Part of why the voice over technique works so well in Goodfellas is because of the world that it takes place in. The film tells the story of Mafia associate and eventual turncoat Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), who worked for the Lucchesse Crime Family for over thirty years. This makes voice over essential for the audience, since most of them would be totally unfamiliar with the inner workings of organized crime. One fantastic example of this could be seen where Hill is explaining a common Mafia technique for extorting a businessman. Commonly referred to as a “bust out”, is where the Mafia becomes an invisible partner of a legitimate business. Though this technique is not terribly complicated, it would be difficult to convey the basic idea to the audience just through images without causing confusion. Also, since criminals usually don’t explain their crimes to their victims, explaining the workings of the “bust out” in the story between characters could be considered on the nose writing. Really, the only way to inform the audience of what is going on is through the following voice over narration:
"Now the guy’s got Paulie as a partner. Any problems, he goes to Paulie. Trouble with the bill, he can go to Paulie. Trouble with the cops, deliveries, Tommy, he can call Paulie. Now the guy’s gotta come up with Paulie’s money every week no matter what. Buisness is bad? Fuck you, pay me. Had a fire? Fuck you, pay me. The place got hit by lightning? Fuck you, pay me. Also, Paulie could do anything, especially run up bills on the joint’s credit. And why not? Nobody’s gonna pay for it anyway. When the deliveries are made at the front door you move the stuff out the back and sell it at a discount. You take a $200 case of booze and sell it for $100. It doesn’t matter. It’s all profit. Then finally, when there’s nothing left, when you can’t borrow another buck or buy another case of booze, you bust the joint out. You light a match."
While this voice over narration is playing, a series of quick shots showing gangsters taking goods out of the backroom of a restaurant and putting it in the back of a truck. After that, with the narration still playing, a shot of the business owner being pressured to sign insurance papers is seen. Then, once the narration is over, we see both Henry and his cohort Tommy (Joe Pesci) burn down the bar, presumably to cash in on the insurance money. Though the audience may just assume that something illegal was taking place, without the voice over narration, the audience would not have a clear understanding of what is going on. Thomas Sobachack proposes in his book An Introduction to Film, “A continuous sound track in which a narrator speaks to the audience throughout the film can unify what would be otherwise fragmented and disconnected visual images (145). This scene from Goodfellas does exactly that.
Another reason that the voice over technique used in Goodfellas is effective is because the film acts as an anthropological study of the Mafia. As also explained through voice over narration in the film, because of Henry’s half Irish background, he could never be an actual “made” member of the Mafia. Though he is an active participant in crimes and an active associate of the Mafia, he will never be accepted as one of them. This gives Goodfellas a documentary-like feel, similar to someone like Jane Goodall living with apes, participating in their rituals, but never really becoming one of them. In his article A Way of Life: “Goodfellas” and “Casino”, Constantine Verevis says:
“Henry’s status as a detached observer-a narrator at once inside and outside the system of conduct that he documents-which positions him as a quasi-anthropological commentator on the mob’s codes and values…..Henry’s voice-over effectively guides the viewer through the narrative, providing an insider’s knowledge and perspective on the world of the gangster, at once shaping the film as a piece of documentary journalism and providing contextual and narrative connections so that most scenes require no beginning and no ending, but merely a few illustrative, emblematic shots."
Besides explaining the inner workings of organized crime and acting as a guide through the underworld, Henry’s voice over narration in Goodfellas also acts as a justification for both his crimes and the crimes of his associates. For example, Henry says:
"For us to live any other way was nuts. To us those goody-good people who worked shitty jobs for bum paychecks and took the subway to work every day, and worried about their bills were dead. They had no balls. I mean they were suckers. If we wanted something we just took it. If anyone complained twice, believe me, they got hit so hard they never complained again."
And again, Henry justifies the role of the Mafia through saying:
"All they got from Paulie was protection from other guys looking to rip them off. That’s what it’s all about. That’s what the FBI can never understand-that what Paulie and the organization offer is protection for the kinds of guys who can’t go to the cops. They’re like the police department for wise guys."
It is through this narration and several others through the film that Henry tries to justify, unapologetically, his gangster way of life to the audience.
A more humorous trip through the criminal underworld is seen in Guy Ritchie’s Snatch. Taking place in London, Snatch has a colorful cast of criminals who are all connected by a stolen diamond. The voice in the narration is that of Turkish (Jason Statham), an unlicensed boxing promoter. Though the voice over narration starts off similar to Goodfellas, with Turkish explaining the inner workings of his illegal enterprise and his status in the London underworld, there are times where his voice over narration is redundant. The narration suffers in the film because it is mostly just used to “identify characters and underline developments” (Ebert).
