Voiceover is a risky business in filmmaking. It too easily transforms into a crutch, a get-out-of-jail-free card for narrative gaps. Or, an actor loses the thread between their divergent performances (sorry Harrison Ford). It’s then the first of many miracles in Goodfellas (1990) that Ray Liotta’s narration is downright incandescent. Liotta, who died last week, delivers two all-time performances as Henry Hill in Martin Scorsese’s mob masterpiece.
“As far as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster”
Thus, begins the second of those performances – his voiceover. Liotta’s pockmarked charisma crackles in those words, launching the film into the darkly comic register it maintains throughout. Even when a different actor plays a younger Hill, Liotta’s voicework centers on his personality. Yes, Goodfellas may feature a kaleidoscope of gangsters, but Liotta’s dual performances ensure Hill is every bit the bullseye.
Power, money, and women are all things the young Hill sees as available if he embraces the mob. Liotta provides the shining eyes of a twisted American dreamer, content to shoot his way to the metaphorical white picket fence. On the screen, Liotta’s mastery of Hill’s rise and incipient fall play as a brutal tragicomedy. Hill swears that to him:
“being a gangster was better than being president of the United States”