Goodfellas
Caution. Age: 18+. A Catholic review of this movie for parents.
Our review
This movie tells the true story of Henry Hill, a boy from Brooklyn who grows up to work for the mob. He thinks the life of crime looks exciting, but it ends in fear, prison and betrayal. This film is for grown-ups only. It is not for kids or teens. The craft is among the best in American film, and that is exactly the difficulty. For most of its length the mob life looks like fun, and the price arrives late. The film does show the wages of sin: paranoia, addiction, a wrecked marriage, friends killing friends. But Henry never repents. He ends by missing the money and the respect, and nothing in the film speaks for the people he robbed or buried. Add about 300 obscenities, brutal killings and routine adultery, and this is a film for a formed adult who has a reason to watch it. Caution.
For parents
Adults only. Common Sense Media says 18 plus, which is rare for them, and Lumen agrees. This is not a film for teens, even older ones, and it is not background viewing in a house with children. For an adult who watches: notice how the film makes you like these men before it shows you what they are. That pull is how vice works. Sin makes the next sin easier and clouds the conscience (CCC 1865), and Henry's story shows it step by step. Murder is gravely sinful (CCC 2268). Using drugs is a grave offense and trafficking them is direct cooperation in evil (CCC 2291), and Henry both sells and uses. His affairs are an injustice to his wife and children (CCC 2380-2381). Those who approve of or shelter evildoers share in their sins (CCC 1868), which is the whole world of the wives and friends here. Ask yourself afterward: is Henry sorry, or only sorry it ended? Regret for lost comfort is not contrition.