Every few years a unique, challenging, perhaps even great film, escapes from the Hollywood system. Goodfellas is just such a film. On the surface, this movie appears to have little structure. In fact, it has one of the most advanced and powerful structures in a long time.
To see what a brilliant story-telling strategy this film uses, let's break it down using the simple, seven-step structure method. Those seven steps are the Problem/Need, the Desire, the Opponent, the Plan, the Battle, the Self-Revelation, and the New Equilibrium with the hero at a higher or lower level.
Self-Revelation: When writing or analyzing a script, it is best to begin at the endpoint, the hero's self-revelation. In most films, the hero has a deep insight about him/herself and how to act in the world. But in Goodfellas, the writers, Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese, have chosen the black comedy structure. This form shows a destructive system its members believe in so strongly they can't see the absurdity of the system's logic.
The key to the black comedy is to deprive the hero of a self-revelation - and thus any chance of change - and give the self-revelation to the audience instead. Our hero, Henry, must believe in his world to the end, even though it is literally killing him.
Problem/Need: With that as our endpoint, we can go back to the beginning of the film to check the opening. Every story starts with the hero facing one or more problems and, more importantly, missing something inside that must be fulfilled if he is to have a better life. In other words, most stories begin with an enslaved hero who struggles to gain his/her freedom by the end.
What sets Goodfellas apart from other films is that it uses a first-person storyteller to show, in an extremely detailed and ironic way, the world of slavery that holds the hero. After a shocking opening scene, Henry flashes back to his childhood beginnings with the mob. In voice-over, Henry describes this world as a utopia.
As in a myth story, Goodfellas shows us the young hero learning the rules of manhood - as this system defines it - and successfully navigating the rites of passage to a respected place in this elite society. Throughout this period, the audience also learns the rules of the system, so that later we can see its terrible effects.
All of this would be sufficient for a powerful opening to a black comedy. But the brilliant step here is showing us for the first time a gangster hero so in love with the mob world. Instead of a story that goes from slavery to freedom, the writers are going to show us a story that goes from freedom - or, more precisely, apparent freedom - to slavery.
This is a paradise lost movie, in the great tradition of Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Amerbersons, Chinatown, and more recently, Cinema Paradiso. And appropriately, the myth the writers use as the foundation of their paradise lost story is King Arthur.
Henry, the storyteller, recalls the glory days of the Knights of the Round Table, showing us men of power and violence, with a chivalric code based on appearance, shame, and the idealization and degradation of women. Then we watch this ideal community crumble due to individual desire and suspicion.
Of course the key to the film's story-telling strategy is that this "utopian" world is fake. Because the rules that allow the hero to gain the money, the cars and the women are the same rules that ensure that the members of the system will eventually kill each other.
Problem/Need: As the flashback eventually leads us back to the opening scene of violence, we see clearly that Henry's psychological need is to overcome an infatuation with wealth and power that is actually enslaving him. His moral need is to learn to stop taking from others and killing those who stand in his way. Since this is a black comedy, Henry will never fulfill either need.
Desire: With the long set-up complete, Henry begins to seek his desire, or particular goal, in the story. That is, Henry wants to make a killing by selling drugs.
Opponent: Every hero has an opponent who tries to keep him from his goal. Here, Henry's immediate opponent is not the cops but the lead gangster, Paulie. Paulie wants Henry out of drugs. But Henry is determined to make his fortune. He fails to realize that in this system - in this separate government - every member is his deadly opponent, including his childhood hero, Jimmy.
Plan: The hero must always have a plan to overcome his opponent and win the goal. Henry's plan is to use his friend Sandy and do his deals out of Pittsburgh where Paulie won't discover what he's doing. Furthermore, he plans to do one final big heist at Lufthansa.
Once the false utopian world has been set up, the middle of the film shows a slow but steady decline of the hero and his system. For example, Henry beats up his girlfriend's boss, Tommy shoots Spider in the foot and later kills him, Henry goes to jail, Tommy kills Stacks for screwing up the heist, Morrie and the others from the heist are murdered, and Henry is busted for drugs and finally sent into exile by Paulie. Henry reaches his lowest point when he realizes Jimmy is about to kill him.
Battle: The battle is the final conflict in a story and it typically determines who wins the goal. Here again the writers deliberately undercut the drama of the moment by playing the courtroom scene in voice-over. Instead of building to this climactic moment, as most films do, the black comedy form presents Henry's testimony against his childhood heroes as the inevitable final step in the breakdown of a self-destructive system.
Back to the Self-Revelation: In most stories, the hero comes to his great self-revelation by going through the battle. But black comedy gives us pathetic people, caught in a system, incapable of learning and growing. And because it is so clear that the hero should learn something in all of this, we, the audience, take the self-revelation home with us instead.
New Equilibrium with the hero at a higher or lower level: Henry ends, an anonymous member of suburbia, wishing for the good old days when he was a member of an elite organization that came this close to killing him.
In watching this film, I would have liked to see a few more personal moments between the lead characters to make the seductiveness of the world more believable. Also, I would have liked more details of how the mob - as real vampires - sucks decent people dry.
Most importantly, I would have liked to see how this way of thinking isn't unique to the mob. Rather it's part of the American psyche that sees the American dream as the right to be selfish and make as much money at the expense of others as possible.
