Martin Scorsese's Goodfellas is widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, with many critics and audiences calling it the pinnacle of the gangster genre. The film chronicles the true story of Henry Hill, an Irish-Italian American who grows up idolising the Mafia in New York and descends into a life of crime from the 1950s to 1980.
The movie opens with the iconic line: 'As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.' Renowned critic Roger Ebert declared it superior to The Godfather, writing in the Chicago Sun-Times: 'No finer film has ever been made about organized crime – not even The Godfather.'
On Rotten Tomatoes, Goodfellas holds a 94% critics' score and an even higher 97% audience rating. On IMDb, it scores 8.7 out of 10. Empire magazine ranked it eighth in its list of the '100 Best Movies of All Time', calling it 'an unstoppable feat of propulsion' and stating: 'No film hits like Goodfellas.'
David Denby of New York Magazine praised it as 'the greatest film ever made about the sensual and monetary lure of crime,' highlighting a single, staggering shot that encapsulates the film's brilliance. USA Today described it as 'a whopping good time' at its premiere, a sentiment that has endured.
