This paper discusses "Goodfellas" - a film about gangsters and crime. In "Goodfellas", Henry Hill partakes in the same type of illegal activities as his cohorts Tommy and Jimmy, but Henry employs a sensibility and loyalty that makes his character far more sympathetic. If Henry gets violent, he only becomes so out of principle or because the other guy "has it coming". When Tommy acts similarly, it comes from a deep-seated place of pure evil. For example, there is a scene in which Henry pistol-whips a young man who made advances on his girlfriend, Karen. The audience certainly has no trouble siding with Henry in this instance because the guy he attacks is a jerk, plain and simple.