Shot by Shot: Goodfellas

The following shots are all from the "Billy Batts" scene from Goodfellas. It opens with an exterior long shot to show the location of the altercation. It is clearly a bar, orienting the scene.

The original scene in it's entirety

The next two are medium shots. It is a narrow hall, so the film utilizes two medium shots to show that both Billy Batts' crew and Henry Hill's crew are there at separate parts of the bar.

The following shots are close ups of Henry Hill's crew. This is used to convey the emotions of each character. Joe Pesci is enraged and out of control. We as an audience now know that he has a terrible temper. Then there is a shot of Robert DeNiro, who might be just as crazy as Pesci's character considering he is beating a man to death with a certain amount of detachment. These are both shot from below, displaying their power in the situation over the man they are beating. Ray Liotta's face conveys horror at what is happening.