The Sympathetic Gangster | Henry Hill Character Analysis (Goodfellas)

martin score says he doesn't waste any time grabbing the audience's attention in his 1990 mobster masterpiece goodfellas we begin with henry jimmy and tommy taking a peaceful night cruise only to be interrupted by a dying man pounding from the inside of the trunk under the taillight's red glow tommy and jimmy brutally put the man out of his misery and after this cheerful opening we get the film's most iconic line as far back as i can remember i always wanted to be a gangster that unforgettable line is the perfect introduction to henry hill as a character and placing it right after the murder of billy patz implores the audience to consider an important question why would anyone want to pursue a life that leads to being involved in bloody murders it isn't a question that we have to figure out on our own henry fled out tells us many times why he was attracted to becoming a gangster it was the attention the power and the special treatment he got from people in the neighborhood police included now very few people would not want such treatment but not everyone would be eager to look past the downsides of being a mobster henry is so to understand henry hill we need to figure out what drives that eagerness on top of that henry makes another claim to the audience that is worthy of investigation he tells us that he belonged in the life henry believes that his personality and temperament were well suited for working as a mob associate at times that statement appears to be obviously true but he is different from jimmy and tommy very different and i'm going to try and lay out why some of the assumptions henry makes about himself are contradictory the scenes with young henry are aimed at answering our first question he tells us that his neighborhood was full of nobodies and being in the mob meant being a somebody there are many people who would probably fit into henry's group of nobodies his classmates the local business owners the bus driver but there is one nobody who i believe henry has in mind specifically his father there are quite a few parallels between the childhood portion of goodfellas and a bronx tale they're telling the same story in many ways there's a young man at a crossroads and they can choose to either take the path of their father a hard-working yet frustrated family man or a mobster who gets to indulge the many pleasures associated with a life in a bronx tale the decision is not easy for clojuro because he gets a much more balanced picture of the mob even the gangster he looks up to sunny tells him that there are better lives for him to live henry is only ever invited into the life and unlike collosuro's father henry's dad beats him down for hanging out at the cab stand he doesn't try to explain to henry why his own life is preferable because he despises his life so henry runs full speed away from the life of seven children in a nine to five job he wants to live a life on the front foot not reacting to the decisions of other people but actually designing the blueprint himself and the role model he chooses for this ambition is not a level-headed rational person like sunny he chooses jimmy conway who's portrayed by robert de niro sonny makes sure that c has two educations one from the street and one from school so he can be twice as smart as everyone jimmy wants henry to see only one side of the coin which is why the two rules he gives henry to live by are both street rules never ride on your friends and always keep your mouth shut so that is henry's moral foundation do what you're told and keep your mouth shut when the missions we send you on attract heat and it never has to compete with an alternative moral foundation from his father now even though henry is taken by jimmy's life and the respect he receives he is a long way from becoming like jimmy when henry introduces us to jimmy he tells us that he enjoyed stealing he doesn't steal as a shortcut to pink cadillacs and mint coats jimmy gets satisfaction from the crime itself and i think it's safe to say that tommy gets the same satisfaction from violence tommy has a big chip on his shoulder which we see in the famous shinebox scene and i think violence is his way of proving to himself that he's past the days of obeying commands violence is control for him henry does not take a similar enjoyment in fact his instinct when he sees people hurt is to help them we see this early on when henry tries to stop a man from bleeding out by covering his gunshot wound with aprons it is accosted for wasting them the mobster then tells henry that he needs to be toughened up obviously if you're around violence 24 7 you're gonna be desensitized henry tells us that for the mob shooting people was a normal thing no big deal and henry himself is not afraid to beat the life out of someone especially if he thinks he's been personally slighted karen's neighbor for example but with that said his childhood instinct is never fully destroyed by the environment when tommy shoots spider in the foot henry rushes over to stop the bleeding while everyone else just rolls their eyes like why did this idiot just have to interrupt our game and when spider ends up getting murdered by tommy the look on henry's face says a thousand words it's really the only time in the movie where he doesn't know what to say he's at a total loss and this brings us back to the question of did henry belong in this life it's a complicated question in the sense that what does it mean to belong is it a feeling is it the acceptance of other people in a particular community i suppose we could say it's a mixture of the two when times are good when henry gets to enjoy the social prestige that comes along with being a gangster he certainly appears to belong he's a confident charismatic guy who has no problem interacting with extremely volatile power-hungry men it's when violence is committed against the weaker more innocent players of the game the henry begins to look like a fish out of water i already mentioned spider the most glaring evidence of henry being different but there are smaller moments as well in joe pesci's iconic funny house scene when tommy starts to go insane and puff his chest out henry can only laugh in