''As far back as I can remember, I''ve always wanted to be a gangster.''

Henry Hill grows up in the 1950s, in a Brooklyn neighbourhood where Italian-American gangsters walk tall in the streets, commanding the respect of their peers. Young Henry dreams that one day he too might be a professional ''wiseguy'' - a ''goodfella''. His wishes come true with remarkable speed once he teams up with renowned hoodlum Jimmy Conway and his alarmingly psychotic pal Tommy DeVito. Henry embarks on an everyday life of crime which takes him from rags to gaudy riches, in and out of the federal penitentiary and under the unwelcome spotlight of the FBI. As the 1970s turn sour Henry finds himself at the sharp end of the cocaine trade, increasingly adrift from his extended mobster ''family'' and forced to make a tough decision about his future . . .

The film that re-established Martin Scorsese''s eminence among American directors after years of professional difficulties, GoodFellas is a tour de force which lays bare the crude and venal motives which drive a happy band of thieves and murderers.