The document discusses themes and analysis of the 1990 Martin Scorsese film Goodfellas. It notes that the film is told from the perspective of main character Henry Hill but also from the perspective of his wife Karen through voiceovers. Violence and sexuality are prominently featured, often depicted through close-ups of characters' eyes. The mise-en-scene and costumes are used to characterize different characters. The film also contains homages to earlier gangster films and highlights themes of home, family roles, and women being viewed as disposable commodities.

3. Themes for the Semester

4. Themes for the Semester
• Home
• Modernism/Modernity
• Movement
• Performance
• Sound/Silent
• Violence

6. Goodfellas

7. Goodfellas
Directed by Martin Scorsese
1990

9. What is the first thing
we see when the movie
begins?

13. What is the last credit
we see before the film
begins?

14. Directed by Martin Scorsese

16. What is the first sequence of images we
see after the studio logo and the first set
of credits are presented?

17. What is the first sequence of images we
see after the studio logo and the first set
of credits are presented?

18. What is the first sequence of images we
see after the studio logo and the first set
of credits are presented?

19. What is the first sequence of images we
see after the studio logo and the first set
of credits are presented?

20. What is the first sequence of images we
see after the studio logo and the first set
of credits are presented?

21. What is the first sequence of images we
see after the studio logo and the first set
of credits are presented?

22. What is the first sequence of images we
see after the studio logo and the first set
of credits are presented?

23. What is the first sequence of images we
see after the studio logo and the first set
of credits are presented?

24. What is the first sequence of images we
see after the studio logo and the first set
of credits are presented?

25. What is the first sequence of images we
see after the studio logo and the first set
of credits are presented?

27. What song do we hear on the
freeze frame?

28. What song do we hear on the
freeze frame?
“Rags to Riches”
Sung by Tony Bennett

30. When do we see the first set of images
repeated?
Why?

31. Beginning of film is the middle of the film which is the
beginning of the end for our gangsters.

32. Cinema manipulates time and space

34. What is different about the three central
gangsters from the other gangsters in
the film? (Henry, Jimmy, Tommy)

35. What is different about the three central
gangsters from the other gangsters in
the film? (Henry, Jimmy, Tommy)
Outsiders…two have “impure” blood, the other is
not quite right, a little crazy

36. What is different about the three central
gangsters from the other gangsters in
the film? (Henry, Jimmy, Tommy)
Outsiders…two have “impure” blood, the other is
not quite right, a little crazy

37. What is different about the three central
gangsters from the other gangsters in
the film? (Henry, Jimmy, Tommy)
Outsiders…two have “impure” blood, the other is
not quite right, a little crazy
(Irish, Jewish (Karen), and later, African American-
Stacks)

38. What is different about the three central
gangsters from the other gangsters in
the film? (Henry, Jimmy, Tommy)
Outsiders…two have “impure” blood, the other is
not quite right, a little crazy
(Irish, Jewish (Karen), and later, African American-
Stacks)

40. In what screen-configuration do we often
see our ‘outsiders’?

41. In what screen-configuration do we often
see our ‘outsiders’?

42. In what screen-configuration do we often
see our ‘outsiders’?

43. In what screen-configuration do we often
see our ‘outsiders’?

45. In the first cinematic
triangle, who sits at the
apex or foreground?

47. Why?
What does this
position tell us?

48. What image do we see that tells us that this is Henry’s
film?

50. The story is from Henry’s POV

52. But the story is also
told from another’s
point of view. Whose?

53. Karen
Besides seeing a character’s POV, how else does the film
give us this information?
VOICE OVER
We HEAR as well as SEE cinema

55. The Look:
What the characters see
What we--the spectator--see

56. The Look:
What the characters see
What we--the spectator--see
In Goodfellas:

57. The Look:
What the characters see
What we--the spectator--see
In Goodfellas:

58. The Look:
What the characters see
What we--the spectator--see
In Goodfellas:
Close-up on eyes

59. The Look:
What the characters see
What we--the spectator--see
In Goodfellas:
Close-up on eyes
Emphasize what people see (to look at, be looked at)

60. The Look:
What the characters see
What we--the spectator--see
In Goodfellas:
Close-up on eyes
Emphasize what people see (to look at, be looked at)
Most often:Violence

61. The Look:
What the characters see
What we--the spectator--see
In Goodfellas:
Close-up on eyes
Emphasize what people see (to look at, be looked at)
Most often:Violence
But violence mixes with sex

63. Violence and Sex in
Goodfellas

64. Violence and Sex in
Goodfellas
An act often against a character’s eye

65. Violence and Sex in
Goodfellas
An act often against a character’s eye
An act carried out against the spectator’s eye

66. Violence and Sex in
Goodfellas
An act often against a character’s eye
An act carried out against the spectator’s eye
Dialogue:

67. Violence and Sex in
Goodfellas
An act often against a character’s eye
An act carried out against the spectator’s eye
Dialogue:
Pauly: “Look me in the eye” (threat)

