Goodfellas

Dir. Martin Scorsese. 1990, 145 mins. 35mm. With Ray Liotta, Lorraine Bracco, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci. With Goodfellas, Scorsese redefined the gangster film by humanizing it—taking the viewer inside the characters’ minds to understand their drives and fears. He masterfully uses every film technique in the book to demonstrate Henry Hill’s attraction to a life of crime, his nervous addiction, and his isolation in going straight. Nicholas Pileggi wrote the screenplay, based on his book.