The Setup: In the middle of a shakedown, Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), a
fast-rising gangster in the 1970's mafia, receives a frantic call from his new girlfriend, Karen (Lorraine Bracco), informing him that her neighbor, an overprivileged and unfortunately naïve socialite named Bruce (Mark Evan Jacobs) sexually assaulted her.
It can be seen here, starting at about the 2:00 mark.
Incisive Commentary: A viewer's pupils will begin to dilate as soon as Henry drops the phone; given Henry's nature and the nature of the world around him, there is no mistaking that ol' Bruce has made a terrible mistake, and he is about to pay for it dearly. Upon arrival at Karen's house, Henry tucks a .38 revolver into his waistband and strides quickly and deliberately across the street and up Bruce's driveway, where Bruce stands with his two brothers looking as menacing as humanly possible in feathered hair. Bruce's "You want something, Fucko?" is answered, with nary a word, by the most vicious pistol-whipping that a man wearing pastel has ever received, and Bruce's impotent brothers can only look on in horror. "You touch her again, you're DEAD!" shrieks Ray Liotta's Hill at his
psychotic best, just before one final blow to Bruce's head with the revolver. This scene succeeded where the "greaser"/"soc" rumble failed in the Outsiders (fear not, Mr. Coppola, your work will be well represented herein), in that the defeat of the antagonist in the scene is complete and total. Henry Hill represents the everyman, a blue collar man in Bruce's white collar world, who refuses to be intimidated by the powers-that-be, and who makes his own way, like the mafia itself in the movie, by brute force and few words. Hill is a man who is therefore not bound by the same rules as the rest of us, and his inner beast is allowed to roam free, with harsh consequences for those who cross his path, and a ringing catharsis for viewers on his side. It is worth a mention that before Bruce's education, Henry stops to evaluate whether Karen is all right. This is his human nature juxtaposed rather starkly with the beast inside, an internal tug of war that Henry experiences throughout the movie.
Cheese Factor: 0/10 (say what you will about the red leather attire, but Ray Liotta's super-hip 1970's gangster garb is aces in my book, Jack)
