goodfellas

Martin Scorcese’s GoodFellas, a 1990 film based on Nicholas Pileggi’s Wiseguys, follows Henry Hill through his life in organised crime. The movie begins when he first enters the neighbourhood organised crime branch in Brooklyn, New York, and finishes when he leaves it to go into the FBI’s witness protection program. Henry first becomes associated with the Mafia when he gets an after school job at the cabs office across the road, which happens …

…The ever-present threat of being caught by law enforcement agencies is risky. A lot of the mobsters were sent to prison for conspiracy, murder, drug offences, etc. Deviant careers are often short-lived, seen by the numerous careers ended in death or by being sent away to prison. Henry was out and into a normal lifestyle while he was still relatively young. The instability and danger of mobster life is exemplified well in Scorcese’s GoodFellas.