Goodfellas (1990), directed by Martin Scorsese and based on Nicholas Pileggi's Wiseguy, follows Henry Hill's rise and fall through the New York mob from age 13 to his entry into witness protection. Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, and Robert De Niro star.

Why It Matters

• Joe Pesci won Best Supporting Actor for Tommy DeVito — one of cinema's most terrifying comic performances
• The two-and-a-half-minute Copacabana tracking shot — one continuous take through the kitchen of a nightclub — is the most celebrated steadicam shot in film history
• Redefined the gangster film by making the audience complicit in the glamour before pulling the rug

Scorsese uses voice-over, freeze frames, pop music, and breakneck editing to put you inside Henry Hill's exhilarating, paranoid world. The film's second half descent into cocaine paranoia is still the most propulsive 40 minutes in American cinema.

Reference:

Wikipedia: Goodfellas

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodfellas