Paper 5

Brett Wittenberg American Studies April 16, 2009 Final Paper
Final Paper
Martin Scorsese's 1990 crime biopic "Goodfellas," based on a true story, revolves around three gangsters as they descend into the depths of crime, from petty burglars to big-time thieves to murderers. This insider's look at the rules and traditions of organized crime gives us a lens through which to view several themes of inclusion and exclusion in America in the 1950s through the 1970s. American culture is a mirror that reflects the interests and beliefs of society. Culture is a complicated construct in all societies; in a melting pot of different cultures such as America, cultural artifacts and ideas can carry meaning to wide audiences through books and films. Some of these extend far beyond their intended initial audiences. Years after the creation of a popular culture film or book, the ideas and social constructs within the works can be analyzed to shed light on the culture with the hindsight of ensuing events and history. Since the creation of the film industry in America in the late 1920s and early 1930s, the movies produced in America have provided a distinctly American look at our society and its progression and development over the years. Throughout its history, different cultural ideals have swept through Hollywood dominating the art produced. War-themed films being used as social satire following World War II are an example of the film industry embracing a social issue. Historians can look back at the cinematography of America and have a relatively clear view of how the most important social issues were viewed at the time. There has always been a parallel between social events and artistic coverage of these events. Whether art imitates life, or vice versa, we can never truly understand a social phenomenon without first examining a historical time periods own take on the event. This perspective exists in the art and culture produced at that time. To successfully examine society in the later part of the 20th century it is important to be aware of the major social themes of time. In 1990, Martin Scorsese directed the period piece Goodfellas, an examination of organized crime in America over three generations starting in the 1950s. Goodfellas is an important cultural artifact in that it provides a 1990s look at 1950s society. This perhaps unique perspective allows a contemporary audience to make interpretations of 1950s America while at the same time applying social constructs of a later historical time period. "Goodfellas" is the story of Henry Hill, a local boy turned small-time gangster in the blue-collar, predominantly Italian neighborhood of East New York, Brooklyn, in 1955. In the movie, life inside the mob is viewed through the lives of three pivotal figures in 1950s-1970s New York. In 1850, there were fewer than 4,000 Italians in the U.S. However in 1880, the population jumped to 44,000, and by 1900, 484,027. From 1880 to 1900, southern Italian immigrants became the predominant Italian immigrant and stayed that way throughout the mass migration. Despite the increase in their numbers, the Italians were not the largest foreign-origin group in American cities. Outnumbered by groups migrating for decades before them, including the Irish, Italians only made-up 1.5% of the U.S. population at its peak. Italians worked mostly as unskilled laborers. In the late 19th and 20th centuries, Italians also became fishermen, shoemakers, waiters, fruit sellers, and tradesmen. These are blue-collar jobs with limited social upward mobility. The Mafia provided one way for ambitious Italians to break into a tier of American society that had previously been denied to them. In "Goodfellas," Hill idolizes the Lucchese crime family. As long as he can remember, he wanted to be included in this family. Henry quits school and goes to work for the mob. He becomes friends with Tommy Devito, a purebred gangster, and jack-of-all-trades Jimmy Conway, who also is involved in more serious crimes than Hill had bargained for. Hill agrees to take part in a robbery with his fellow gangsters. While Conway and DeVito kill off everyone else involved in the robbery, and slowly start to climb up through the hierarchy of the Mob, Henry starts to have second thoughts. His dilemma is whether to trade his hard-won inclusion into the family and lifestyle for becoming an outcast and a traitor, but potentially saving his life in the process. After a stint in prison, Henry must sneak behind the back of the local mob boss, Paulie Cicero, to live a life of luxury. Here, he is finally "included"--included in a family, included in the American dream of material success, included in an organization bigger than himself. SECTION HERE ON IMPLICATIONS OF INCLUSION AND EXCLUSION, COMPARING AND CONTRASTING DIFFERENT WAYS OF BEING INCLUDED, ETC By the end of the movie, Henry enrolls in the Witness Protection Program as a mole for the FBI to protect himself and his family. Finally abandoning his identity as a gangster, he now has to face the prospect of living in the world he has always tried to run away from. He says, "I'm an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook." To Henry, this is the ultimate exclusion, even though he escapes with his life. To draw a parallel to xxxx, being included at a terrible personal cost is better than being excluded and "safe."