pathetic fashion he does the same thing when jimmy attacks maury he uses laughter to try and defuse uncomfortable situations it never works of course the only way to stop jimmy and tommy's worst impulses is active resistance but henry knows that getting in their way is dangerous and could cost him business opportunities so it could be said that henry does not fit in with the life when it's at its most violent and destructive he's the only one sickened by the smell of the dead body that needs to be moved which is another subtle example of what separates henry from his two friends but henry is willing to endure those moments so he can return to the part of the gangster life that suits him this is what makes henry the best character in the movie pesci may have the most memorable moments i couldn't stop thinking about this shot for some reason but henry is the most complicated his most despicable moments are actually not with jimmy and tommy they're with his family goodfellas is very unique when it comes to which parts of henry's life are emphasized for example we get to see henry's wedding but his relationship with karen is pushed to the side the scene is included to show what the mafia life infuses into the wedding the people lining up to give them cash the attention of powerful men like paulie it's like some sort of dream and karen is just as intoxicated as henry and after the wedding henry and karen's children just sort of appear randomly there is no scene of henry holding his child for the first time which should be the most important moment of his life because like his marriage with karen all else's background noise in comparison to living the mafia high life people have made the comment that goodfellas glamorizes a life while the irishman condemns it now we do get to see henry's cocaine field meltdown but i don't think those sequences show us the moral cost of henry's decisions the deeper consequences outside of bankruptcy and imprisonment but there is one moment that i think does that this image of henry's little daughter watching her parents fight is an outlier there's not another shot in the movie like it she's confused upset and harry brushes buyer like she's not even there this one moment sums up the worst part of henry he parties he cheats he's always away with his friends and only expects his family to be grateful for the luxury he provides them henry projects his own materialistic values onto his family if karen gets a lot of cash every week why is she complaining about my affairs if the kids get to live in a big house why should they care how often i'm around this mentality makes it a lot tougher to root for henry despite his more sympathetic attitude towards those who are victimized by meaningless violence towards the end of the movie henry says when mob guys come to kill you they come with a smile they comfort you when you're at your most weakest and in most need of help jimmy makes this reality very clear when he gets annoyed at henry for worrying about maury's wife who's hysterical after the disappearance of her husband they've both known her for a long time but when she's at her most desperate jimmy just says what do you care about her henry doesn't wait for jimmy to extend that same compassion to himself he goes to the fbi becomes an informant and as punishment he's forced to live his father's life nine-to-five job station wagon no special treatment and when he shuts the door to his new suburban home it sounds like a prison cell closing so henry avoids death but he's banished to his sort of purgatory of fitting in for such a contradictory character [Music] so what is there to take away from henry's story apart from don't do cocaine kids for one i think henry's life is a cautionary tale about learning from your parents nobody wants to repeat the mistakes of their parents and henry is right to try and avoid the angry life of his father but his response is to live the complete opposite life he doesn't recognize that satisfaction can be taken from being a dependable father and husband that lifestyle just needs to be balanced out with his own desires in a healthy way nothing in excess as the greeks used to say henry only ever saw his family as a barrier to fulfillment secondly a massive part of henry's life revolved around his supposed friendships jimmy primarily when henry's in prison he actually says that the worst thing about it is being away from jimmy but what becomes clear is that his friendships aren't really friendships at all they're mutually beneficial associations they hang out and have fun together but once someone becomes a financial liability to someone else they're tossed to the side of the road it is a cliche but you don't really know who your friends are until life throws you on the ground and they have a choice to either help you up or leave for the sake of convenience the mafia life made choosing the former very high risk so mass treachery was the inevitable result following the death of ray liotta a lot of attention shifted to his performance as henry hill in watching it again closely it really is an incredible piece of acting not every actor could have portrayed henry's extremely selfish moral system in a way that still allows the audience to have sympathy for him at times leota had to strike a complex psychological balance and he did it exceptionally well if you have your own thoughts about henry feel free to leave them in the comments i'd be curious to see how much people liked him as a person is there a point where he loses you completely or do you feel a sense of sympathy towards him until the final shot i think that'd be an interesting discussion and if you have a character analysis request shoot me an email i'm always looking for new ideas but thank you so much for stopping by guys have a fantastic rest your day i will talk to you soon

Channel: Life Is A Story

Views: 18,044

Keywords: henry hill, henry hill goodfellas, ray liotta goodfellas, ray liotta henry hill, goodfellas analysis, goodfellas henry hill, henry hill character analysis, goodfellas henry tommy, goodfellas henry jimmy, ray liotta, goodfellas explained, goodgellas analysis, goodfellas film analysis

Id: FSSSy56P0RE

Length: 11min 29sec (689 seconds)

Published: Sun Jul 03 2022