This entry was posted on Wednesday, April 11th, 2007 at 4:40 pm and is filed under Academy Awards - best picture winners and nominees, Drama, G, Mob, Crime and Scam Movies, Movie Reviews, True Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
strong>Director: Martin Scorsese
Starring: Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino, Gina Mastrogiacomo, Debi Mazar
Martin Scorsese took Nicholas Pileggi’s biography of Henry Hill and the two of them wrote a screenplay and turned it into one of the greatest gangster movies of all time. The characters are memorable and the casting is superb, enhanced by standout acting performances, particularly by Joe Pesci, who jumped from supporting roles to leading man with his unforgettable role of Tommy in this hit. The story is engrossing and is interspersed with sudden explosions of violence that catch the viewer off guard. Martin Scorsese’s direction was nothing short of inspired, here and combines with the other elements to create a masterpiece of modern motion picture-making.
Ray Liotta is Henry Hill, who narrates his exciting gangster life story right from childhood and his early fascination with the “guys at the cab stand”, through his ever-increasing criminal success. Along the way, Hill hooks up with Jimmy (Robert De Niro) and Tommy (Pesci) and the three pull jobs, and work with the mob, to extravagant lifestyles outside the law. Eventually, though, there is a price to be paid for the choices made and Hill’s idyllic life begins to spiral out of control. The use of period music and main character narration adds to the film’s appeal.
This is a fantastic movie, that only has to contend with the Godfather series for the title as the greatest gangster movie of all time. If you haven’t seen it, and are not worried about a high level of violence, then this a must see for movie buffs.