68. Violence and Sex in
Goodfellas
An act often against a character’s eye
An act carried out against the spectator’s eye
Dialogue:
Pauly: “Look me in the eye” (threat)
Henry: “[Karen] had great eyes” (sexual desire)

70. Henry’s Eyes

71. Henry’s Eyes

72. Henry’s Eyes

73. Henry’s Eyes

74. Henry’s Eyes

75. Henry’s Eyes

77. More eyes

78. More eyes

79. More eyes

80. More eyes

81. More eyes

82. More eyes

83. More eyes

84. More eyes

86. Mise-en-scène and
character

87. Mise-en-scène and
character
Henry

88. Mise-en-scène and
character
Henry

89. Mise-en-scène and
character
Henry

90. Mise-en-scène and
character
Henry

91. Mise-en-scène and
character
Henry

92. Mise-en-scène and
character
Henry

93. Mise-en-scène and
character
Henry

95. Mise-en-scène and
character
Karen

96. Mise-en-scène and
character
Karen

97. Mise-en-scène and
character
Karen

98. Mise-en-scène and
character
Karen

99. Mise-en-scène and
character
Karen

100. Mise-en-scène and
character
Karen

101. Mise-en-scène and
character
Karen

102. Mise-en-scène and
character
Karen

103. Mise-en-scène and
character
Karen

104. Mise-en-scène and
character
Karen

106. Mise-en-scène and
character
Maury

107. Mise-en-scène and
character
Maury

108. Mise-en-scène and
character
Maury

109. Mise-en-scène and
character
Maury

111. Mise-en-scène and
character
Pauly

112. Mise-en-scène and
character
Pauly

113. Mise-en-scène and
character
Pauly

114. Mise-en-scène and
character
Pauly

115. Mise-en-scène and
character
Pauly

116. Mise-en-scène and
character
Pauly

118. Mise-en-scène and
character
Jimmy

119. Mise-en-scène and
character
Jimmy

120. Mise-en-scène and
character
Jimmy

121. Mise-en-scène and
character
Jimmy

122. Mise-en-scène and
character
Jimmy

124. Mise-en-scène and
character
Tommy

125. Mise-en-scène and
character
Tommy

126. Mise-en-scène and
character
Tommy

127. Mise-en-scène and
character
Tommy

128. Mise-en-scène and
character
Tommy

129. Mise-en-scène and
character
Tommy

130. Mise-en-scène and
character
Tommy

131. Mise-en-scène and
character
Tommy

132. Mise-en-scène and
character
Tommy

133. Mise-en-scène and
character
Tommy

134. Mise-en-scène and
character
Tommy

135. Mise-en-scène and
character
Tommy
What’s so funny?
You think I’m funny?
You laughing at me?

137. Homage
Reference to, acknowledgment of, older films.
For Scorsese, the homage reveals larger themes of
the film.

138. Homage
Reference to, acknowledgment of, older films.
For Scorsese, the homage reveals larger themes of
the film.
1903 The Great Train Robbery
1990 Goodfellas [The Great Airline Heist?]

140. Homage in Goodfellas

141. Homage in Goodfellas
The Jazz Singer (1927)-First ‘talkie’

142. Homage in Goodfellas
What’s on TV?
The Jazz Singer (1927)-First ‘talkie’

143. Homage in Goodfellas
The Jazz Singer (1927)-First ‘talkie’

144. Homage in Goodfellas
FBI Arrives at house: Is Henry a ‘talker’?
In this scene, Al Jolson mimics a bird.
Henry: Sings like bird in Sing-Sing?
The Jazz Singer (1927)-First ‘talkie’

145. Homage in Goodfellas
Other homage moments:
Oklahoma Kid (1939): Jimmy Cagney, the great gangster
plays a cowboy
Tommy (a cinephile?) mentions:
Stepin’ Fetchit
(Lincoln Theodore Monroe Andrew Perry, 1902-85)
Shane (1953)
“Ben Casey” (TV Series, 1961-66)
The Jazz Singer (1927)-First ‘talkie’

147. Home
What’s happened to it?

148. Home
What’s happened to it?
What is the role for women in this
world?

149. Home
What’s happened to it?
What is the role for women in this
world?
Mother

150. Home
What’s happened to it?
What is the role for women in this
world?
Mother
Wife

151. Home
What’s happened to it?
What is the role for women in this
world?
Mother
Wife
Mistress

152. Home
What’s happened to it?
What is the role for women in this
world?
Mother
Wife
Mistress
Whore

153. Home
What’s happened to it?
What is the role for women in this
world?
Mother
Wife
Mistress
Whore
What role does Karen occupy?

155. Mother? Wife? Whore?
Disposable Commodity?

156. Mother? Wife? Whore?
Disposable Commodity?

157. Mother? Wife? Whore?
Disposable Commodity?

158. Mother? Wife? Whore?
Disposable Commodity?

159. Mother? Wife? Whore?
Disposable Commodity?