It’s possible to talk about The Godfather and The Sopranos without mentioning Goodfellas, but any conversation about Goodfellas inevitably involves a lot of discussion of one or both of the other two works.
And if you imagine Goodfellas as the second installment in the great informal American mob trilogy made up of these works, then it’s clear that Scorsese’s madcap gangster epic is the hardest to talk about on its own, even as it might be the greatest artistic achievement of the three. It came out between The Godfather, which opened in March 1972, and The Sopranos, which premiered in January 1999. Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas opened 30 years ago this week, on September 19, 1990. The world, as Fredo Corleone knew it, has never been an easy place for middle children. Ahead of Goodfellas turning 30 on Saturday, The Ringer looks back on the moments that define the movie in all of its complex, violent, darkly comedic glory.
