The many virtues of Goodfellas have been exhaustively documented and duly canonized. But by honing in on a very specific scene—the film’s concluding sequence, in which Henry Hill gets his comeuppance—this video essay from Julian Palmer supplies some keen and novel insights into Scorsese’s craft.
Palmer takes a sprawling approach to his analysis, discussing works by John Cassavetes and Francis Ford Coppola to illustrate a few of the influences that Scorsese brought to bear on his gangster epic. The result is an informative, often entertaining examination that covers everything from the director’s frenzied camera angles to Thelma Schoonmaker’s inimitable editing.
