Welcome to the penultimate edition of my post modern film history series. It seems like only yesterday that I, out of a fit of laziness, decided to use the course content from one of my college courses as material for my website. I can be so clever sometimes, can’t I?

Of course, what post modern film history course is complete without studying the works of Martin Scorsese? While I admire the hard work and craftsmanship that Scorsese puts into all his work and I admit he can come up with great scenes of ultra violence, but for some reason his films just do not appeal to me at all. He makes great films, don’t get me wrong, but they are not films that I care for.

Yeah, I know that comment will generate reams of hate mail, but I am about to state something that will generate more: I fucking hate gangster/mobster films because I think they are really fucking boring and I have no interest whatsoever in the gangster lifestyle.

But this week, my professor chose “Goodfellas” to show to the class, which I think is the better film in the whole gangster genre because it actually have a few scenes that actually shows how boring and mundane the gangster lifestyle can be. But a few scenes alone do not make for a great film. Like most gangster films, “Goodfellas” is rather long, boring and has too many characters and supporting cast to comfortably keep track of. And yes, the monotony is broken up by people getting whacked in some violent manner, but the reasons for them getting whacked are just too plot involved and byzantine for my liking. “You stepped on Uncle Joey’s shoe in a scene two hours ago, the only scene coincidently, that Uncle Joey appears in this film! DIE! DIE! DIE!

However, “Goodfellas” shall always be damned by this author for influencing those lousy “Joe Pesci Show” sketches on SNL (circa mid 1990’s) which where based on the “Do You Think I Am Funny” scene from this film. The irony of the whole situtaion is that I don’t think that Joe Pesci is funny at all. (Unless you consider having limited acting abilities “funny.” If that’s the case, then, yes, he is.)

next week on the syllabus: Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

jareddriskill