..Gary Dretzka
..Noah Forrest
..Leonard Klady
..R.J. Matson
..David Poland
..Douglas Pratt
..Ray Pride
..Michael Wilmington

Goodfellas
Directed by Martin Scorsese

Warner Home Video's original release of the 1990 Martin Scorsese feature, GoodFellas, split the movie to two sides of the platter and had no special features. Warner has finally compensated for that with a Two-Disc Special Edition (19122, $27), which holds the entire movie on one side of the first platter. Based upon a true story, the film is vaguely structured around a major airport robbery but is essentially the life story of a small time hoodlum, played by Ray Liotta, and his adventures in the mob. Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci portray his partners in crime. The film is rich in the pragmatic details of a mobster's life. Its depiction of the hero's suburban home and lifestyle is the primary inspiration for The Sopranos. Exquisitely cast and masterfully shot, the film has no great metaphorical spine like The Godfather, but it is otherwise an enduring and captivating tale. There is just enough ebb and flow in the hero's experiences to sustain a narrative, and more than just a touch of dark satire to magnify his skewed morality.

The picture is presented in letterboxed format only, with an aspect ratio of about 1.85:1 and an accommodation for enhanced 16:9 playback. The picture on the older disc was very slightly windowboxed, with an aspect ratio of about 1.9:1, and has a decent chunk of picture information on the side that is missing on the new version, though the new version has a sliver more on the bottom. The older framing is more satisfying. The picture on the older version is sharper, but the image on the new presentation is smoother, and while the colors on both look great, fleshtones on the new presentation are slightly but discernibly more accurate. The 5.1-channel Dolby Digital sound brings a nice dimensionality to the atmosphere and musical score. The 145-minute program has an alternate Spanish track in standard stereo and optional English, French and Spanish subtitles.

There are two separate commentary tracks and both are highly rewarding. One runs 124 minutes and features intercut reflections by Scorsese, author/screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi, cinematographer Michael Ballhaus, editor Thelma Schoonmaker and other members of the cast and the crew. It is difficult to believe that there wasn't 20 minutes more of decent material to run the commentary full length, but what is shared is often enlightening, whether it is the actors explaining how Scorsese coaxed them, the crew talking about the various stylistic strategies they developed with him, or Scorsese himself talking about his knowledge of mobster manners and mores, his reasoning behind the different approaches he used in the film, and his references to other movies that influenced him.

It is Pileggi, however, who is the best talker of all, narrating both the experience of his collaboration with Scorsese and the knowledge he gleaned from his initial research into the mob stories the film transcribes. Liotta's character is based upon a real mob informant, Henry Hill, who was the primary source to the Pileggi book that served as the basis for the film. "A lot of the Italians who came [to America] were illiterate. So, a lot of them had an oral tradition, so you would be home, and someone would come to the house, these tenements, and he would tell stories. He was a professional storyteller. That went on until radios came along and began to finish those guys, but the notion of telling stories, in the Italian community, has always been very strong, and you'll find that these stories wind up a part of a lot of people's lives. Even today, I'm always astounded when I sit down with some of these guys, some of them street guys, some of them working people, legitimate people, they're great storytellers. They know where the lead is, they know what the joke is, they can change inflection. They're actors. When they tell a story, they become actors. And I think that was what we were able to draw upon with Henry.

"I can't go to the set. I mean, I could go to the set and I've been on the set, but I thought you made a movie on the set, but it isn't. You don't make a movie on the set, you play with lights. That's all anybody does. For 2 minutes of screen time, everybody adjusts lights, and you're there for 2 hours adjusting lights and people want to know who you want in the Jets game, and I'm a writer. I should be back, writing."

On the second track, which does run the full length of the film, Hill and FBI agent Edward McDonald share their reflections on the events depicted in the movie. Because Pileggi had done such an expert job debriefing them, there are no great revelations in their talk, but the details are still fascinating, particularly in the wrangling that went on between the different law enforcement agencies to make the various busts, something that was well beyond the scope of the film but is still worth exploring. Hill is technically still part of a witness protection program, though that doesn't seem to put a damper on his attitude. He probably loves the United States government more than anyone, because he freely admits, again and again, that the government 'saved his life,' and rescued him from what would surely have been a mob execution even if he'd never spilled a single bean. But his descriptions of the lives and times depicted in the film are as lucid and poetic as Pileggi describes. Here is Hill talking about the airport: "There was no fences back in them days. I mean it was like driving into a shopping mall. It was literally like driving into a shopping mall for us. We used to go shopping every day over there."

The second platter doesn't offer much. The primary feature is a 30-minute retrospective documentary that contains some good footage of Scorsese at work and interviews with a few people who didn't make it onto the commentary track. There are three other featurettes running a total of 25 minutes, but they contain mostly testimonials or other materials of limited insight. A trailer is also featured.

August 31 , 2004

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