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GoodFellas is a visually spectacular film. The different camera angles and techniques that director Martin Scorsese uses are phenomenal. The use of freeze frames and different camera angles, as well as different keys of lighting, are not to be overlooked. Through visuals, Scorsese tells us what is going on in the characters’ minds. In fact, one can say that the visuals alone can tell the story of GoodFellas. The visual style is simply brilliant, and Scorsese begins using it with the very first scene of the movie.

GoodFellas opens with a scene of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), Jimmy Conway (Robert DeNiro), and Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) travelling down a highway. At this point, the viewer doesn’t know why they are in the car, where they are going, or what they plan to do when they get there. However, the scene of Henry, Jimmy, and Tommy in the car does suggest some sort of friendship amongst the three. When Henry pulls the car over because he hears banging in the trunk and the three get out to see what it is, Henry leaves the taillights on. This may seem like a small point, as Henry probably left the lights on so that they could see the trunk better, but it really is not. The taillights cause a red light to be shown on Henry, Jimmy, and Tommy. After Jimmy fires several bullets into the man in the trunk, thereby ensuring that he is dead, the red light from the taillights catches the smoke from the gun, and a shot of the dead body develops a subtle red tint. As of this point in the film, the viewer doesn’t know who the dead man in the trunk is, or of what importance he has, but the overall redness of the scene suggests that what Henry, Jimmy, and Tommy had done is not good.

Also notable is the way this opening scene closes. The look on Henry’s face tells the viewer that he is uncomfortable with the gruesome scene he has just witnessed; this look appears several times throughout the movie when Henry witnesses a murder, suggesting that he doesn’t really want all of the gangster lifestyle. Nevertheless, Henry’s voiceover narration in this opening scene tells us that all of his life, Henry wanted to be a gangster. This apparent contradiction is prevalent throughout the movie, as at times it seems that Henry wants out of the whole gangster scene, and yet he always does or says something that makes us think he really doesn’t want out. However, most important of the way this opening scene closes. It closes with a still shot of Henry.

GoodFellas makes prominent use of still shots, also known as freeze frames. At first, the viewer does not know what purpose the still shots serve, but it soon becomes clear that they all represent important moments in Henry’s life. After this opening scene, the film flashes back to 1955, where Henry is an eleven year old boy who had recently gotten a job at a cab stand, working with the gangsters, or, as Henry calls them, wiseguys. This is when the second use of the still shot comes into play. When his father learns that Henry hasn’t been to school in a month, and spending his days at the cabstand instead, he beats Henry badly. There is a still of Henry’s father raising the belt, about to deal another blow to Henry. This still shot represents Henry’s rough life at home, as well as the fact that Henry is becoming more involved with the wiseguys, and that his father does not like that at all.

Shortly after this still shot, there is another still when some of the wiseguys grab the mailman that delivered the notice to Henry’s house which said Henry had been skipping school. They tell the mailman that, effective immediately, all mail from Henry’s school was to come to them, and not to Henry’s house. There is a still of them threatening the mailman’s life by almost shoving his head into the oven. One may wonder why this shot is frozen, but it soon becomes clear that this shot represents the sense of camaraderie the wiseguys have for one another, and how they have really taken Henry under their wing. A few minutes later in the film, there is a scene of Henry setting several cars in a garage ablaze. The still here is of Henry running away from the garage just as it engulfs in flames. The still signifies that this is the first real gangster-like job the wiseguys have had him do. More importantly, though, this still catches the look of sheer glee on young Henry’s face as he runs from the flaming garage. He is becoming immersed in the life of a gangster, and he is loving every minute of it.

