Goodfellas

I picked up a copy of the new Goodfellas Two-Disc Special Edition. The name
of this package is unrequired considering, yes this film is special, an
absolute classic of its time, and given the genre, for all time and there
are in fact two dvd's.

First off, I'm not going to ramble on about the film's plot or charactors,
this is not a review of the film but for the dvd itself. Anyone that doesnt
know this film well or not at all will see it for the first time in its
pristine glory. The transfer is great with more depth and colour
detail/information than the old WB flipper. I don't know too many people
that had a big problem with the original as Warner Brothers did an excellent
job considering the time it was released. The very first dvd released on the
market was Batman; a WB title. This transfer was also great or at least good
enough. With the new Good Fellas the other most obvious difference is the
sound. 5.1 or 2.0 Dolby surround stereo with incredible detail and the audio
level set correctly with dynamic range to boot. One great example would be
the scene where we see th Mory's Wig's commercial and the wig blows off his
head. You hear the sound very clearly despite the fact that it is probably
insignificant to the big picture of the production.

The extras are great but not long enough. There is 3 all new documentarys.
We all heard a while back that Henry Hill was in L.A. to record commentary
and interviews for this release. Well he is included a great deal here.
Lorraine Bracco, Ray Liotta, Henry Hill, Martin Scorcese, Frank Vincent
(Billy Batts), and Paul Scorvino all do interviews specifically recorded
for this dvd. However, Robert Deniro and Joe Pesci appear from interview
segments recorded to promote the films release in 1990. Getting Made: How a
classic hit the street, Made Men: The Goodfellas Legacy; filmakers Joe
Carnahan, Jon Favreau, Antoine Fuqua, The Hughes Brothers and Richard
Linklater talk about this films influence on them. One of the directors
commented that he watches Goodfellas all the time while filming his own
movies just for influence of greatness and ideas. The last extra is The
Workaday Gangster which looks at the downside of mob life plus Paper is
Cheaper than film which includes storyboard-to-screen comparisons by showing
us the scene and the story board sketch at the same time. Scorcese draws his
own storyboards. They are not artistic or technicall well drawn, but they
show the passion and intensity as well as the intention and purpose of each
scene. His charactors are drawn to show how or where they would stand, sit
or move in a scene. So, he blocks and sets up he scene on paper before any
actual production filming begins. What's great about this is that he can
then instruct his Director Of Photography, Michael Ballhaus how he wants the
shot to look. The DP will say whether or not it's possible given the size of
the set location or whatever and then they will discuss it out.

The best thing I can say about this dvd is, you will learn more about
Goodfellas than you knew before. Everything from the mostly improvised Pesci
"How am I funny? What the **** is so funny about me?" scene to the steady
cam single take shot through the back of an actual restaurant right through
to the seating area in front row for a Bobbie Vinton show. The actually did
11 takes of this sequence, using one of the few true single take shots by
picking the most fluid series of frames. This sequence is to show how Karen
is entering this life in such a cool and glamourous way so that it would
make her more likely to be impressed by Henry's lifestyle than she might
otherwise be. She gets a taste of the good life for maybe the first time in
her life which does explain how a semi-conservative woman, still living with
her parents at 21 or so would feel like a weight was lifted off in terms of
the new found freedom. Not to mention the fact that she is attracted to
Henry.

Iearned all of this from the dvd. Some of it I read elsewhere, but,
generally I would have to give this Special Edition a 8.5/10 rating. It
could have included more out-take scenes or on location interviews or more
docs and perhaps a few deleted scenes. They should have included a film
school commentary as this movie has been disected in more schools than
frogs. Aside from being the best film of the 90's, Goodfellas was in my
humble opinion, the very last of the great film masters of the golden late
60's through the 70's into the early 80s'. Some would disagree since Marty
release Casino a scant 5 years later and that too is a classic in it's own
way. Still, I rate Goodfellas a better film overall and it fits nicely in
my top favorite 50 film choices.

