Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese’s 1990 masterpiece about the rise and fall of mob associate Henry Hill, holds an IMDb rating of 8.7 out of 10 based on approximately 1.4 million user ratings. This places it among the highest-rated crime dramas in cinema history and reflects both critical acclaim and sustained audience appreciation across three decades.
- Imdb Rating Goodfellas: Table of Contents
- How Does Goodfellas' 8.7 IMDb Rating Compare to Other Crime Classics?
- Understanding What an 8.7 Rating Actually Means for a Film's Quality and Reception
- Critical Reception vs. Audience Reception—Why Both Agree on Goodfellas' Excellence
- What Factors Drove Goodfellas to Achieve an 8.7 Rating?
- Does the 8.7 Rating Fully Capture Goodfellas' Influence, or Are There Limitations?
- How Goodfellas' Rating Reflects the Evolution of Mob Cinema
- What the 8.7 Rating Tells Us About Cinema Excellence in the 21st Century
- Conclusion
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The film’s score indicates exceptional quality not just at the moment of release, but as a work that has continued to resonate with viewers discovering it for the first time or revisiting it years later.
This rating represents more than a simple numerical score—it’s a reflection of how audiences perceive the film’s storytelling, performances, and cultural impact.
Throughout this article, we’ll explore what this 8.7 rating means, how it compares to other acclaimed films, what factors contributed to Goodfellas achieving such a high score, and how the rating itself tells a story about the film’s lasting influence on cinema and popular culture.
Table of Contents
- How Does Goodfellas’ 8.7 IMDb Rating Compare to Other Crime Classics?
- Understanding What an 8.7 Rating Actually Means for a Film’s Quality and Reception
- Critical Reception vs. Audience Reception—Why Both Agree on Goodfellas’ Excellence
- What Factors Drove Goodfellas to Achieve an 8.7 Rating?
- Does the 8.7 Rating Fully Capture Goodfellas’ Influence, or Are There Limitations?
- How Goodfellas’ Rating Reflects the Evolution of Mob Cinema
- What the 8.7 Rating Tells Us About Cinema Excellence in the 21st Century
- Conclusion
How Does Goodfellas’ 8.7 IMDb Rating Compare to Other Crime Classics?
The 8.7 rating places Goodfellas in rarefied company among crime dramas. For context, The Godfather sits at 9.2, The godfather part II at 9.0, and The Dark Knight at 9.0.
This means Goodfellas ranks below these select masterpieces but significantly above most other crime films—significantly outpacing The Departed (8.5), Scarface (8.3), Once Upon a Time in America (8.4), and Donnie Brasco (7.6).
The difference between 8.7 and 8.5 might seem marginal, but it reflects thousands of individual viewer ratings aggregated over millions of evaluations, making it a meaningful distinction.
What’s particularly notable is that Goodfellas achieves this rating without the “classic Hollywood” prestige that boosted early ratings of older films, and without the recency bias that sometimes inflates newer releases.
The film has been rated consistently by diverse audiences over three decades, from Gen X viewers who saw it in theaters to younger generations discovering it through streaming. This consistency suggests the rating reflects genuine sustained quality rather than initial enthusiasm that faded.
Understanding What an 8.7 Rating Actually Means for a Film’s Quality and Reception
An imdb 8.7 rating indicates that the overwhelming majority of viewers who rated the film found it to be excellent.
On IMDb’s scale, ratings typically break down as: 10 is masterpiece, 8-9 is very good to excellent, 7-8 is good, and anything below 7 suggests significant flaws. Goodfellas firmly lands in the “excellent” territory, meaning the film contains compelling storytelling, strong performances, and technical achievement that most viewers appreciate.
However, the rating comes with an important caveat: a film rated 8.7 isn’t universally loved. Some viewers will rate it lower because they find its glorification of mob life uncomfortable, its narrative structure fragmented and hard to follow, or its violence excessive.
The film’s strength lies in that it overcomes these objections for most viewers—it has enough artistic merit and entertainment value that even people who might object to its content often recognize its quality.
This makes the 8.7 rating more meaningful than if the film had achieved 9.5 through being universally accessible; instead, it suggests the film handles complex, morally ambiguous material in a way that earns critical appreciation.
Critical Reception vs. Audience Reception—Why Both Agree on Goodfellas’ Excellence
One reason the 8.7 rating carries weight is that professional critics and general audiences largely align on Goodfellas’ quality. The film earned rave reviews upon release and has maintained critical esteem through retrospective assessments and rankings of greatest films.
This alignment between professional criticism and audience ratings is not automatic—some films score much higher with critics than audiences, or vice versa.
When both groups agree, as they do with Goodfellas, it suggests the film possesses genuine artistic achievement rather than cultish appeal or flash-in-the-pan popularity.
The 1.4 million users who rated Goodfellas represent a broad spectrum: casual viewers who stumbled upon it, serious film enthusiasts, repeat watchers, and people encountering it for the first time decades later. This large sample size reduces the impact of outlier ratings and creates a more reliable picture of how the film actually resonates.
