After reading Nicholas Pileggi’s Wiseguy, an intimate biography of mobster Henry Hill, Martin Scorsese called the author and told him, “I’ve been waiting for this book my entire life.” He turned that book into Goodfellas, the definitive cinematic portrait of mafia life, a cautionary tale about the inevitability of tragedy when you allow yourself to be seduced by the gangster lifestyle.
While Goodfellas is the ultimate gangster movie (and even then, some moviegoers might argue that The Godfather is a finer film), a ton of masterpieces have been made about this particularly fascinating subject matter, so it has plenty of competition.
GOODFELLAS IS THE BEST: It’s A Cautionary Tale About The Mafia Life
The problem with a lot of gangster movies is that they make being a gangster look fun or they depict joining the mafia as a good idea. This is done whenever the film focuses on the perks, such as money and power, of such a lifestyle.
But Martin Scorsese knows that a life of crime leads to inevitable tragedy, and the story of Henry Hill -- who achieves his lifelong dream of entering the mafia only to rat them out to stay alive and out of prison -- provided him with the perfect template for a cinematic cautionary tale against mafia life.
CLOSEST CONTENDER: Once Upon A Time In America (1984)
Sergio Leone brought his keen cinematic eye to New York to shoot Once Upon a Time in America, his sweeping chronicle of childhood friends in the Jewish ghetto who grow up to become powerful figures in organized crime.
Robert De Niro and James Woods give fierce performances in the lead roles, while Leone’s breathtaking cinematography ensures that every frame in this sprawling epic is a sumptuous work of art.
GOODFELLAS IS THE BEST: It Has Some Of The Greatest Acting In Film History
Simply put, the performances in Goodfellas are spectacular. Ray Liotta’s performance as Henry Hill beautifully captures a wannabe mobster in over his head, a self-destructive cokehead, and an all-round bad fella, while Lorraine Bracco’s performance as Karen Hill captures a paranoid accessory, an embattled spouse and mother, and above all, a regular person seduced by the mafia lifestyle.
On top of that, the supporting performances are fantastic, from Joe Pesci’s scene-stealing, Oscar-winning portrayal of Tommy DeVito to more nuanced supporting turns from actors like Robert De Niro and Paul Sorvino.
CLOSEST CONTENDER: The Godfather (1972)
While Goodfellas offers a nightmarish portrayal of the mafia life, Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather offers a more romanticized one. The debate over the best mob movie often boils down to Goodfellas and The Godfather, and that’s because they each represent a side of the same coin.
The characters in Goodfellas are the middle management doing the dirty work for the big guys; the characters in The Godfather are the big guys, and the story of the Corleone crime family is a spectacular study of the corrupting nature of power.
GOODFELLAS IS THE BEST: Real Mobsters Testified To Its Accuracy
Just like how a bunch of real-life rock stars were convinced that This is Spinal Tap was a genuine documentary about a real rock band and not a satire, real-life mobsters have testified to the accuracy of Goodfellas.
Some gangsters have even said that watching Goodfellas feels like watching a home movie. That’s quite a testament to its portrayal of mafia life.
CLOSEST CONTENDER: Eastern Promises (2007)
Although he’s generally known as a pioneer of the body horror subgenre, David Cronenberg took a detour into gangster movie territory and delivered a refreshingly grisly entry into the lexicon, Eastern Promises, about Russian mobsters operating out of London.
There’s plenty of Cronenberg’s horror sensibility in the movie, particularly in the infamous knife fight in a Turkish bath. Naomi Watts stars as a midwife who delivers a 14-year-old sex slave’s baby and then protects it from the mobsters who forced the baby’s mother into prostitution, while Viggo Mortensen gives a terrific supporting performance as the enforcer caught up in it all.
GOODFELLAS IS THE BEST: It Moves Along At A Rapid Pace
Scorsese specifically set out to bring the manic energy of the opening moments of Jules et Jim to the entire runtime of Goodfellas. He described his vision as a two-and-a-half-hour trailer that starts out moving at the speed of a bullet and only gets faster from there.
He beautifully realized that vision with a nearly three-hour movie that moves along at a rapid pace, from iconic scene to iconic scene, using creative editing to capture the crazy whirlwind that is being a mobster.
CLOSEST CONTENDER: Miller’s Crossing (1990)
The plotting in Miller’s Crossing is so complex that the Coen Brothers took a break from writing the script and wrote Barton Fink in the meantime. In other words, the uncategorizable surrealist masterpiece Barton Fink is simplistic compared to Miller’s Crossing.
Gabriel Byrne stars as a career criminal caught in the crossfire of a gang war in the Prohibition Era. The movie is filled with brilliant performances, realized beautifully by cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld.
GOODFELLAS IS THE BEST: It’ll Never Get Old
There is no limit to the number of times that a given movie buff can watch Goodfellas. Movies like The Godfather deal with such heavy themes and tell their story in such a taxing way that they can only be enjoyed a handful of times.
Thanks to Goodfellas’ rapid pace, abundance of humor, and pitch-perfect construction, it’ll never get old and it can be enjoyed countless times. Whenever it’s on TV, you can pick up anywhere and find yourself sticking around until the end.
CLOSEST CONTENDER: The Godfather Part II (1974)
The instances that a sequel surpasses its predecessor are few and far between. And what’s interesting is that the best sequels tend to follow up movies that are believed to be untoppable, like Aliens, T2, and Blade Runner 2049. Such is the case with The Godfather Part II.
Against all odds, Francis Ford Coppola managed to write and direct a second Godfather movie that embodied the story’s themes even better than the original. The parallel storylines of a young Vito Corleone’s rise to power and Michael taking over as the new don offer a rounded portrait of what it's like growing up in the mob, and how seemingly inescapable such a tragic life is.