Goodfellas Film Techniques

After watching my third Martin Scorsese film, I believe I’ve came to a general understanding of his director style. A great deal of his films are centered around dramatic events in history that are portrayed in realistic manner that keeps the audience interested. Gangs of New York is a film based on Irish Immigrants in New York in the early 19th century. It depicts gang violence among the five boroughs and different gangs that existed at that time. As he does in both Wolf of Wall Street and Goodfellas, Scorsese tends to display events that build tension. For example, in Wolf of Wall Street, there is a scene where Jordan Belfort is giving a speech to his workers. At one point, he rips a $40,000 gold watch off his wrist and throws it into the crowd of hundreds of men and suggests that they fight for it. When the watch is thrown, the scene is filmed in slow motion with no sound other than the ticking of the clock. When the watch is caught, commotion returns and the workers begin beating each other up over the …show more content…
In all three Martin Scorsese films that I have watched and analyzed, I realized the main character of the film has portions where they narrate for a period of time. In Goodfellas, Henry Hill narrates in order to tell the story of his transition from childhood into gangster life. In the Wolf of Wall Street, Jordan Belfort narrates to explain details of the firm and his life. Lastly, in Gangs of New York, Amsterdam Vallon narrates to conclude the story and at other points through the film. This technique exemplifies the importance of the main characters in the film. Also, by doing this, Scorsese is providing the audience with more information than other characters in the film know which creates great suspense and keeps you on the edge of your seats. I believe that between these three films, I have been provided with enough examples to portray the director style of Martin