Martin Scorsese reveals the “real character” in ‘Goodfellas’
Cinephiles and casual audiences alike would be hard-pressed to name the definitive Martin Scorsese movie. The director is, bar Steven Spielberg, the most legendary living filmmaker who is still working today, one with a filmography spanning several decades that includes dozens of fantastic and unforgettable titles. However, given enough time, one reckons that an eventual consensus would be reached. Surely, out of his entire oeuvre, the ultimate Scorsese movie would be 1990’s sprawling gangster epic, Goodfellas.
Based on the 1985 book Wiseguy by co-writer Nicholas Pileggi, the plot tracked the life of Henry Hill, from an impressionable young boy in 1950s Brooklyn to a bonafide and influential mobster from the 1960s through to the 1980s. Whilst boasting a rich cast including fan-favourite Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito and Robert De Niro as Jimmy Conway, it was clear that the main character of Goodfellas was Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill. Or so you might think, anyway. But Scorsese is here to tell you that you’re wrong.
Speaking to GQ as part of a breakdown of his most iconic movies, the director inevitably reached his magnum opus, Goodfellas. Scorsese explained how having just come off the back of 1988’s The Last Temptation of Christ, he “almost didn’t want to make it”. Due to a deal with Warner Bros, the director technically owed them this movie, which initially shared the same title as the book it was based upon. However, Michael Powell, director of The Red Shoes and several “other masterpieces”, read the script and insisted that Scorsese plough on.
It was at this point that the director decided he would approach the film differently. He had already made a “gangster genre” film with Mean Streets, which had been made 15 years prior. This time, Scorsese knew that if he was to dip his toe in the murky mafia waters again, he must tackle it in a new and original way. The key? As far as Scorsese was concerned, Goodfellas would not have a central character.
“There is no main character,” the director explains. You’re not alone if that’s caused some of you to scratch your heads. Excluding the terrifying and murderous energy of Pesci’s character, the film is defined by the Shakespearean tale of Hill and his fall from grace. However, Scorsese sees Liotta’s character as something more of a guide through the movie’s landscape rather than a key player. “Ray Liotta is a wonderful actor,” the director says, “But he’s like… Virgil taking Dante through the underworld.”
Considering his decision to deviate from Mean Streets, it makes sense. That film was intrinsically linked to its characters, a rogue’s gallery of small-time crooks that captivated and hypnotised audiences with their distinct idiosyncrasies, vibrant (and violent) tendencies and charmingly authentic Italian-American slang. It was a movie about its characters – so Scorsese wanted his next big gangster flick to be about gangster culture itself.
“The real character in the movie is the underworld,” he explains. Indeed, Hill’s character acts as a vehicle to explore the very fabric of mob life. Through his trials and tribulations, we’re given a glimpse into a whole world and way of living that your ordinary citizen would never see. Having said that, we think to assert that Goodfellas has “no main character” is a bit of a stretch… but who are we to disagree with the master himself?
