OK, it's Wednesday, but I meant to post about this earlier.
I finally saw Goodfellas this weekend. I don't know exactly why I never had seen it before now, I was probably given the chance, especially because Jared was such a freak for it, but at least I now have. I have to say that it exceeded my expectations and they were pretty high as I had heard from everyone that this was a great film. Scorsese got robbed at the Oscars, I can't believe that Dances With Wolves won over Goodfellas.
[Theory]
Let me share my Scorsese snub theory. I think that Scorsese's natural focus on New York may have been the reason for Oscar voter's inferred bias against him. Although I think the fact that he made a movie this year about someone from Hollywood and didn't win points to the movie apparently sucking.
[/Theory]
Back to Goodfellas. I really thought Ray Liotta was excellent. I also like the whole food motif throughout the movie. That seems to be a common theme in Italian and/or mobster movies. I'm sure that someone probably even wrote their thesis on it.
Food movie links
Food Films: Goodfellas
Pasta on Film
Term Papers
FindArticles.com - Imagism and Martin Scorsese: Images suspended and extended
Literature/Film Quarterly, 1998, by Castellitto, George P
Anyway. In conclusion, (although what I'm concluding has no real point) I really liked Goodfellas alot.
Fin
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
Regarding the Scorsese snub: Goodfellas was his last really great movie. That is, unless you count the remake of Cape Fear, which I haven't seen because I generally boycott remakes. His previous movies have been on and off great (ranging from the beauty of Last Temptation of Christ to the general awesomeness of Taxi Driver to the brutality of Raging Bull to the paranoia of After Hours. Scorsese since Goodfellas has directed the messes that were Casino and Gangs of New York and the obscure Kundun and Bringing Out the Dead. Scorsese needs to make one more great memorable American conscience film and have it hit hard so he can finally win the Oscar that he deserves.
Of course, neither Hitchcock nor Kubrick won a Best Director Oscar either.
Scorsese with Goodfellas was up against Costner's Dances With Wolves, Coppola's Godfather 3, and a few others.
Here's a theory or forty-two. Dances was up for 12 awards (I kid you not!) and Goodfellas was up for 5. Generally the more nominated a film is, the better it does with awards.
Dances was Costner's first film as a director. The MPAA seems to love it when actors direct, especially the first time. "An actor that can direct? That's unpossible!" They seem to say and it generally gives that film more weight and leeway. (A side note: I heart the MPAA.*) Besides that, Costner also received the Director's Guild Award, and the Golden Globe for best director, before the Oscar was awarded. (Not sure when all the votes were.)
The list of directors, alphabetically: Coppola, Costner, Frears, Schroeder, Scorsese. Knock Coppola off for Godfather 3 being crappy, and Frears and Schroeder for being relative unknowns at the time. Leaving Costner and Scorsese. Costner is an actor that can direct. (Wow!) And, well, maybe people got Goodfellas confused with the Godfather movies. I don't know. Personally, I think Goodfellas is better than the Goodfather movies. But it's a mob movie, maybe too topical.
I've seen Dances twice, and it doesn't get any less cliche or pretentious or more interesting. Goodfellas I could probably watch everyday for a few weeks and still see new things in it. Scorsese was robbed, what can I say?
(* I really do heart the MPAA and all creative guilds that could one day remember disparaging comments and hold them against me. (And this is drobby's brother mikobby, not drobby. Awesome.))
I've also noticed that when it comes down to great individualistic movie vs "great" overly cliched movie, the cliched movie wins. Well, generally. Titanic, A Beautiful Mind, Forrest Gump, Dances with Wolves all come immediately to mind. All of which I didn't really like.
Post a Comment