Tad Bitt§ï£

"Tad Bitt§ï£" <> wrote in message
news:TqJTc.1725780$ et.cable.rogers.com...
> I picked up a copy of the new Goodfellas Two-Disc Special Edition. The
name
> of this package is unrequired considering, yes this film is special, an
> absolute classic of its time, and given the genre, for all time and there
> are in fact two dvd's.
>
> First off, I'm not going to ramble on about the film's plot or charactors,
> this is not a review of the film but for the dvd itself. Anyone that
doesnt
> know this film well or not at all will see it for the first time in its
> pristine glory. The transfer is great with more depth and colour
> detail/information than the old WB flipper. I don't know too many people
> that had a big problem with the original as Warner Brothers did an
excellent
> job considering the time it was released. The very first dvd released on
the
> market was Batman; a WB title. This transfer was also great or at least
good
> enough. With the new Good Fellas the other most obvious difference is the
> sound. 5.1 or 2.0 Dolby surround stereo with incredible detail and the
audio
> level set correctly with dynamic range to boot. One great example would be
> the scene where we see th Mory's Wig's commercial and the wig blows off
his
> head. You hear the sound very clearly despite the fact that it is probably
> insignificant to the big picture of the production.
>
> The extras are great but not long enough. There is 3 all new documentarys.
> We all heard a while back that Henry Hill was in L.A. to record commentary
> and interviews for this release. Well he is included a great deal here.
> Lorraine Bracco, Ray Liotta, Henry Hill, Martin Scorcese, Frank Vincent
> (Billy Batts), and Paul Scorvino all do interviews specifically recorded
> for this dvd. However, Robert Deniro and Joe Pesci appear from interview
> segments recorded to promote the films release in 1990. Getting Made: How
a
> classic hit the street, Made Men: The Goodfellas Legacy; filmakers Joe
> Carnahan, Jon Favreau, Antoine Fuqua, The Hughes Brothers and Richard
> Linklater talk about this films influence on them. One of the directors
> commented that he watches Goodfellas all the time while filming his own
> movies just for influence of greatness and ideas. The last extra is The
> Workaday Gangster which looks at the downside of mob life plus Paper is
> Cheaper than film which includes storyboard-to-screen comparisons by
showing
> us the scene and the story board sketch at the same time. Scorcese draws
his
> own storyboards. They are not artistic or technicall well drawn, but they
> show the passion and intensity as well as the intention and purpose of
each
> scene. His charactors are drawn to show how or where they would stand,
sit
> or move in a scene. So, he blocks and sets up he scene on paper before
any
> actual production filming begins. What's great about this is that he can
> then instruct his Director Of Photography, Michael Ballhaus how he wants
the
> shot to look. The DP will say whether or not it's possible given the size
of
> the set location or whatever and then they will discuss it out.
>
> The best thing I can say about this dvd is, you will learn more about
> Goodfellas than you knew before. Everything from the mostly improvised
Pesci
> "How am I funny? What the **** is so funny about me?" scene to the steady
> cam single take shot through the back of an actual restaurant right
through
> to the seating area in front row for a Bobbie Vinton show. The actually
did
> 11 takes of this sequence, using one of the few true single take shots by
> picking the most fluid series of frames. This sequence is to show how
Karen
> is entering this life in such a cool and glamourous way so that it would
> make her more likely to be impressed by Henry's lifestyle than she might
> otherwise be. She gets a taste of the good life for maybe the first time
in
> her life which does explain how a semi-conservative woman, still living
with
> her parents at 21 or so would feel like a weight was lifted off in terms
of
> the new found freedom. Not to mention the fact that she is attracted to
> Henry.
>
> Iearned all of this from the dvd. Some of it I read elsewhere, but,
> generally I would have to give this Special Edition a 8.5/10 rating. It
> could have included more out-take scenes or on location interviews or more
> docs and perhaps a few deleted scenes. They should have included a film
> school commentary as this movie has been disected in more schools than
> frogs. Aside from being the best film of the 90's, Goodfellas was in my
> humble opinion, the very last of the great film masters of the golden late
> 60's through the 70's into the early 80s'. Some would disagree since Marty
> release Casino a scant 5 years later and that too is a classic in it's own
> way. Still, I rate Goodfellas a better film overall and it fits nicely in
> my top favorite 50 film choices.
>
>
I should also add that Martin Scorcese's long time collaborator-editor,
Thelma Schoonmaker talks about the film. Her interviews are particularly
interesting as they are intercut with behind the scenes footage of her and
Marty editing the film.

Tad Bitt§ï£

"Tad Bitt§ï£" <> wrote in message
news:TqJTc.1725780$ et.cable.rogers.com...
<<First off, I'm not going to ramble on about the film's plot or
charactors, this is not a review of the film but for the dvd itself.
Anyone that doesnt know this film well or not at all will see it for the
first time in its pristine glory. The transfer is great with more depth
and colour detail/information than the old WB flipper. I don't know too
many people that had a big problem with the original as Warner Brothers
did an excellent job considering the time it was released.>>


I have a problem with the first _Goodfellas_ DVD, which was released on
March 25, 1997, and it had nothing to do with the "flipper" aspect of
the disk. The DVD box says that the disk is enhanced for widescreen
TVs, but it was not. Same thing happened with the original _JFK_.

I am really looking forward to getting the new, anamorphic _Goodfellas_
when it comes out on Tuesday.

One-Shot Scot

"Tad Bitt§ï£" <> wrote in message news:<TqJTc.1725780$. net.cable.rogers.com>...
> I picked up a copy of the new Goodfellas Two-Disc Special Edition. The name
> of this package is unrequired considering, yes this film is special, an
> absolute classic of its time, and given the genre, for all time and there
> are in fact two dvd's.

*snip nice review*

i noticed that GOODFELLAS is released in a 2disc SE and also is part
of a Best of Scorsese set. Are all the extras in teh 2disc SE in the
boxset?

thx
-goro-

Goro

>i noticed that GOODFELLAS is released in a 2disc SE and also is part
>of a Best of Scorsese set. Are all the extras in teh 2disc SE in the
>boxset?
>
>thx
>-goro-

yes, they are. And it's quite a steal at just over $40 on Amazon.

Vlvetmorning98

(Vlvetmorning9 wrote in message news:<>...
> >i noticed that GOODFELLAS is released in a 2disc SE and also is part
> >of a Best of Scorsese set. Are all the extras in teh 2disc SE in the
> >boxset?
> >
> >thx
> >-goro-
>
> yes, they are. And it's quite a steal at just over $40 on Amazon.

thx. I'll get it today!

-goro-

Goro

(Vlvetmorning9 wrote in message news:<>...
> >i noticed that GOODFELLAS is released in a 2disc SE and also is part
> >of a Best of Scorsese set. Are all the extras in teh 2disc SE in the
> >boxset?
> >
> >thx
> >-goro-
>
> yes, they are. And it's quite a steal at just over $40 on Amazon.

thx. I'll get it today!

-goro-

Goro