But even before that, the very first scene of the movie shows us that Hill has trepidations about killing a man in cold blood.īut what about when he goes down the rabbit hole, addicted to drugs, cheating on and hitting his wife, putting everything in danger? Goodfellas has a saving grace that Taxi Driver and Raging Bull do not have: Lorraine Bracco's character Karen. Maybe this is partly due to the fact that we're introduced to the character of Henry Hill as a young boy, desperate to fit in with the gangsters. Ray Liotta's Henry Hill does a lot of despicable things, but he is far more sympathetic and charming than Jake La Motta or Travis Bickle. If the biggest knocks on Taxi Driver and Raging Bull (besides all the political incorrectness they are laced with) are that they have main characters who are hard to watch, Goodfellas does not suffer from this same problem. These top three picks ( Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, and Goodfellas) won't surprise anyone, but the fact that they are continually chosen as Scorsese's best films proves how well they've stood the test of time.

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