The mere thought of remaking movies these days induces any number of scoffs, moans and eye rolls, and for good reason, they are usually unnecessary rehashes that don’t actually contribute anything to the original. There is, however, one man who has dared to remake one of his own movies on two separate occasions, and I will pay to see any iteration of that film he cares to make. That man is legendary director Martin Scorsese, and the film in question is the legendary mafia movie Goodfellas. Scorsese re created Goodfellas once in 1995 in the form of Casino and again in 2013 in the form of The Wolf of Wall Street. Okay, so Casino and The Wolf of Wall Street are not direct remakes of Goodfellas, but the stories and character arcs, as well as the overall feel of those movies uncannily familiar. Perhaps they are best described as spiritual successors. At any rate, the 3 films go together wonderfully as thematic companion pieces. Mind you I don’t recommend attempting it in one sitting, with a combined runtime of 8 hours and 24 minutes, it may prove to be a Herculean feat.
Goodfellas is one of the quintessential viewing experiences of the last several decades. Period. It follows Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) from his first introduction to the mafia lifestyle as an adolescent, through his heyday as a wiseguy to his eventual downfall.Along for the ride is his complicit wife, Karen (Lorraine Bracco), as well as all sorts of marital strife to go along with his excessively indulgent lifestyle. His best friends and partners in crime are Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy De Vito (Joe Pesci). The three men take scores, intimidate guys, beat guys up, whack guys, and essentially live the high life, nobody messes with them because they are gangsters.
Casino follows Sam ‘Ace’ Rothstein (Robert De Niro), a professional gambling handicapper for the mafia, out to Las Vegas in the 1970’s when said mafia sees fit to put him in charge of their casino, the Tangiers. His close friend, muscle, and eventual rival, Nick Santoro (Joe Pesci) follows him out to Vegas and, well all sorts of gangster shenanigans ensue. Again, we have marital strife ensues when Ace gets involved with and marries Ginger (Sharon Stone), a chip hustler who is interested in Ace’s luxurious lifestyle, and is endlessly loyal to her old pimp boyfriend. 1970’s Vegas turns out to be a hell of a playground for the wiseguys and well, as it turns out, us too. It’s also interesting to note that the knock on this movie when it came out in 1995 was that Scorsese just remade Goodfellas with De Niro and Pesci and set it in Vegas! Can you imagine!? As if people watched Goodfellas and absolutely loved it, were offered a second helping and said eh, I guess I’ll have some of that as if you’re doing Scorsese a favour by watching it. Needless to say I think Casino has outlived that narrative. Again, if Scorsese wanted to keep exploring the format every couple of years, I would unflinchingly pay to see it every time. End of rant and onwards we go.
The next spiritual successor to Goodfellas, The Wolf of Wall Street, may come as a surprise to some as it trades in it’s 60’s/ 70’s/ 80’s mafia setting of the previous films for the 80’s and 90’s setting of Wall Street. Fear not ladies and gentlemen, there be and abundance of criminals and debauchery here too. Wolf follows Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio) and his best friend and right hand man, Donnie Azoff (Jonah Hill), as they engage in all manner of financial and corporate fraud while consuming copious amounts of every drug and alcohol known to man. And what’s this? Again with the marital strife! Margot Robbie plays Belfort’s long suffering but somewhat complicit wife, who eventually gets absolutely fed up with his absurdly excessive lifestyle.
So what makes Goodfellas, Casino and The Wolf of Wall Street companion pieces or spiritual successors? Put simply it’s the structure and the feel of the movies. Scorsese pulls the absolutely masterful trick of seducing us into the lifestyles of these criminals over the course of the first two thirds of each respective movie, whether we care to admit it or not. He shows us the perks of the life of crime, the respect these guys are paid, the luxury they live in. It’s all fun, even if we as the audience morally object to their actions and would never live that way ourselves. But therein lies the trick, living this lifestyle through the safety of cinema, we can watch it and enjoy the darker side of life without ever having to live it ourselves. The first two thirds of the movies are the cinematic equivalent to a nice little buzz after a drink or two, you’re feeling good, having a fun time, everything is alright. But it’s in that last third that dear Mr. Scorsese turns the tables on us.
In the last third of Goodfellas, Casino and The Wolf of Wall Street, the greed of the characters proves to be their undoing. It’s the perverse version of the American Dream writ large. For each of the characters it is the pursuit of money and or power that becomes their main drug, not necessarily the money or power itself. Unfailingly in these movies, in the last section, it comes down to the choice between continuing their pursuits of power and money or their loyalty to their so called friends, and they always turn on said friends. If the first two thirds of each movie has a euphoric buzz of fun about it, the last third is the cinematic equivalent to a hangover. It goes sideways fast and it definitively feels worse. For everything Scorsese shows us, he never panders to us, never passes moral judgement or tells us how to feel. As with all great art, Scorsese trusts his audience to interpret their own meaning from his films and allows us to ruminate to and amongst ourselves. Great art never tells you how to feel about something, but allows, if not encourages you to examine how you feel about that thing. Maybe greed for greed’s sake and the pursuit of wealth and power at all costs aren’t all they are cracked up to be? I’m not telling, I’m asking with this, I myself am also a great artist.
At any rate, I cordially invite you to take part in the masterpieces and companion pieces that are Goodfellas, Casino and The Wolf of Wallstreet. Why not explore the darker human impulses from the safety of your own home cinema, have fun, have a laugh, have that inevitable feeling that everything has gone horribly sideways. I’d spread it out over a couple of nights, because I really do not know what watching all three of these bad boys in a row will do to you physically, psychologically, emotionally… may not be good. But please do partake at your own rate.