The document discusses themes and analysis of the 1990 Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas. It notes that the film is told from the perspective of main character Henry Hill but also from the perspective of his wife Karen through voiceovers. Violence and sexuality are prominently featured, often depicted through close-ups of characters' eyes. The mise-en-scene and costumes are used to characterize different characters. The film also contains homages to earlier gangster films and highlights themes of home, family roles, and women being viewed as disposable commodities.
34. What is different about the three central
gangsters from the other gangsters in
the ๏ฌlm? (Henry, Jimmy, Tommy)
35. What is different about the three central
gangsters from the other gangsters in
the ๏ฌlm? (Henry, Jimmy, Tommy)
Outsidersโฆtwo have โimpureโ blood, the other is
not quite right, a little crazy
36. What is different about the three central
gangsters from the other gangsters in
the ๏ฌlm? (Henry, Jimmy, Tommy)
Outsidersโฆtwo have โimpureโ blood, the other is
not quite right, a little crazy
37. What is different about the three central
gangsters from the other gangsters in
the ๏ฌlm? (Henry, Jimmy, Tommy)
Outsidersโฆtwo have โimpureโ blood, the other is
not quite right, a little crazy
(Irish, Jewish (Karen), and later, African American-
Stacks)
38. What is different about the three central
gangsters from the other gangsters in
the ๏ฌlm? (Henry, Jimmy, Tommy)
Outsidersโฆtwo have โimpureโ blood, the other is
not quite right, a little crazy
(Irish, Jewish (Karen), and later, African American-
Stacks)
52. But the story is also
told from anotherโs
point of view. Whose?
53. Karen
Besides seeing a characterโs POV, how else does the ๏ฌlm
give us this information?
VOICE OVER
We HEAR as well as SEE cinema
54.
55. The Look:
What the characters see
What we--the spectator--see
56. The Look:
What the characters see
What we--the spectator--see
In Goodfellas:
57. The Look:
What the characters see
What we--the spectator--see
In Goodfellas:
58. The Look:
What the characters see
What we--the spectator--see
In Goodfellas:
Close-up on eyes
59. The Look:
What the characters see
What we--the spectator--see
In Goodfellas:
Close-up on eyes
Emphasize what people see (to look at, be looked at)
60. The Look:
What the characters see
What we--the spectator--see
In Goodfellas:
Close-up on eyes
Emphasize what people see (to look at, be looked at)
Most often:Violence
61. The Look:
What the characters see
What we--the spectator--see
In Goodfellas:
Close-up on eyes
Emphasize what people see (to look at, be looked at)
Most often:Violence
But violence mixes with sex
64. Violence and Sex in
Goodfellas
An act often against a characterโs eye
65. Violence and Sex in
Goodfellas
An act often against a characterโs eye
An act carried out against the spectatorโs eye
66. Violence and Sex in
Goodfellas
An act often against a characterโs eye
An act carried out against the spectatorโs eye
Dialogue:
67. Violence and Sex in
Goodfellas
An act often against a characterโs eye
An act carried out against the spectatorโs eye
Dialogue:
Pauly: โLook me in the eyeโ (threat)
68. Violence and Sex in
Goodfellas
An act often against a characterโs eye
An act carried out against the spectatorโs eye
Dialogue:
Pauly: โLook me in the eyeโ (threat)
Henry: โ[Karen] had great eyesโ (sexual desire)
135. Mise-en-scรจne and
character
Tommy
Whatโs so funny?
You think Iโm funny?
You laughing at me?
136.
137. Homage
Reference to, acknowledgment of, older ๏ฌlms.
For Scorsese, the homage reveals larger themes of
the ๏ฌlm.
138. Homage
Reference to, acknowledgment of, older ๏ฌlms.
For Scorsese, the homage reveals larger themes of
the ๏ฌlm.
1903 The Great Train Robbery
1990 Goodfellas [The Great Airline Heist?]
144. Homage in Goodfellas
FBI Arrives at house: Is Henry a โtalkerโ?
In this scene, Al Jolson mimics a bird.
Henry: Sings like bird in Sing-Sing?
The Jazz Singer (1927)-First โtalkieโ
145. Homage in Goodfellas
Other homage moments:
Oklahoma Kid (1939): Jimmy Cagney, the great gangster
plays a cowboy
Tommy (a cinephile?) mentions:
Stepinโ Fetchit
(Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, 1902-85)
Shane (1953)
โBen Caseyโ (TV Series, 1961-66)
The Jazz Singer (1927)-First โtalkieโ