Compare And Contrast Casino And Goodfellas

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Goodfellas versus Casino
The gangster genre of films was made popular early on in American film history with the development of sound (White 35). Some of them stick out in cinema history such as Goodfellas and Casino, both directed by Martin Scorsese. The audience discovers how greed for the ultimate American dream can tear apart the things that truly matter in life. In terms of quality, there is a lot of debate of which movie is the better view. Goodfellas appears to win the argument for the most part with better filming techniques and performances (Byrd). Both movies show the rise and downfalls of their protagonists using different circumstances of their lives to sway the emotions of the audience.
In Goodfellas, the main character Henry starts …show more content…

However, both relationships fizzled due to their newfound riches. With Henry, infidelity ruins his marriage and makes things rather unconventional adding his mistress to his operations. Whereas, Ace practically "bought" his wife, Ginger's affections and begged for her to live a family life with him. In a sense of these relationship dynamics, this is the only time that the emotional impression is switched. In today’s society, infidelity isn’t seen as a good thing. However, pity is given to poor Ace who is trying to buy a normal life with the woman of his …show more content…

In Goodfellas, Henry ends up becoming an informant for the FBI in fear of his family’s safety. In Casino, Ace ends up going back down the ladder in the mob as a sports handicapper. Ace had the same opportunity to leave as Henry did, however, his greed allowed him to remain. The audience feels like some good was done at the end of Goodfellas, but feels disbelief and disgust at the end of Casino. The divide of the protagonists’ motivations gave a different emotional feeling for them.
Goodfellas and Casino imprinted themselves into American film history. The opinion of either of them may be different depending on which person is asked, however that is a small controversy in itself. With the many similarities including occupational circumstances, marital blues and even the same actors portraying different characters, there are still many differences which allow the audience to prefer one over the