What filmmaking techniques does Goodfellas use?

CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in Goodfellas (1990): Voiceover as Seduction, Tracking Shot Choreography, Pop Music Needle Drop, Freeze Frame Punctuation and Paranoia Montage.

Who directed Goodfellas?

Martin Scorsese directed Goodfellas, released in 1990. CineCode also covers Mean Streets (1973), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), New York, New York (1977), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1982).

What films are similar to Goodfellas?

Films that share techniques with Goodfellas include The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), The Killer (2023), The Departed (2006), Snatch (2000).

Crime · Drama · Biography

Goodfellas

Martin Scorsese, 1990

A young man grows up inside the Lucchese crime family and climbs the ranks until the life of violence and paranoia consumes everything around him. It's a fast-moving film that takes apart how organized crime seduces people. It lets you share in the pleasure before it shows you the cost.

1 Narrative 1 Cinematography 1 Sound 2 Editing

At a glance

Goodfellas is a 1990 crime, drama and biography film directed by Martin Scorsese. This breakdown covers 5 techniques (1 narrative, 1 cinematography, 1 sound and 2 editing), each with the scene where you can see it. If you like how it is made, The Wolf of Wall Street uses several of the same techniques.

Narrative

Voiceover as Seduction

Giving the narrator a voice so intimate, witty and self-aware that you get pulled into their point of view. You find yourself going along with things you would normally reject.

How this film uses it

Henry Hill's narration opens with 'As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster'. For the entire first half of the film, Scorsese makes that desire infectious. The narration is proud, funny and energetic. You're meant to share in it before it gets stripped away.

Where to see it

Henry's opening voiceover and the tracking shot into the Copacabana. His voice makes this world glamorous.

Cinematography

Tracking Shot Choreography

Moving the camera in 1 long, unbroken and carefully planned shot that follows the action through several spaces. You see how people fit into their world without a single cut.

How this film uses it

The Copacabana tracking shot follows Henry and Karen through the club's back entrance, the kitchen and the underground passages to a ringside table, all in a single unbroken take. The camera moves with the same ease Henry does. He owns this world and, for a moment, so do you.

Where to see it

The Copacabana entrance. It runs 2 and a half unbroken minutes from the car to the table.

Sound

Pop Music Needle Drop

Playing an existing popular song at a precise moment in the film. The song's lyrics, era and associations add irony, period feel or emotion that an original score could not.

How this film uses it

Scorsese uses rock and pop songs throughout to mark each era and to comment on the action. 'Gimme Shelter' plays as Henry cuts cocaine. 'Sunshine of Your Love' plays as Jimmy weighs killing members of his own crew. 'Jump into the Fire' plays during Henry's cocaine-fueled day of paranoia. Each choice is a moral statement.

Where to see it

Billy Batts's murder, set to Donovan's 'Atlantis'. The gentle song plays under a brutal beating.

Editing

Freeze Frame Punctuation

Stopping the picture on a single still frame for a moment. It works like punctuation to introduce a character, underline a joke or mark a turning point.

How this film uses it

Thelma Schoonmaker uses freeze frames to introduce characters and to mark key moments in Henry's narration. The film stops on a face while a voice explains who the person is. The technique admits that this is a remembered story, a series of images that memory has already edited.

Where to see it

Henry's introduction of Jimmy Conway. The freeze frame works as Henry's memory picking out what matters.

Editing

Paranoia Montage

Cutting rapidly between fragments, threats and pressures, often with fast music and shifting camera angles. You feel the character's panic and the sense of being closed in from every side.

How this film uses it

The final act shows Henry's cocaine-fueled day of errands while a helicopter tails him. Schoonmaker edits it into a masterclass in rising paranoia. The cutting gets faster, the angles get shakier and the sound gets more broken up as Henry loses control.

Where to see it

The helicopter surveillance sequence. Henry is cooking, dealing and unraveling all at once.

Questions

Goodfellas: quick answers

What filmmaking techniques does Goodfellas use?: CineCode breaks down 5 techniques in Goodfellas (1990): Voiceover as Seduction, Tracking Shot Choreography, Pop Music Needle Drop, Freeze Frame Punctuation and Paranoia Montage.
Who directed Goodfellas?: Martin Scorsese directed Goodfellas, released in 1990. CineCode also covers Mean Streets (1973), Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974), Taxi Driver (1976), New York, New York (1977), Raging Bull (1980), The King of Comedy (1982).
What films are similar to Goodfellas?: Films that share techniques with Goodfellas include The Wolf of Wall Street (2013), The Killer (2023), The Departed (2006), Snatch (2000).

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