‘My Blue Heaven’: The unofficial sequel to ‘Goodfellas’
Martin Scorsese has countless masterpiece movies to his name, from his early efforts in the shape of Mean Streets and Taxi Driver to his efforts in the 21st century, like The Wolf of Wall Street and Killers of the Flower Moon. But slap-bang in the middle of the legendary director’s filmography is perhaps the best of the lot, 1990’s Goodfellas.
Chronicling the life and criminal career of Henry Hill, portrayed remarkably by Ray Liotta, Goodfellas is based on Wiseguy, the non-fiction book by Nicholas Pileggi, and serves as a gritty, humorous and intense work of cinema that dives headfirst into the underbelly of the New York mafia of the 20th century, fully in line with the kind of narratives that Scorsese favours in delivering.
With Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci also in tow in some of the best respective roles, a brilliant soundtrack (as expected from Scorsese) that transports the audience back into the thick of the era, and more Scorsese-trademarks, like freeze frames and fast cuts, Goodfellas is rightfully considered one of the iconic filmmaker’s best ever works.
The film ends with Hill becoming an informant to the FBI, and his accomplices are arrested and imprisoned, with Hill moving into the witness protection program. There have been no signs of a sequel from Scorsese, but there, in fact, exists an unofficial continuation of the narrative that oddly stars none other than Steve Martin.
My Blue Heaven, directed by Herbert Ross, written by Nora Ephron and starring Martin, Rick Moranis and Joan Cusack, was released just one month after Goodfellas and several people pointed out their similarities at the time. While Martin’s former mobster character is named Vincent ‘Vinnie’ Antonelli, both he and the film itself are based on Henry Hill and Pileggi’s book Wiseguy.
Nora Ephron was Pileggi’s wife, after all, and the research for both films took place in the same sessions. The comedic examination of the witness protection program sees Vinnie relocated to a small, quiet suburban town, where he is placed under the supervision of Rick Moranis’ FBI agent, Barney Coopersmith.
As Vinnie settles into his new life of boredom and drudgery, he has to keep an eye out for figures from his past who might be looking to get even with him and Martin’s performance as the character is typical of his style, featuring razor-sharp wit and unrivalled comic timing, portraying Vinnie as a likeable but slightly moronic former mobster.
There are indeed moments of humour within Goodfellas, but My Blue Heaven serves as the most directly funny adaptation of the life of Henry Hill. Featuring classic songs from the 1950s and 1960s, Herbert Ross, like Scorsese, goes for a sense of authenticity, but the light and entertaining mood of the film serves as the perfect complement to the dark intensity of the De Niro and Liotta-starring original.
