Film Techniques in the Movie Goodfellas with the Help of Which Martin Scorsese Draws the Audience in

Goodfellas hands down is the most influential gangster film that paved the way for the rest. Directed by Martin Scorsese in 1990, this film exhibited ingenious visionary work to depict constant foreshadowing elements.

Subversive in theory, Scorsese creates a world of organized crime and one man’s rise to the top to the bottom of the barrel. The film draws audiences in through may different movie mediums; the use of genre, character type, and factual film. These elements from Chapter three are noted from the traditional dynamics from the Italian culture, and the romantic, yet tragic portrayal of loyalty.

Genre is defined as the categorization of narrative films by form, content, or both. Some examples of genres are musical, comedy, biography, Western, and so on. The gangster genre is usually about a man who is the main character going through crises of the “lifestyle” as he rises to the top but then falls back down because of his own mistakes and even greed. Goodfellas is an example of genre to supply viewers with a storyline that is fast to evolve. The film is narrated by a guy who apparently always wanted to be a gangster, Henry Hill. Clearly, Hill was the not so much rich fellow, who wanted to join for some gain of notoriety. In GoodFellas, the viewers feel connected through the scenes basically with a guy who is not that important, just a side character. As a viewer, I was pretty surprised throughout the entire film, watching the scenes of Hill’s outlook, an outlook of someone who was never able to reach the top of the chain.

Genres are defined by sets of conventions—aspects of storytelling such as recurring themes and situations, setting, and character types. In film, directors and producers use many different types of characters to tell their stories.

A dynamic character is a person who changes over time from a result of resolving a conflict or facing a crisis. Henry Hill is a dynamic character who is faced with a conflict that must be situated. For Hill, the mob seems like a coming up in his life, but after he starts selling drugs on the side, there is a decision that is going to change everything. The shots in the beginning of the movie celebrates his influence and power. At the end, in a distressed sequence, he completes missions and worriedly watches over his wife, while a helicopter seems to always hover. The film follows Henry’s movement up into the mob and then into the ultimate betrayal that blinded everyone. As he stated he thought that the party would never end, his actions changed everything.

Goodfellas is a factual film, that present people, places, or processes in straightforward ways meant to entertain and instruct without unduly influencing audiences. It is a true story based on a true account of mobster turned FBI informant with obvious twists and turns. This movie chronicles the traditional dynamics of the Italian culture. Hill’s journey of snitching on the mob is told in a straightforward manner. The audience is not 'unduly' influenced, but is instead left to make their own conclusions based on the events shown. The audience witnesses the terrible acts of violence that affects the family members of the mob own lives.

From the facts that were presented, I would never make the choice that Hill made. To be stuck in a Witness Protection program to always enduring paranoia, would be a life of misery and who would want to put themselves in those shoes.