10 movies for fans of Martin Scorsese movie ‘Goodfellas’
Martin Scorsese has directed a handful of movies that can be deemed among the greatest ever made, which makes it difficult to settle on which one of his countless classics can be definitively named the best of all. However, there are a lot of people ready, willing, and able to bestow that title upon Goodfellas, which stands tall as one of the finest crime stories ever committed to celluloid.
As far back as Ray Liotta’s Henry Hill can remember, he always wanted to be a gangster. That’s the crux of the movie in a nutshell, but it’s the way Scorsese approaches the material that elevated it to greatness. An ensemble cast firing on all cylinders, immaculate shot composition, a narrative rooted in the truth but distorted just enough to avoid being a conventional biographic tale, and razor-sharp writing coalesced to give rise to a seminal masterpiece that stands shoulder-to-shoulder with The Godfather as the apex of the gangster genre.
Barely a high-profile movie set in the world of organised crime gets to exist without Goodfellas breathing down its neck, such is the impact and legacy Scorsese’s phenomenal tour-de-force made on the entirety of cinema, and it cast a shadow so large and all-encompassing that it takes something pretty special to outrun it and stand on its own two feet.
In the interest of fairness, the rest of Scorsese’s back catalogue has been omitted from consideration, but for two very different but equally important reasons, the following ten titles should be appointment viewing for anyone desperate for their next Goodfellas-like fix.
Gritty gangster movies like Goodfellas
Boil it down to its essence, and Goodfellas is a gangster flick first and foremost, which means that no conversation about which movies to tackle next is worth having if it doesn’t include Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather, the other titan of the cinematic criminal underworld that’s been held up as a touchstone since the second it first released over half a century ago.
For a tale that deals in familiar themes of trust, loyalty, and brotherhood that’s rooted a little further in the past, Sam Mendes’ Road to Perdition is worthy of consideration for the electric exchanges between Tom Hanks and Paul Newman alone, while Sergio Leone’s elegiac Once Upon a Time in America trades in similar themes of violence, betrayal, and an ambitious rise up the ranks of the mob, with added Robert De Niro for good measure.
For a riveting crime thriller hinging on a confidential informant, Donnie Brasco scratches any lingering post-Goodfellas itches with an engrossing dive into how lies, subterfuge, double-crosses, and treachery can impact everyone and everything in their orbit, not to mention the way in which getting in too deep with the very people the protagonist ends up trying to bring down from the inside can have profound personal and professional consequences.
No less of an authority than Scorsese himself declared Matteo Gorrone’s Gomorrah as a “tough, forceful look at the Neapolitan underworld,” which is reason enough for any Goodfellas aficionado to check it out, with the Italian-language crime drama also adapted from a nonfiction book written by a person with vast first-hand experience of a notorious organised crime racket.
Movies about the dark side of the American dream
A gangster movie it may be, but one of the recurring themes throughout Goodfellas is Henry’s increasing realisation that as much as he wanted to chase his own version of the American Dream at any cost, he wasn’t necessarily prepared for what comes with scratching its seedy underbelly. That’s applicable to many great movies, which don’t need to be tied to the mob in order to deal with the same undertones.
With that in mind, the ensemble piece Glengarry Glen Ross makes for an ideal companion piece through the way it demonises the innocuous salesman. These aren’t breadwinners seeking fulfilment but are instead painted as manipulative, ruthless, and calculating cutthroats who’ll do anything it takes to succeed in their chosen arena, with David Mamet’s adaptation of his own play also echoing Goodfellas‘ ruminations on fragile masculinity and the insecurities that are inherently baked into it.
That’s a box ticked by American Beauty, too, with Kevin Spacey’s Lester Burnham the embodiment of the American Dream from the outside looking in. He’s got all the mod cons associated with having it all, but that’s merely a façade for an unfulfilling existence that’s so superficial it forces him to forgo it entirely in favour of refitting the myth to his own whims. He’s got the house, car, and family, just like Henry does in Goodfellas, but they’re still equally empty in their own ways.
For another change of pace, Ron Kovac was devoutly religious, patriotic, a star athlete, and a war veteran, but when he returned from Vietnam, he found that his country had turned its back on him. While Born on the Fourth of July doesn’t seem to have a lot of shared DNA with Goodfellas, both vastly opposing films shine a light on the psychological effects of being cast aside by society can have. For Kovac, it leaves him increasingly bitter after he went through hell for no discernible reward, but for Henry, the lack of non-illicit prospects and lowly status serves to push him deeper and deeper into criminality because there are no better options on the table.
Billy Wilder’s classic noir Sunset Boulevard charts the downside of chasing wealth, status, and success and how it can lead to a downward spiral of misdeeds, regrets, tragedy, and death, so it’s not as far away from Goodfellas as it may seem at first glance. Along similar lines, Henry’s infatuation with the mob is driven largely by the lure of milking capitalism for all it’s worth to maximise it for his own gain, so where better to head than Paul Thomas Anderson’s There Will Be Blood?
Corruption, the building of an ill-gotten empire, and the staunch avoidance of dealing with anything or anyone that doesn’t provide a direct personal benefit to those involved are all over every frame of Goodfellas, with its various characters gradually sacrificing their humanity at the altar of money and power in a manner that’s hardly a million miles away from Daniel Day-Lewis’ towering Daniel Plainview.
10 movies like Goodfellas:
- Road to Perdition (Sam Mendes, 2002)
- Donnie Brasco (Mike Newell, 1997)
- Gomorrah (Matteo Gorrone, 2008)
- Once Upon a Time in America (Sergio Leone, 1984)
- The Godfather (Francis Ford Coppola, 1972)
- Glengarry Glen Ross (James Foley, 1992)
- Born on the Fourth of July (Oliver Stone, 1989)
- American Beauty (Sam Mendes, 1999)
- There Will Be Blood (Paul Thomas Anderson, 2007)
- Sunset Boulevard (Billy Wilder, 1950)