A Scene No One Else In Their Right Mind Cares About

There's not much else to say about Martin Scorsese. I mean, come on. The guy's basically film royalty now. He made some of the most artistic films of all time while also making some of the most entertaining ones. This isn't about the guy, his movies, or even his style. Nah, this is about one single shot that over the last four years I have become totally obsessed with. And I'm not sure I've ever met anyone else who's cared about it.

The movie Goodfellas is great. Yeah, what a unique, culturally distinctive opinion. Cinematography is like nothing else I've ever seen. Blah blah blah blah. One shot stands out to me to this day and every time I watch the movie I count the minutes until I get to watch it.

It's a small moment, and it doesn't even stand out to you when you see the movie the first time. But oh ym god, this shot absolutely drips with cool. On an artistic level, it's a perfect melding of story, acting, cinematography and song choice. De Niro doesn't overplay the moment overplayed, but between the steady dolly in, the slow motion, and the blunt blues guitars, you can tell something is about to happen. The story carries an entire plot movement, which could have been an entire scene of arguing between character, and deftly executes it in a matter of seconds.

And the song. Scorsese has a bunch of iconic scenes set to song, but this one just stands out from most. It just feels like some bad stuff is about to go down.

This scene perfectly illustrates how story is not just dialog, which is a lesson I fear many young film makes forget. So much of a film is built on small moments like this, and I think this type of film making is the type that most often resonates with an audience.