Retrospective: Goodfellas (Patreon)

Obviously the big scene with Tommy’s mother is the greatest moment in cinema, but the heart of it is Henry’s subdued horror at Tommy and Jimmy’s blithe insouciance about the murder they’ve just committed. The fellas enjoy food and maternal love while a man bleeds to death in the trunk of their car. Violence and love cohabitating. The key to the whole movie, and to Scorsese’s career.

The Billy Batts murder is the turning point in Goodfellas, where the mob life goes from an endless stream of adrenaline and pleasure to a violent nightmare. Scorsese kicks off the movie with a flash-forward to the night of the murder. Marty does love voice-over narration that contradicts or complicates what's happening onscreen (see the last shot of Casino). Here, the trailer line — "as far back as I can remember I always wanted to be a gangster" — is juxtaposed with Henry Hill closing the trunk on Billy Batt's body. Ray Liotta gives the character a look of moral confusion for a hot second, something rarely seen in cinema. He's always wanted to be a gangster, and now that he knows what that means, he's scared shitless. Anybody who thinks Scorsese movies are uncomplicated celebrations of masculine brutality rather than profound meditations on the moral compromises of being your brother's keeper is probably too stupid to watch movies.