Goodfellas: 2-Disc Special Edition (DVD)

Is Goodfellas the "best mob movie ever" as Roger Ebert is quoted as saying? It is certainly debatable, but I really have a hard time putting any mob movie in front of Godfather Part II or the original Godfather but this one certainly falls in the top two, and with a Warner Bros. special edition the value certainly increased in my book, primarily due to a couple of things in the disc two featurettes, but let's get to those in a second.

Goodfellas is Martin Scorcese's true crime story based on the true-life best seller Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi depicting the rise and fall of Henry Hill (Liotta) as he worms his way into the mob lifestyle only to find himself in over his head. The film earned Joe Pesci an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor and has also earned itself a place in history earning a place on the AFI Top 100 Films of all-time (94).

First off disc one obviously has your feature film with an all new digital transfer plus two commentaries. The first commentary is a bit rough around the edges as it bounces around from several voices including Martin Scorcese, Ray Liotta, Lorraine Bracco, Paul Sorvino, Frank Vincent, Nicholas Pileggi and more. The commentary is good, but it bounces around from person to person so much it becomes a bit tedious.

The commentary I was most looking forward to was with Henry Hill and ex-FBI agent Edward McDonald. Seeing how the movie was based on Hill's life and McDonald's investigation I thought this would be a bit more interesting but Hill sounds like he is about to take his last breath the entire time it isn't nearly as satisfying as I had hoped it would be.

Nevertheless, the commentaries don't turn out to be the hidden treasures, rather the featurettes on disc two are much better, primarily the features Made Men: The Goodfellas Legacy and The Workaday Gangster.

Made Men is a look at the influence Goodfellas had on such directors as Antoine Fuqua, The Hughes Brothers, Joe Carnahan, Jon Favreau and Richard Linklater. There examination of the film and thoughts are just awesome to hear, especially when Allen Hughes describes the third act of the movie as, "Paranoia, Cocaine and Pasta Sauce," couldn't be any more accurate than that. It is also revealing to hear the Hughes Brothers used Goodfellas as a major influence for their modern gang film Menace II Society, which is a very similar look at gang life.

The other great feature is The Workaday Gangster, primarily for the one spot where Henry Hill talks about what it was like to rat out his "friends", and have to point them out in court. The scene in the movie is powerful enough, but with this added bit, it increases ten fold.

Also on the disc is the making-of featurette Getting Made a script/storyboard to screen look at the making of Goodfellas comparing Scorcese's notes to the actual film.

If you own this movie on DVD already and only want it for the commentaries, it might not be worth your cash, but for the new digital transfer and the featurettes on disc two, it just might be worth an upgrade. If you don't own it already, do I really need to tell you to go buy it now?