Movies

The Godfather and Goodfellas share a definitive regard in the film industry and the whole film-viewing audience for their aesthetic accomplishment and technical precision.  They consequently earn the distinction of glamorizing and deglamorizing the Mafia and its immediate counterparts through their Shakespearian method of painting family, crime, and culture  each with their own significant hues.  It is important to note then that the crimes, as a central element in both films, however, have a differing exemplification dependent on the concept of morals suggestive of the two films.  The Godfather employed crimes with a more stringent hue characterized by the films lucid romanticization of the Mafia while Goodfellas welcomed the luminous and stylish illustration of crime in a rock star lifestyle fashion.

Francis Ford Coppolas Godfather depicted the tragedy experienced significantly by the family but less on their victims.  It stressed the strong cohesive familial bond within the family that must be preserved and upheld at all cost despite the infinite strings of challenges and struggles caused by their business rivals who were the other five New York families, American politicians, and the consequences of the decisions made by the children of their patriarch, Don Vito Corleone.  Crime in The Godfather film was a justified tool as well as a divine right to punish the familys enemies including those who betrayed them and take vengeance on those who offended and disrespected them.  The scenes of the execution of Paulie Gatto, Michaels meeting with Virgil Sollozo and Captain McCluskey, and the killing of Carlo Rizzi  all illustrated this and espousing the moral eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth.

Crime also became a more rational means for Michaels goals as evidenced in the killings of all the heads of the five rival families as well as the murder of Moe Greene.  The concept of the end justifies the means with the reinforcement of the juxtaposed scenes of Michael attending the christening of his nephew advocated a warm hue on the take of crime as an accepted and justified act as well as a divine right of the ruling family of the underground crime world and the New York society as a whole.  This legitimation is due in fact because the Italian-American Cosa Nostra are more likely to ingratiate themselves with political, economic, and religious elites by mediating local elections, inviting officials to their banquets, and policing small-scale troublemakers in the name of peace (Schneider et al., 2008 p.363).  The Goodfellas also emphasized the importance of family and its preservation comparable to The Godfather.  Seasoned by Scorseses adaptation of the equality of genders as illustrated by Henry and Karens relationship, and sometimes the overpowering and unrestricted extension of influence of the wife over the husband and his criminal activities.  What is interesting to note is that Henrys confirmation to Karen of his crimes to be of no big deal depicted crime simply as a normal thing as with the sex, drugs, and rock n roll lifestyle of a rock star.  Crime then is a cool thing to do when you are a gangster and it is a tool decisive to your survival in the underground crime world.
Coppolas The Godfather and Scorseses Goodfellas provide a clear experience of the Mafia life from the Mafiosis point of view.  Although they have differing hues in depicting the Mafia life and its consequences  especially when pertaining to the employment of crime as a major tool to achieve ones goals  both films display a common reality in the life of crime.  Crime in the Godfather has a warmer hue due to the Corleones supposedly divine right to use it as a means to their objectives.  Crime in Goodfellas is a normal, realistic, even prestigious part of the Mafia life.