismal font. Even as a kid, Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) was crazy about the gangster life. He connives in murder one, runs a cocaine cartel, robs decent folks blind -- and, when he is caught, shrugs off all remorse. His patron is a stately Mafioso (Paul Sorvino) who warns him to stay out of the drug business; Henry jumps right in. His best friend is a wacko hoodlum (Joe Pesci) who gets whacked by his own family; Henry sheds no tears. His mentor is an Irishman (Robert De Niro) who cuts Henry in on the biggest hijacking in American history; Henry's testimony sends him to jail. The lad's only regret is for himself. At the end, he's still alive, but "I get to live the rest of my life like a shnook."
Most Scorsese movies are all exposition. The characters don't grow or learn, they just get found out. Same, in spades, here. So it is Scorsese's triumph that GoodFellas offers the fastest, sharpest 2 1/2-hr. ride in recent film history. He has said he wanted his picture to have the speed and info overload of a movie trailer. Two great labyrinthine tracking shots -- at a neighborhood bar and the Copacabana -- introduce, with lightning grace, about a million wise guys. Who are they? What are they doing, and who are they doing in? Just to catch all the ambient wit and bustle, you have to see GoodFellas twice -- not a bad idea.
Here is Scorsese's definition of the wise-guy philosophy: "Want. Take. Simple." They are animals, and watching GoodFellas is like going to the Bronx Zoo. You stare at the beasts of prey and find a brute charisma in their demeanor. You wonder how you would act if you lived in their world, where aggression is rewarded and decency is crushed. Finally you walk away, tantalized by a view into the darkest part of yourself, glad that that part is still behind bars.