This is an analysis of the opening scene from the film Goodfellas - using Barthe's five codes.
The Enigma Code
The opening scene presents a massive variety of questions, including:
- Why are they driving down a rural stretch of road at that time of night?
- How come they're confused about the bumping coming from the boot?
- When they open the boot up, why do they instantly kill the man inside?
- Why is the man inside already injured?
- Why is Tommy carrying aroind a butcher's knife?
- What has the man down to provoke the three men?
- Why are they surprised that he's still alive?
- How is the New York, 1970 setting relevant?
- Why did Henry always want to be a gangster, and how did they all get involved with eachother?
The scene also provides a quite a few actions for an opening scene, including:
- The three of them driving down the road at night.
- The banging on the trunk.
- The stopping of the car in the middle of a forest to check the boot.
- Tommy stabbing the man inside of the trunk.
- Jimmy shooting him after the stabbing.
- Henry slamming the trunk after the man being shot.
Some of the general themes presented in the scene are:
- Violence - presented by the brutal murder of the injured man in the boot.
- Organised Crime/Mob - the setting, the way they dress and their dialect.
Cultural themes
- The scene is full of references to culture, including:
- The urban setting in the vibrant city of New York, contemporary America.
- It's set in 1970, which is close to historical but it's more moder overall.
- The clothes that the characters are wearing, very smart which represents the mob/gangster aspect.
- The car that they are driving, a classic mobster car.
Characters
There are four characters in the clip, three being set up to be main characters. They represent:
- Henry - Automatically the main character due to the focus and narration by him at the end of the scene, he's presented as a member of the mob in this scene, with no indication of his status. I.E whether he's just muscle or perhaps a Lieutenant in hierachy.
- Tommy - Presented a somewhat crazy/psycho character due to the immediate violent stabbing of the victim in the car. Again to indication of rank, although he is sitting in the back which could be interpreted both ways, he could be a very high rank and being escorted or sitting in the back as he's of lower status. It could even just be random.
- Jimmy - Presented as a less crazy character, as he doesn't immediately stab the victim but instead only shoots him after he's clearly on the brink of death. Sitting in the passenger seat, which could represent a higher status than Tommy or Henry.
- The injured man in the boot - Very short screen time, main example of violence and death in the scene due to the fact that's he brutally executed.