Goodfellas

Goodfellas was released in 1990 and directed by Martin Scorsese. Rather than simply retelling the plot, the film is worth revisiting for the characters, conflicts and ideas that give its story its identity.

Family, Greed and Consumerism emerge through what the characters face and the choices they make, giving the story more to explore beyond its immediate plot.

Tommy DeVito, Jimmy Conway and Henry Hill do not begin the film seeing one another clearly, and watching those first impressions break down is a big part of why Goodfellas still works.

In 1955, teenager Henry Hill becomes enamored by the criminal life and Mafia presence in East New York, a working class Italian American neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City.

He begins working for local caporegime Paulie Cicero and his associates Jimmy Conway, an Irish American truck hijacker and gangster, and Tommy DeVito, a fellow juvenile delinquent prone to violence. That detail matters because it shapes the way the characters initially see one another.

Henry begins as a fence for Jimmy, gradually working his way up to more serious crimes. From there, the film can concentrate less on explaining the setup and more on what happens between the people inside it.

In 1965, Henry starts dating Karen Friedman, a Jewish American woman who is initially confused by Henry's criminal activities.

She is soon seduced by Henry's glamorous lifestyle and marries him despite the disapproval of her parents.

Henry, Tommy and Jimmy manage to excel in carjacking and stealing cargo trucks from JFK Airport, and eventually, they commit the Air France Robbery in 1967.

On June 11, 1970, Billy Batts, a made man in the Gambino crime family who was recently released from prison, insults Tommy at a nightclub that is owned by Henry.

In response, Tommy and Jimmy brutally beat him to his apparent death.

Realizing that the unsanctioned murder of a made man will invite retribution, Jimmy, Henry and Tommy bury the body in Upstate New York, stabbing and fatally shooting him when he is discovered to be alive.

Six months later, Jimmy learns that the burial site is slated for development, prompting them to exhume and relocate the decaying corpse.

Joe Pesci plays Tommy DeVito.

In 1978, Henry is paroled and expands his cocaine business with Jimmy and Tommy against Paulie's orders.

Only Henry and Tommy are spared, as Henry is making him money through his Pittsburgh connection and Tommy is about to become a made man.

Goodfellas has more on its mind than the basic setup suggests. family sits close to the centre of the film, but it is explored through the characters rather than treated like a lesson.

greed matters just as much. The film keeps challenging the assumptions its characters make about one another, which is where much of its emotional weight comes from.

There is also plenty here about consumerism. Those ideas overlap rather than sitting in separate boxes, which helps the movie feel like a story about people rather than a checklist of themes.

Goodfellas could hardly be separated from the decade that produced it. Released in 1990, it carries the attitudes, style and filmmaking rhythms of the 1990s without needing to announce them.

It also sits comfortably within the era's biographical, gangster, crime thriller, crime, thriller, historical drama, police procedural, crime drama, drama, period drama, historical and suspense filmmaking, even if the movie itself is more interesting than any single genre label suggests.

Watching Goodfellas now means seeing both what has lasted and what unmistakably belongs to 1990.

What still works best is the human material. Ideas around family, greed and consumerism have not stopped being relevant simply because the clothes, language and cultural references belong to another era.

Some moments inevitably land differently for a modern audience. Revisiting an older film properly means enjoying what still works without pretending every choice has aged equally well.

A large part of that staying power comes from the characters. Tommy DeVito, Jimmy Conway and Henry Hill are still useful shorthand for the personalities and pressures the film explores.

Goodfellas has lasted because people continue to recognise something in it. Nostalgia helps, but nostalgia alone does not keep a movie in the conversation for decades.