Unlike a film with a smaller rating base, where a few passionate fans or detractors could skew the score significantly, Goodfellas’ massive rating pool represents genuine mainstream appreciation.
What Factors Drove Goodfellas to Achieve an 8.7 Rating?
Goodfellas earned its high rating through a combination of factors that have become teaching points in film criticism. Martin Scorsese’s direction, combining visceral filmmaking with sophisticated editing techniques, created a new template for crime cinema.
The performances from Ray Liotta, Robert DeNiro, and Joe Pesci (who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor) gave audiences complex, deeply realized characters they could follow into morally compromised territory.
The screenplay adapted from Nicholas Pileggi’s book captures Henry Hill’s perspective with authenticity—viewers aren’t just watching crime happen; they’re experiencing it through a criminal’s eyes in ways that feel honest rather than sensationalized.
The film’s cultural impact also contributes to its sustained rating. Scenes like the “Goodfellas tracking shot” through the Copacabana, or the “Funny how?” scene with Joe Pesci, became instant classics that influenced countless films and remain referenced in popular culture.
When a film generates this kind of lasting cultural footprint, people remember it positively, and their ratings reflect that sustained appreciation. The film works simultaneously as pulp entertainment and sophisticated cinema, which broadens its appeal.
Does the 8.7 Rating Fully Capture Goodfellas’ Influence, or Are There Limitations?
While 8.7 out of 10 is an excellent rating, it’s worth recognizing that IMDb ratings measure audience appreciation rather than historical significance or influence. A film could have profound impact on cinema while receiving a “merely” good rating if it’s challenging or acquired taste.
Conversely, a highly entertaining but straightforward film might score higher on IMDb than a more innovative but polarizing work.
Goodfellas avoids this trap by being both entertaining and influential, but the rating itself doesn’t quantify its role in reshaping crime cinema.
Another limitation: IMDb ratings reflect viewers who chose to rate the film, which may skew toward people who had a strong reaction—either very positive or negative—rather than capturing viewers who watched, found it fine, and moved on. This means films that inspire passionate appreciation tend to rate higher than films that inspire polite indifference.
For Goodfellas, this bias works in the film’s favor, since it does inspire passionate responses, but it’s worth noting that the rating says more about how people who rated it felt rather than some objective measure of quality.
How Goodfellas’ Rating Reflects the Evolution of Mob Cinema
Goodfellas arrived at a point when audience interest in mob stories was already substantial—The Godfather films had established that crime could be treated as serious drama. However, Goodfellas did something different: it showed the mob from a street-level perspective rather than the epic, patriarchal angle of The Godfather.
Henry Hill’s narration brings an everyman quality to organized crime, making it more accessible and less mythologized.
The 8.7 rating reflects audience appreciation for this fresh approach—the film satisfied people who loved Godfather-style epics while also appealing to viewers who wanted something rawer and more contemporary (for 1990). The rating’s persistence across decades also speaks to how the film’s approach has aged.
While some 1990s films feel quaint or dated, Goodfellas’ energy and style remain relevant. The film doesn’t rely on technology or contemporary references that become anachronistic; it relies on character, mood, and the timeless tension between loyalty and self-preservation that keeps audiences invested regardless of era.
What the 8.7 Rating Tells Us About Cinema Excellence in the 21st Century
As more films accumulate ratings and the IMDb database becomes more comprehensive, the 8.7 rating becomes increasingly meaningful as a benchmark. Very few films exceed 9.0; those that do typically must be either older “prestige” works that have benefited from decades of appreciation, or recent films with near-universal acclaim.
Goodfellas’ 8.7 places it in a sweet spot: universally recognized as excellent but not claiming to be perfect, which paradoxically may be more accurate than claiming absolute masterpiece status.
The rating also reflects how cinema has evolved since 1990. Modern films must achieve the same rating with audiences more jaded, more exposed to diverse filmmaking traditions, and more critical of representation and ethical questions.
That Goodfellas maintains 8.7 in this environment—where viewers can easily compare it to international cinema, experimental work, and decades of subsequent crime films—suggests its quality is genuinely enduring rather than benefiting from historical recency or limited perspective.
Conclusion
Goodfellas’ IMDb rating of 8.7 out of 10, based on approximately 1.4 million user ratings, places it among the finest crime dramas ever made and reflects both critical recognition and sustained audience appreciation.
The rating indicates that the film successfully executes complex filmmaking—balancing entertainment value with artistic sophistication, accessibility with moral ambiguity, and the visceral excitement of crime with its human consequences. This score represents something meaningful: not a perfect film, but an excellent one that has convinced millions of viewers across generations that it deserves their appreciation.
For anyone approaching Goodfellas for the first time, the 8.7 rating serves as reliable indication that they’re encountering a film of genuine quality, not just hype or historical accident. The rating is earned through Scorsese’s direction, strong performances, innovative storytelling, and the film’s undeniable influence on subsequent cinema.
Whether you’re a serious film enthusiast or a casual viewer looking for compelling entertainment, Goodfellas’ rating accurately reflects that this film delivers on both fronts.
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