Toby Jones on Goodfellas - Telegraph I saw Goodfellas (1990) when it first came out and I was pinned to my seat. I remember being shocked by the violence for the first hour, but then the last half-hour seems to ramp up. I was rendered absolutely breathless by the end and came out going "I want to go in again." It was like coming off a ride. People talk about the violence, but after the film is over you don't have that lingering feeling about it being superfluous. It feels integral to the plot, not least because of the verbal and physical violence between the gangsters themselves. Violence is in their very language, and it's contrasted with this domestic, very warm, familial sense of camaraderie between them. That contrast is so striking. Scorsese is good at showing you this is a very subjective view of events. Not just by having one of the gangsters as a narrator - Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta - but also in the high stylisation of the film itself: the intensity of the colour, the suspension of action, the swoop of the camera, the way it is shot. You're never not aware of the director's influence, which makes you think twice about the memories coming from this very questionable character. When I watched it the first time the performance that shocked me was Joe Pesci as Tommy De Vito. With Pesci the violence is so febrile that it makes you very jittery. It is quite extraordinary But watching it again recently, the striking performance is Robert De Niro as Jimmy Conway. He's equally as violent, but the viciousness is contained - it's a slow-burn performance.