Funny How?
“Just Thinking”
Life imitates art – Martin Scorsese’s 1990 movie Goodfellas creeps into my psyche several times a year. This is a crime movie based on the true story about a mob associate named Henry Hill played by Ray Liotta and offers an insider’s view of organized crime. The film begins with the classic line, "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster." This sets the tone for the story of Liotta’s role as Henry Hill along with his 2 buddies Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci) and Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro).
There are some really wonderful scenes in this flick that have lasted the test of time. When Pesci confronted Liotta with the "Funny How" line, omg, everyone felt the tension. The Lufthansa Heist showcases the mob's planning and greed, leading to paranoia and betrayal. The part during the card game when Pesci shoots and kills Spider. When Billy Batts tells Pesci to grab his shoe box to shine his shoes. De Niro and Pesci viciously beat Batts near death and finish him off by stabbing him with his Pesci’s mother’s kitchen knife. Pesci’s death is shocking because they all thought that he was being made. Then the downfall when Liotta spirals into drug addiction and paranoia.
This scene is set over one single frantic day as Henry juggles multiple tasks, each escalating his anxiety and paranoia. During this whole scene Harry Nilsson's chaotic song "Jump into the Fire" is playing in the background. Henry is preparing a dinner for the family and discusses the proper why to make an Italian sauce and how you have to watch the meat balls, so they don’t burn. He needs to pick up his brother from the hospital while maintaining his drug delivery schedule. He delivers a shipment of cocaine, while picking up money and more drugs. The whole time that he is knocking out his extensive list of tasks he is becoming increasingly convinced that a helicopter is following him. Henry's voiceover takes you through his racing thoughts and increasing paranoia and catapults you into the days climax.
This is the part of the movie that plays in my head, when my plate is full and there are more obligations then you think that you can handle. Meet the photographer on a new listing, let a tradesman into a property, show a property to a client, contact the car guy because the lease is up on my truck, go by storage to get the rain deer and Christmas tree stand, send out a reminder for guys lunch, dinner with the kids, finish my newsletter, upgrade my video software, post two new rental properties online, coordinate work between a contractor and tenant, I got this... Tomorrow is a new day, get up, rinse and repeat. At least, on my extreme days, there are no helicopters following me and it doesn’t end with the police kicking my door in.
I think why I relate to this scene is because it perfectly captures the universal truth about trying to keep all of your plates spinning at once. Art imitates life and life imitates art.
Let me know what you think.
@ChuckBarberini - #ChuckBarberiniRealEstate - @ChuckBarberiniRealEstate
Comments
Post a Comment