But Goodfellas is a remarkable film. And it shows two master writers using an advanced story structure to drive home their intricate points deep below the surface. Screenwriting doesn't have to be simplistic.
To see what a brilliant story-telling strategy this film uses, let's break it down using the simple, seven-step structure method. Those seven steps are the Problem/Need, the Desire, the Opponent, the Plan, the Battle, the Self-Revelation, and the New Equilibrium with the hero at a higher or lower level.
Self-Revelation: When writing or analyzing a script, it is best to begin at the endpoint, the hero's self-revelation. In most films, the hero has a deep insight about him/herself and how to act in the world. But in Goodfellas, the writers, Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese, have chosen the black comedy structure. This form shows a destructive system its members believe in so strongly they can't see the absurdity of the system's logic.
The key to the black comedy is to deprive the hero of a self-revelation - and thus any chance of change - and give the self-revelation to the audience instead. Our hero, Henry, must believe in his world to the end, even though it is literally killing him.
Problem/Need: With that as our endpoint, we can go back to the beginning of the film to check the opening. Every story starts with the hero facing one or more problems and, more importantly, missing something inside that must be fulfilled if he is to have a better life. In other words, most stories begin with an enslaved hero who struggles to gain his/her freedom by the end.
What sets Goodfellas apart from other films is that it uses a first-person storyteller to show, in an extremely detailed and ironic way, the world of slavery that holds the hero. After a shocking opening scene, Henry flashes back to his childhood beginnings with the mob. In voice-over, Henry describes this world as a utopia.
As in a myth story, Goodfellas shows us the young hero learning the rules of manhood - as this system defines it - and successfully navigating the rites of passage to a respected place in this elite society. Throughout this period, the audience also learns the rules of the system, so that later we can see its terrible effects.
All of this would be sufficient for a powerful opening to a black comedy. But the brilliant step here is showing us for the first time a gangster hero so in love with the mob world. Instead of a story that goes from slavery to freedom, the writers are going to show us a story that goes from freedom - or, more precisely, apparent freedom - to slavery.
This is a paradise lost movie, in the great tradition of Citizen Kane, The Magnificent Amerbersons, Chinatown, and more recently, Cinema Paradiso. And appropriately, the myth the writers use as the foundation of their paradise lost story is King Arthur.
Henry, the storyteller, recalls the glory days of the Knights of the Round Table, showing us men of power and violence, with a chivalric code based on appearance, shame, and the idealization and degradation of women. Then we watch this ideal community crumble due to individual desire and suspicion.
Of course the key to the film's story-telling strategy is that this "utopian" world is fake. Because the rules that allow the hero to gain the money, the cars and the women are the same rules that ensure that the members of the system will eventually kill each other.
Problem/Need: As the flashback eventually leads us back to the opening scene of violence, we see clearly that Henry's psychological need is to overcome an infatuation with wealth and power that is actually enslaving him. His moral need is to learn to stop taking from others and killing those who stand in his way. Since this is a black comedy, Henry will never fulfill either need.
Desire: With the long set-up complete, Henry begins to seek his desire, or particular goal, in the story. That is, Henry wants to make a killing by selling drugs.
Opponent: Every hero has an opponent who tries to keep him from his goal. Here, Henry's immediate opponent is not the cops but the lead gangster, Paulie. Paulie wants Henry out of drugs. But Henry is determined to make his fortune. He fails to realize that in this system - in this separate government - every member is his deadly opponent, including his childhood hero, Jimmy.
Plan: The hero must always have a plan to overcome his opponent and win the goal. Henry's plan is to use his friend Sandy and do his deals out of Pittsburgh where Paulie won't discover what he's doing. Furthermore, he plans to do one final big heist at Lufthansa.
Once the false utopian world has been set up, the middle of the film shows a slow but steady decline of the hero and his system. For example, Henry beats up his girlfriend's boss, Tommy shoots Spider in the foot and later kills him, Henry goes to jail, Tommy kills Stacks for screwing up the heist, Morrie and the others from the heist are murdered, and Henry is busted for drugs and finally sent into exile by Paulie. Henry reaches his lowest point when he realizes Jimmy is about to kill him.
Battle: The battle is the final conflict in a story and it typically determines who wins the goal. Here again the writers deliberately undercut the drama of the moment by playing the courtroom scene in voice-over. Instead of building to this climactic moment, as most films do, the black comedy form presents Henry's testimony against his childhood heroes as the inevitable final step in the breakdown of a self-destructive system.
Back to the Self-Revelation: In most stories, the hero comes to his great self-revelation by going through the battle. But black comedy gives us pathetic people, caught in a system, incapable of learning and growing. And because it is so clear that the hero should learn something in all of this, we, the audience, take the self-revelation home with us instead.
New Equilibrium with the hero at a higher or lower level: Henry ends, an anonymous member of suburbia, wishing for the good old days when he was a member of an elite organization that came this close to killing him.
In watching this film, I would have liked to see a few more personal moments between the lead characters to make the seductiveness of the world more believable. Also, I would have liked more details of how the mob - as real vampires - sucks decent people dry.
Most importantly, I would have liked to see how this way of thinking isn't unique to the mob. Rather it's part of the American psyche that sees the American dream as the right to be selfish and make as much money at the expense of others as possible.
But Goodfellas is a remarkable film. And it shows two master writers using an advanced story structure to drive home their intricate points deep below the surface. Screenwriting doesn't have to be simplistic.