Shortly after this scene, Henry meets Jimmy and Tommy for the first time. There is a still shot of Jimmy when Henry meets him. This tells the viewer of the importance Jimmy will have in Henry’s life. In retrospect, it may seem odd that Henry’s meeting of Jimmy is frozen, but his meeting of Tommy is not. After all, both Jimmy and Henry have prominent roles in the movie. However, the still of only Jimmy tells us that he will have more influence over Henry’s life than Tommy will, and that maybe Jimmy will be around in the movie longer than Tommy is. This is true on both counts, and especially on the former one, as it is evident from his reaction that Henry is simply in awe of the power Jimmy has. Following this shot is a sequence in which Henry gets arrested and has to go before the court. He gets off, though, and everybody is proud of him. When he leaves the courtroom, he gets mobbed by the wiseguys, all congratulating him on getting off. This shot is frozen as well, as indeed it is a very important shot. Henry is now firmly ensconced in the gangster lifestyle. He has become, as he puts it, a "goodfella."

After this, there is a long stretch of film before the next still shot is seen. In fact, there is not another still shot until after Henry has become an adult and the great billion-dollar robbery gets pulled off. He and Jimmy are walking down the street, talking about what to do with Maury (Chuck Low), who has become an annoying thorn in Jimmy’s side. There is a still shot when Henry learns that Maury is about to be killed. One may wonder why this scene is frozen. After all, by this point in the film several people had been killed. Why should Maury’s death be treated any differently? Well, it is different, because after Maury gets killed, many of the other people involved in the robbery get killed, and it becomes a case of wiseguys killing wiseguys. Soon, Henry, Jimmy, and Tommy are among the only people left. After Tommy gets killed by outside forces, Jimmy and Henry have a discussion in the diner, and it is here that the final still shot of the movie occurs. The shot is frozen when Henry realizes, through a discussion with Jimmy, that he will get killed if he goes to Florida, which is where Jimmy is planning to send him. This is indeed a crucial moment in the movie, for it is after this discovery that Henry and his wife Karen (Lorraine Bracco) join the Witness Protection Program. Henry then testifies against Jimmy and fellow wiseguy Paulie (Paul Sorvino) in court. At this point, Henry is a "goodfella" no more.

Still shots are not the only visual motif that Scorsese uses in GoodFellas. He also makes extensive use of lighting effects. Earlier in this paper, it was mentioned that the opening scene of the movie had an overall redness to it, but at that point the viewer does not know why. Later on in the movie, though, that scene is shown again, and by this time, the viewer knows who the man in the trunk is, and why the scene was so red. It turns out the man Tommy and Jimmy killed was Billy Batts (Frank Vincent), who was what the Mafia called a "made man," and he had powerful connections that Henry, Tommy, and Jimmy themselves did not have. The scene is given a red tint to represent the fact that this is indeed a turning point in the lives of Henry, Tommy, and Jimmy. This is a bad thing that they have done, and eventually one of them will pay for it. The redness of the scene signifies the characters’ downfall. The red that appears in the background when Henry, Jimmy, and Tommy dig up Batts’ grave to relocate his body proves that their good life is already over. The redness here is impossible to miss, whereas in the previous scene the red tint was used rather subtlely. This suggests that they are in more of a predicament this time than when they actually killed Batts, and indeed they are, for Tommy eventually winds up getting killed for killing Batts.

Low and high-key lighting effects are also used in GoodFellas, though to a lesser extent than the still shots and the freeze frames are. For example, when Henry emerges from jail the first time, the scenes of him with the wiseguys are lit in a lower key. Before jail, Henry had, more or less, only seen the good life of being a gangster. Once he was in jail, albeit a nice jail, he saw what the penalties for being a gangster could be. Also, whenever Henry is seen with his mistress Janice (Gina Mastrogiacomo), the lighting is lower than it is when he is with Karen, suggesting that Henry’s place is with Karen and he is safer when he is with her than when he is not.

Overall, it is the still shots in GoodFellas that affected me the most. Each one of them represented an important moment in Henry’s life. Even the first one, when he closes the trunk of his car at the beginning of the film, is important, for later on in the movie, when that scene is shown again, it is clear that that is truly an important moment in Henry’s life. While, to me, the still shots were the most powerful ones of the movie, this is not to say that the other ones weren’t powerful as well, especially the red tint that I have mentioned several times. To me, GoodFellas is a visually excellent movie.

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