Most notably, although Goodfellas does not shy away from the violence and chaos of street life, it questions the nature of criminal enterprise, its "motivation for profit" (P.210 , 2)Goodfellas (1990) directed by Martin Scorsese, is a film that focuses on the rise and fall of Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) in the world of organized crime. Scorsese based the film on the 1985 book Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family by Nicholas Pileggi. The film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director at the 63rd Academy Awards. The film opens with a flashback with voice-over narration from Henry Hill, foreshadowing Henry's involvement with the mob. This is a scene where Henry, James Conway (Robert De Niro) and Tommy Devito (Joe Pesce) murder an individual in the trunk of a vehicle. The individual they murder turns out to be Billy Batts (Frank Vincent), a very important member of the mob. The next scene takes us back even further. Scorsese takes us to Brooklyn, New York, in 1955. We see a young Henry Hill, 13 years old, an innocent, clean-cut young man who seems to have a bright future. Henry admires the neighborhood “gangsters”. “For as long as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster,” Henry said. Henry admired that they were untouchable and respected throughout the city. A young Henry found a job at a local taxi stand across the street from his house, owned by the mafia. The longer he worked there, the deeper he became involved with the gangsters. Henry went from parking their Cadillac to doing their dirty work. The first bad deed that the public witnesses Henry's involvement in is when he breaks the windows of several vehicles and pours gasoline on them, intending to make them explode. Just as the cars explode, Scorsese uses...... middle of paper ......point of view, the initial contact between the film and its audience is a conventional conception of human life: that the man is a being with the possibilities of success or failure. This principle also belongs to the city; you have to get out of the crowd, otherwise you're nothing. It is on this basis that the necessity of action is established, and it progresses by unalterable paths until the point where the gangster lies dead and where the principle is modified: there is really only one possibility: failure. (P. 585, 1)Organization is a major theme of the film. Throughout the film, you'll get a first-hand look at Henry's organization and the mob. The tracking shots through the restaurant and the poker game are a metaphor for this. Everyone had a job and they did it well. Even when they were in prison, everything was smooth and organized. Cooking was a big deal in prison and they had a