Though humorous, some of the most redundant narrations that Turkish presents to the audience are his brief descriptions of certain underworld figures. One example is of “Boris the Blade” (Rade Serbedzija):
"Boris the Blade, or Boris “the Bullet Dodger.” As bent as the Soviet sickle and as hard as the hammer that crosses it. Apparently, it’s just impossible to kill the bastard."
Again, while humorous, Turkish’s description of the character is not needed. Everything that he tells the audience about Boris is either already obvious, or will be found out later in the film. For example, at the first glimpse of Boris, the audience can tell that he is a tough “bastard” just by looking at the huge scar he has running on the right side of his face. Another way that the audience finds out about Boris’s reputation is by the frightened reaction of tough guy “Bullitt Tooth” Tony (Vinnie Jones) when he realizes that Boris is the man who he is looking for. Through the story, the audience also finds out he is “bent” or dishonest, by several characters calling him a “sneaky fucking Russian” or “KGB cancer.” Lastly, the audience also finds out how hard Boris is to kill after he is run over by a car, and then, after surviving that, is shot several times by an astonished “Bullet Tooth” Tony until he finally expires.
Another narration that is given to us that is redundant to the audience is how gang lord “Brick Top” (Alan Ford) likes to dispose of his victims:
"It’s rumored that Brick Top’s favorite means of dispatch involves a stun gun, a plastic bag, a roll of tape, and a pack of hungry pigs."
Again, this narration is useless to the audience because the action is happening on screen. As Turkish is narrating, a victim is actually being shocked by a stun gun, rolled up in a plastic bag, and then taped up. And while we don’t see the victim being thrown to the pigs, the last line of the scene Brick Top yells to an underling: “Feed him to the pigs, Errol.” Also, later in the film Brick Top himself explains his method of execution via swine to a few characters as a means of intimidation, again rendering the voice over narration by Turkish useless.
Aside from using useless voice over narrations to introduce characters or their methods of execution, Snatch also uses the voice over narration to sum up plot points that the audience should already understand. For example, Brick Top wants Turkish to get Mickey (Brad Pitt), a bare knuckled boxer, to take part in one of his fights. Mickey refuses because he says he has quit boxing to look after his mother. As a retaliatory response for his defiance, Brick Top tries to have Turkish beat up and kills Mickey’s mother. Turkish explains:
"Brick Top though smashing up our arcade might help me to persuade Mickey to fight. And if that wasn’t enough, he thought it would be a good idea to burn Mickey’s mum’s caravan. While she was asleep in it."
Again, this is another part of the film that requires no narration because it should be obvious to the audience what is happening. The scene right before this narration, Brick Top orders to an underling: “Punish them for me Errol.” He says that right after he gets off the phone with Turkish, who explained to Brick Top that Mickey won’t fight because of his mother. So the thugs that smash up Turkish’s arcade are obviously dispatched by Brick Top. It should be also obvious that Brick Top ordered the burning of Mickey’s mother’s caravan; because that is the reason he won’t fight.
Ways Ritchie could have improved the use of voice over narration in Snatch would have been simply to have Turkish express more of what he is thinking, or something that needed further explanation, rather than explain to the audience what they already know. If the character of Turkish acted more as our guide through the criminal underworld, like Henry did in Goodfellas, rather than just being a side character with a voice over, the device would have been far more effective. Especially since the criminal underworld of London is far more exotic than the criminal underworld of New York. Native gang lords, ex-KGB agents turned gangsters, Jamaican yardies, and Pikeys all prowl the London underworld that is portrayed in Snatch.
While Snatch isn’t “culturally and cinematically a dead end, based on a lazy retelling of Get Carter” (Smith 188), the narration in the film fails to be effective. Unlike Goodfellas, which uses the voice over narration to guide and explain foreign customs and rules of the underworld to the audience, Snatch just uses voice over narration to introduce characters and to explain plot points.
Bibliography
-Ebert, Roger. ""Snatch"" Snatch :: Rogerebert.com :: Reviews. Chigaco-Sun Times, 19 Jan. 2001. Web. 10 Oct. 2012.
-Kozloff, Sarah. Invisible Storytellers: Voice-over Narration in American Fiction Film. Berkeley: University of California, 1988. Print.
-Smith, Jim. Gangster Films. London: Virgin, 2004. Print.
-Sobchack, Thomas, and Vivian Carol Sobchack. An Introduction to Film. Boston: Little, Brown, 1980. Print.
-Verevis, Constantine. "Way of Life: Goodfellas and Casino." Gangster Film Reader (2007): 209-23. Print.
