Our Favorite Montages: Goodfellas
Filed under: Fandom, Trailers and Clips
No one can make a brutal mob-related murder look as beautiful and poignant as Marty Scorsese. Part of the reason why he's so good at what he does is because of his fantastic musical choices -- and in 1990, Scorsese decided to take the piano interlude at the end of Layla (performed by Derek and The Dominos) and use it for a brilliant montage that pans and scans its way through several wiseguy murder scenes, ultimately winding up at the point where Tommy (Joe Pesci) thinks he's about to become a "made" man ... and, well, we all know what happened next.
Not all montages are the same, and I always love when filmmakers play around with the technique -- either by slowing down the pace, by adding in a voiceover or by taking us through a series of scenes we wouldn't necessarily expect (or want) to see -- and, here, Scorsese does it all in what is perhaps one of his most memorable career-defining moments. The crane shot into the meat truck alone is worthy of a round of applause. C'mon, when this song comes on the radio, tell me you don't crank up the piano part and think about watching Goodfellas.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
8-30-2009 @ 5:26PM
brasstacks said...
Donnie Darko? Rocky IV? Goodfellas? 3-for-3 on this series. I propose the Morgan Freeman-Bach library scene from Seven or the "You're the Voice" rally scene from Hot Rod.
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8-31-2009 @ 6:37AM
eb said...
I absolutely do think of Goodfellas during the end of Layla. :)
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9-07-2009 @ 1:55PM
Nick said...
The Sting, when they are planning the set-up and members of the crew are being recruited. Bloody fantastic montage, and an awesome piece of music by Scott Joplin.
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