The Bloody Gun
After Henry pistol-whips Bruce, he hands Karen the gun he used, its handle covered in Bruce's blood. At first, Karen is scared of his violence, and looks down at the gun in horror. Scorsese frames the gun in closeup, a symbol of violence covered in the blood of a victim. This visceral image represents Karen's choice, either to leave Henry or stay with him. The bloody gun is a horrific, almost operatic image representing the drama and excitement of Karen's life with Henry.
Violence
The violence in the film is often gruesome, graphic, and gory. The first scene depicts a bloody half-dead man, wrapped in tablecloths, reaching out from the trunk of the car and then being stabbed repeatedly. The images of violence are not for the faint of heart, and they have the effect of shocking the viewer. The violence is at once disgusting and aesthetic, and there is plenty of it. Notable images of violence include the murder of Billy Batts, the exceedingly bloody murder of Spats, the stabbing of Morrie in the neck, the shooting of Tommy in the face, and the death of Spider.
Conspicuous Consumption
With all the money that's flowing into the gangsters' pockets each day comes a lot of new stuff. The mobsters make purchases with their massive amounts of money, casually buying new houses, luxury vehicles, mink coats for their girlfriends, and expensive artificial Christmas trees. Scorsese often depicts an entertaining dissonance between the amount of wealth the gangsters have and their level of taste, and many of their purchases are notably tacky. At one point while showing off her new house, Karen uses a remote control to open a console with a television and liquor cabinet inside. The Christmas tree that Henry buys with his earnings from the Lufthansa heist is white and artificial with purple balls hanging from it. At one point, the camera zooms in on it, an ostentatiously expensive item on a comically non-traditional Christmas tree.
Music
Martin Scorsese's soundtrack for Goodfellas is iconic. He set the criteria that the songs he used had to be contemporary to the setting of the film (no songs that had not been released by 1965 in scenes set in 1965) and there are dozens of songs on the soundtrack. Songs such as "Rags to Riches" by Tony Bennett, "And Then He Kissed Me" by the Crystals, and "Magic Bus" by The Who all provide a commentary on the events they accompany, heightening the drama, and provide helpful contextualization for the historical period in which the film is set.
