In GoodFellas, however, every second is totally riveting and nothing seems wasted. Every scene and line of dialogue feel like they're telling an essential part of the story, and one feels that if anything were done differently, the movie would be diminished.
My opinion anyway. What are your thoughts?
You said it all right there, Vito! A very long movie, and not a minute wasted, not a line of dialog that doesn't work, not a scene that didn't belong there--and that would diminish the movie if it were removed. Bang-bang action and mordant humor. To be fair, "Gangs" is a different concept--it's more like a stage drama than a street depiction. The tipoff is the deliberate way Scorsese set that fireworks display early on--you know it's going to be stagy.
