| Overall Grade: |
A+ |
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| Story: |
A+ |
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| Acting: |
A- |
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| Direction: |
A+ |
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| Visuals: |
A |
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Outstnading Gangster Flick
by Clay (movies profile)
Feb 27, 2006
4
of
5 people found this review helpful
People look at the mafia as an evil organization of low-lives that kill people. Their basic objective is to make money through illegal opperations like gambling, prostitution, protection etc. "They are the Police Department for Wise Guys." Of course they killed people, but only if you got in the way of the money making. This mob flick was directed by the legendary Martin Scorsese who envisioned this title off Nicholas Pileggi's book Wise Guys and wrote the screenplay with him as well. Narrorated by Henry Hill(Ray Liotta) and Karen Hill(Lorraine Bracco). Based off a true story of the notorious Lucchese Crime Family in Brooklyn, New York during the 70's during in Henry Hill's perspective. This wasn't a phoney film on the mafia like The Godfather which is accused of being fairly similar to the life of Lucky Luciano and is.
It starts off with young Henry(Christopher Serrone), who was a great cast for Henry Hill's young version because he look very similar to the Ray Liotta version of Hill. All of the catch phrases in the beginning like "I thought being a ganster was better than being president of the United States," were said by old Henry while the film was showing young Henry as a kid. Scorsese's method of showing time like change in hair color was a brilliant way to show time went by. Before Hill went to jail for cocaine, Jimmy Conway(Robert De Niro) had normal brown hair. However, when Hill was released after the few years, Jimmy had grey hair. The last names of some of the gangsters were switched around for the movie like Tommy DeVito(Joe Pesci) was really Tommy DeSimmone, Jimmy Conway was really Jimmy Burke etc.
The biggest cash robbery in American history, the Lufthansa Heist. A gang of seven men carried out a daring robbery at the Lufthansa Air Cargo was mentioned in the movie. However, was not shown, was only described by Hill. This might have hurt other ratings and could have possibly gave this film the best rating it could if the robbery was shown.
Young Henry Hill in real life did not recieve a talk with Jimmy "The Gent" Conway(Robert De Niro) after getting testified by the state of New York for selling cigarettes which were stolen by Conway and otehrs. I think that segment was thrown in there for it to be relevent to the last screen where Henry testifies against his friends Jimmy and Paul Cicero (aka Big Paulie) played by Paul Sorvino. The only thing about the final scene that I didn't like is when Henry does an aside at the end of the case. I did like when Hill had to point out all the member to the jury and the faces they made at Henry when he did. Then he becomes a part of the Federal Witness Protection Program. |
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