Symbolism In Goodfella's Meaning

Register to read the introduction… Him, Tommy, and Frankie Carbone are sitting at a table eating and listening to a live performer sing. The director uses a panoramic shot in this scene and goes from one side of the table to the other showing each mobsters face. When the camera reaches Henry it stops and he is blinking and while each person seemed to be concentrated on the performer Henry was again different from the crowd as he was submerged in his thoughts. Also in the background music the performer was singing a [4]song by Jerry Vale 6 , and the song chosen is symbolic and appropriate. Scorsese chooses this song because in the lyrics Jerry Vale says “But smile and pretend to be gay”, “ It’s too late for running”, and “ pretend you don’t see her”. All of these tie into the movie Goodfella’s because in Henry’s situation he always goes along with what Jimmie and Tommy, but his facial expressions show dismay. Also the lyrics say it’s “too late for running” which exemplifies Henry’s thought process on the murder of the mobster and how his life is going. The last line “pretend you don’t see her” is symbolic of his situation with Karen and the fact that he goes out with other women when he is married. Henry gets in a fight with Karen over the fact that he goes out too much and that she is speculating that he is seeing other women. A certain lighting style is used so the shadow of Henry on the wall, which is used by the director brilliantly to show that Henry is living two different lives: one as a husband with a family, and other as a single man with many women. Throughout the movie the director constantly builds on the character of Henry Hill and characteristics are being revealed. When Tommy kills a kid named spider for a small argument, the camera zooms and freezes again on Henry’s face. Every time this happens something is revealed about Henry. This time however half his face is …show more content…
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[1] Wiseguy- a book written by Nicholas Pileggi which is an account mobster Henry Hill rise and fall in the New York Mafia scene and the Lucchese crime family. The book was made into a movie in 1990 called Goodfellas by Martin