How typical are the 2 scenes from 'Goodfellas' to the gangster genre?
The film Goodfellas is typical to the gangster genre through the narrative theme of double crossing/distrust. This is shown several times in both of the scenes, as in the 'Rise' scene where Henry first starts to become a gangster by selling cigarettes for Jimmy. In this scene, a cop car pulls up behind the truck that the cigarettes are being unloaded from, and to avoid getting into trouble, Jimmy hands the cops a couple of boxes of cigarettes with money slipped into the boxes as a way of buying them off. This shows that the people who the gangsters think they can't trust because they will get thrown in jail can easily be bought off, and the people who the public can trust to do their job and look after the public cannot be so easily trusted. This theme is also shown in the 'Fall' scene, because at the start of this scene it is revealed that Jimmy has been killing off the people in his gang that he thought he could trust, but they stole money from him so he killed them in order to teach people a lesson, but also to stop other people finding out about his dirty deeds. Also, this scene contains a section where Tommy, one of Jimmy and Henry's boys is going to 'get made' which is an honour in the gangster world as it means you are virtually untouchable. Just as Tommy is going to get made, he is double-crossed at the last minute and shot in the back of the head. This shows us that no-one in the gangster world can be trusted because they will just shoot you if money is involved or if you kill one of their guys, karma will come and bite you. No-one in the gangster world can be trusted because no-one has any qualms with murdering people.
This film is also typical to the gangster genre through iconography and mise-en-scene. In many(if not all) gangster films, the typical gangster will be wearing a smart suit, smart shoes and will have slicked back hair. This is shown in the first scene where the young Henry turns up at his house in his mafia apparel, and his mother opens the door and instantly tells him he looks like a gangster. This is clearly stating that it is obvious when someone is in the mafia, because they care about the way they look, they always wear top class suits and shoes that are so polished you could see your reflection in them. This is ironic because they always look so clean-cut and suave, yet they are involved with such dirty business such as drugs, murder, the arms trade and just about every crime you can think of.
Goodfellas is also shown to be a typical gangster film, because of the representation of women in the film. We know that the mafia is heavily ran by males, which is clearly shown in these two scenes because there are only two women in them. These women are both Henry and Tommy's mothers. Henry's mom is only shown when he goes back to the house dressed like a gangster, and Tommy's mother is shown just before Tommy goes to 'get made' and subsequently dies. This shows the audience that despite the fact that the mafia is like a family of men, each gangster all has a mom at home who cares about them, showing that although they are mostly thoughtless killing/money making machines, they are also human. This humanity is also shown after Jimmy finds out that Tommy has been murdered, because he starts to cry. This also shows just how close a family of gangsters can get, because Jimmy clearly loved Tommy like a son or a brother if he had such strong emotions for him, as he slaughtered all of the other members of the gang.
