The one movie Matt Damon thinks is completely perfect: “Everybody loves that movie”
Any actor would consider themselves lucky to be afforded the opportunity to star in a film for Martin Scorsese, and while the likes of Robert De Niro and Leonardo DiCaprio have featured for the legendary director on several occasions, Matt Damon has only turned up on a solitary occasion, in 2006’s crime thriller The Departed.
Also starring DiCaprio, Jack Nicholson, Mark Wahlberg and Martin Sheen, The Departed, based on the real-life Boston Winter Hill Gang, serves as a remake of the 2002 Hong Kong movie Internal Affairs and the film focuses on corrupt FBI agent John Connolly and dives into a narrative of deception and hidden identities.
Damon once spoke of Scorsese’s prowess as a director and discussed his remarkable run of films from early in his career into its middle. While the first handful of efforts from the inimitable director are certainly considered some of his best, there are few in the eyes of Damon, quite like his mesmerising movie of 1990.
“Every time he does a movie – he does Mean Streets, then he does Taxi Driver and then Raging Bull, and it’s like my God, amazing; he just on such a tear in that timeframe,” Damon noted on The Bill Simmons Podcast. “Then it’s like, what could he possibly do, and he does Goodfellas. That movie is perfect. Everybody loves that movie. I think that’s his best film.”
Goodfellas presents a raw and unflinching portrayal of the criminal underworld, depicting the allure of power and wealth juxtaposed with the brutality and moral decay inherent in organised crime. Scorsese’s direction is marked by its kinetic energy, utilising frenetic camera work, a pulsating soundtrack, and a non-linear narrative to immerse viewers into the world of the mob.
An obvious fan favourite, this film made Scorsese the household name he is. The movie, which questions the extent of willful ignorance on the part of an individual towards his compatriot’s immorality, boasts an incredible ensemble and helped to define the cirecto’s career, even if it wasn;t as highly celebrated as it perhaps should have been.
The actor continued: “There’s just no question that 30 years later, that movie is what it is. So that’s why it’s not that worth getting twisted or out of shape about nominations because nobody’s going to remember if somebody backed into a nomination by campaigning really well. Like Ray Liotta didn’t get nominated. In 30 years, that’s not going to mean anything. It’s so damn good.”
Goodfellas is indeed one of Scorsese’s best-ever movies, and it was something of a shock that Ray Liotta was not nominated for an Oscar for his portrayal of real-life criminal Henry Hill in the 1990 film. Joe Pesci, who starred alongside Liotta and Robert De Niro, won ‘Best Supporting Actor’ that year, but Liotta’s omission raised more than a few eyebrows.
Damon went on to explain how The Departed could never match up to the brilliance of Goodfellas, even though it was well received at the Academy Awards, winning ‘Best Picture’, ‘Best Direction’, ‘Best Adapted Screenplay’ and ‘Best Film Editing’.
“Common perception kind of caught up with his genius by that point, so The Departed, I’m very proud to have been in that movie, but it’s not one of Marty’s best movies,” Damon said. “[However], there was no way he was not going to win ‘Best Director’ by the Academy. It was cheapening the award at that point that he didn’t have one.”
It was doing more damage to the Academy that he didn’t have one because it was so absurd after what he had done for American cinema he didn’t have one,” Damon added. “But some movies are polarising, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.”
