'Goodfellas' analysis

‘Goodfellas’, Martin Scorsese, 1991


‘Goodfellas’ belongs to the gangster genre. It is an American gangster film; we know this because of the iconography that is in the opening sequence. The first thing that we see after the credits is a car. The car is a Pontiac which is a very American car, you would not find one of them in Britain, and this is the first piece of iconography that shows us we are watching an America gangster film. After that shot we see a black screen with the words New York, 1970 written on it, this tells us for certain that we are watching an American gangster film. The final piece of iconography that tells us that we are watching an American gangster film is the voice over; he has a very strong American accent. The audiences generic expectations of a gangster film are fulfilled during the sequence by the costumes, the characters are wearing very smart expensive clothes. They are wearing silk shirts and suits. These are stock costumes for this genre, these types of clothes also appear in films such as ‘Scarface’, and ‘The Godfather’; although in ‘The Godfather’ the suits look different as it is set at a different period in time, it still gives you the impression of smartly dressed gangsters. The generic expectations are fulfilled bat the end of the opening sequence when we see a body in the boot covered in blood, and one the characters starts hacking at him with a knife. The opening sequence does conform to the characteristics of the genre, the people are all dressed smartly, they are violent, and they use foul language; all of these things are what you would expect in a gangster film.

The mise-en-scene of the scene enforces our image of the gangsters. The sequence is filmed at night, this connotes that they are bad guys. When watching films you tend to see that if there is something against the law occurring, it is being filmed at night. The fact that they are travelling at night could suggest that they are trying to avoid the police. When the car is travelling and when it pulls over we can see that is on a small country road well away from cities and towns. We know this because there is no street lighting along the road and because they are driving through a wood. Woods are often a stock locations in gangster movies because that is where they bury anybody they have murdered. The combination of the dark back road and the wood connotes that the characters have committed a crime, or at least have done something that they do not want other people to know about. When the characters get out of the car and go to the boot they are bathed in a red light, this connotes blood and violence. The opening shot is a tracking shot, which then pans left and comes along side the car, this shows us the car that we are about to go inside and it gives the audience the impression that we are following the car, so we know that the people inside are going to be the people that we follow throughout the film. When we see a shot inside the car it is a medium close up shot of the driver, but we can also see the other characters in the car. The director uses the rule of thirds to show that all the people within the car are important, but we get the impression that the driver is the main character as the camera is concentrating on him, and the other two characters are slightly out of focus. We then go to a long shot when the characters walk around to the boot, the director uses this shot to show the background, and to show the characters bathed in the red light. We see a point of view shot, which tracks in on the boot, this shows us that the noise we hear is coming from the boot. Sound is used to anchor the images during the opening sequences by the way that before we see the images of the car we can hear the sound of passing traffic anchors the image of the car. Scorsese also uses sound bridges, a good example of this is when one of the gangsters starts hacking at the man in the boot, we can still hear this going on, but camera cuts to a reaction shot of one of the other gangsters. From the dialogue we learn that these are tough men, two of them swear in their first line of dialogue. The non-verbal language shows us that the men are tired, one of them is asleep and the driver is rubbing his eyes with fatigue; this connotes that they have been up along time and it reinforces the fact that they are driving at night.

The narrative is structured so that it does not run in linear sequence, at the start of the film we are already halfway through the story, when then flashback to the beginning of the story. We know it is a flashback because the voice over says ‘As far back as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster. The narrative then works its way up to the point at which we started and the story then develops from there. The audience is positioned in the style of objective treatment; we are treated as an observer not as part of the film. A good example of this is when we follow car, and when we go into the car with the characters. We know that it is objective treatment because the camera inside the car is positioned on the windscreen looking at the characters, if it was subjective treatment we would seeing the inside of the car from a point of view shot or the camera would be positioned in an empty seat. Another way that you know it is objective treatment is that there is a voice over at the end of the scene that addresses the audience.

The social group that is represented in the opening sequence of ‘Goodfellas’ are middle-aged, white males. They are portrayed as anti-hero’s. This means that even though they are the bad guys, we instantly like them. The ideological discourse of gangsters is challenged within ‘Goodfellas’. Gangsters are the bad guys so traditionally we shouldn’t like them, but we do. Another ideological discourse within ‘Goodfellas’ is gender. Gangster films are traditionally very male films and ‘Goodfellas’ reinforces this. All the characters within the opening sequence are male, and there are not many females throughout the whole film. The females that are in ‘Goodfellas’ are portrayed to be inferior to men. Capitalism would be another ideological discourse within ‘Goodfellas’. Capitalism seems to be an ideological discourse with the majority of western films; this is because people are constantly reminding us of the values and beliefs of our society, and capitalism is the belief that our society is based on. ‘Goodfellas’ is about making money, it is not one of the main themes in the film, but it is definitely there. Making money is a capitalist ideology.

The target audience is for ‘Goodfellas’ is young adults in the age range of about 18-30. There is a lot of violence and other adult topics that younger children would not understand, and it is rated an 18 so anyone under that would not be able to view this film in a cinema or buy it. The characters are predominantly white, so the target audience is white males, so the audience can relate to it. Gangster films are typically a male film; they just tend to find all the violence, swearing and drug abuse more entertaining than women do. As a British teenager I read and evaluate the text differently to an American teenager, this is natural as I have been brought up in a different environment with different values and beliefs. Our society here in Britain is very similar to the society of America, and we often here about America in our media. Therefore, I am able to understand the majority of the film, because I have some knowledge of there culture, however I am sure there are some aspects of the film that I would have been able to understand better if I was American, and was brought up in there culture.