With Michael Mann’s PUBLIC ENEMIES arriving in theaters this week, This Weekend’s Film Festival takes a look at other cinematic tales of real-life cops and robbers. There’s a tale of Ness and Capone. A story of two different undercover cops. The tragedy of a gangster turned rat. And the sexiest bank robbers ever to hit the screen. Join the crew and enjoy the ride.
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In 1972, Francis Ford Coppola perfected the gangster genre with THE GODFATHER. Martin Scorsese twisted that image in MEAN STREETS a year later. When Scorsese would return to the gangster genre in 1990 with GOODFELLAS, he showed us the wealth of stories that could be told in the genre. THE GODFATHER was epic, while GOODFELLAS was personal and dirty. It showed the glamour and the brutality of the lifestyle like it had never been seen before.

Based on Nicholas Pileggi’s true crime novel WISEGUY, the story follows Henry Hill from when he was kid. He started parking cars for the neighborhood gangsters where he earned respect. He became drunk with their influence and power. Ray Liotta’s performance as the young adult Hill is intense. He’s a smart hustler who knows how the game is played. He makes a lot of money for the boss Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino, DICK TRACY). His close friends are the paranoid Jimmy Conway (Robert DeNiro, RAGING BULL) and the loose canon Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci, CASINO).
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