Goodfellas - Sound

Throughout the film, we are told the story through the point of view of Henry; therefore we often hear his voice over the action. Scorsese is known for using voice-overs and I think it is a very effective way of telling the story, as the viewer is plunged into the very thoughts and feelings of the narrator; we are able to empathise with him on a deeper level than we are with the other characters. At times during the film, the voice-over changes the point of view of Karen. This happens when she meets Henry for the first time. The use of this non-diegetic sound really works well because we switch from one character’s viewpoint to another, so we can tell what they are thinking at that exact moment. Adding voice-overs to a film is an extremely adept way of getting the audience to relate to the character. It feels as if he/she is personally addressing us, hence we feel obliged to take part in the action. In this particular clip, we hear Henry’s voice in the voice-over as he tells us how eager he is to leave the dinner to attend to the business he has with Cicero (1:19). Then at 1:56 the voice-over changes to that of Karen’s; we are now hearing her thoughts and seeing the date from her perspective.


Finally, Scorsese uses contrapuntal sound on a few occasions in the film, but I chose to analyse the scene in which Conway and DeVito kill Billy Batts.

The music used in this scene is a track called ‘Atlantis’ by Donovan; the lyrics say: “Way down below the ocean where I wanna be she may be”. This is an excellent use of contrapuntal sound because the soothing, calming effect of the music is completely asynchronous to the action we are seeing. This contrast in peaceful music and violent action actually exaggerates the scene and makes Batts’ death more horrific than usual.