Goodfellas (1990)

The 1970s was a pretty crazy decade for Martin Scorsese. After the success of Mean Streets in 1972, the world was his. But as we have all learned from watching countless episodes of "Behind the Music", the good times don't always last. By the end of 1978, Scorsese was divorced for the second time and  had to be hospitalized for internal bleeding stemming from his intense drug use and hard partying. Luckily for us film lovers, he was able to sober up and channel all his unhealthy impulses into making some of the greatest films this world has ever seen. In numerous interviews you can find Scorsese justifiably looking back on those wild years with shame and disgust, yet a closer look at one of his most beloved films seems to cast a slightly different palor on things...

Growing up, I never used to really think about what Goodfellas was ABOUT. Like young Henry Hill, I was too busy enjoying the music, the camera angles, the drugs, the dialogue and of course the violence. But now, as a man in his late 20s with some significant regret in his rearview mirror, things are starting to make a bit more sense. Today I find myself sympathizing with the older Henry from the end of the film.

See the hardest thing for me was leaving the life. I still love the life. I mean we were treated like movie-stars with muscle. We had it all just for the asking. Our wives, mothers, kids, everybody rode along. I had paper bags filled with jewelry stashed in the kitchen. I had a sugar bowl filled with coke next to the bed. Anything I wanted was a phone call away. Free cars. The keys to a dozen hideout flats all over the city. I'd bet twenty, thirty grand over a weekend and then I'd either blow the winnings in a week or go to the sharks to pay back the bookies. Didn't matter. It didn't mean anything. When I was broke, I would go out and rob some more. We ran everything. We paid off cops. We paid off lawyers. We paid off judges. Everybody had their hands out. Everything was for the taking. And now it's all over. And that's the hardest part. Today everything is different; there's no action... have to wait around like everyone else. Can't even get decent food - right after I got here, I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce, and I got egg noodles and ketchup. I'm an average nobody... get to live the rest of my life like a schnook. 

Just because it was dangerous, doesn't mean it wasn't fun!