Goodfellas

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Goodfellas
Directed by Martin Scorsese
Produced by Irwin Winkler
Written by Nicholas Pileggi
Martin Scorsese
Narrated by Ray Liotta
Lorraine Bracco
Starring Ray Liotta
Robert De Niro
Joe Pesci
Lorraine Bracco
Paul Sorvino
Cinematography Michael Ballhaus
Editing by Thelma Schoonmaker
Distributed by Warner Bros.
Release date(s) Flag of Italy September, 1990
(premiere at VFF)
Flag of the United States September 19, 1990
Flag of Australia October 18, 1990
Running time 145 min.
Country Flag of the United States United States
Language English
Budget $25,000,000
Gross revenue $47,000,000
IMDb profile

Goodfellas (also spelled GoodFellas) is a 1990 film directed by Martin Scorsese, based on the book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, the true story of mob informer Henry Hill.

The film stars Ray Liotta as Henry Hill, Robert De Niro as Jimmy Conway (based on Jimmy Burke), Joe Pesci, who won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as the sociopath Tommy DeVito (based on Tommy DeSimone), Lorraine Bracco as Hill's wife (Karen Hill), and Paul Sorvino as Paulie Cicero (based on Paul Vario).



Contents

The plot summary in this article or section is too long compared to the rest of the article.
Please edit the article to focus on discussing the work rather than merely reiterating the plot.

Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) admits, "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster." As a boy, Henry idolized the Lucchese crime family gangsters in his blue-collar, predominantly Italian neighborhood in East New York, Brooklyn, and in 1955 quit school and went to work for them. The local mob capo, Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino) (based on the actual Lucchese mobster Paul Vario) and Cicero's close associate Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro) (based on Jimmy Burke) help cultivate Henry's criminal career.

As adults, Henry and his associate Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci in his Academy Award-winning performance) (based on Thomas DeSimone) conspire with Conway to steal some of the billions of dollars of cargo passing through Idlewild Airport (now known as John F. Kennedy International Airport). They help out in a key heist, stealing over half a million dollars from the Air France cargo terminal. The robbery helps Henry gain more of Cicero's trust. However, because Henry is half-Irish, he knows he can never become a "made man," a full member of the crime family. Nor can Jimmy Conway, who is also Irish.

Henry's friends become increasingly daring and dangerous. Conway loves hijacking trucks, and Tommy has an explosive temper and a psychotic need to prove himself through violence. At one point, he humiliates an innocent and unarmed young man "Spider" (played by a then unknown Michael Imperioli), asking Spider to dance à la The Oklahoma Kid then shooting him in the foot. Later, when Spider stands up to Tommy, Tommy suddenly draws his gun and shoots Spider in the chest, killing him instantly.

Henry also meets and falls in love with Karen (Lorraine Bracco), a no-nonsense young Jewish woman; they go to the Copacabana club two to three times a week (the film depicts this in a famous steadicam shot). Karen feels uneasy with her boyfriend's career, but is also "turned on" by it. Henry and Karen eventually marry.

In June 1970, Tommy (aided by Jimmy Conway) brutally murders Billy Batts (Frank Vincent), a made man in the competing Gambino crime family; a major offense that could get them all killed by the Gambinos if discovered. Henry, Conway and DeVito bury Batts' corpse in an abandoned field (a flash-forward of this scene opens the film). Conway sells the land six months later, and they are forced to exhume, move, and rebury the badly decomposed body.

Henry's marriage deteriorates when Karen finds he has a mistress, Janice Rossi (played by the late Gina Mastrogiacomo). Karen confronts a sleeping Henry with a gun as he wakes up. As soon as she lowers the gun, Henry subdues her and screams that he has enough on his mind having to worry about being whacked on the street without waking up with a gun in the face.

After dangling a debt-ridden Florida gambler over a lion cage at the Lowry Park Zoo in Tampa, Henry and Jimmy are caught and sent to prison for four years. There, Henry deals drugs to keep afloat and to support his family, and, when he returns to them, he has a lucrative drug connection in Pittsburgh. Cicero warns Henry against dealing drugs, since mob bosses can get hefty prison sentences if their men are running drugs behind their back.

Henry ignores Cicero and involves Tommy and Jimmy as well as his wife, and new mistress (Debi Mazar) in an elaborate smuggling operation. About the same time, December 1978, Jimmy Conway and friends plan and carry out a record $6,000,000 heist from the Lufthansa cargo terminal at JFK Airport. Soon after the heist, Jimmy grows paranoid when some of his associates foolishly flaunt their gains in plain sight, possibly drawing police attention, and begins having them killed off. Worse, after promising to welcome Tommy into the Lucchese family as a "made man," the elder members of the Gambino Family, who are known associates of the Lucchese Family family instead kill him as retaliation for Batts' death.

In an extended sequence titled "Sunday, May 11th, 1980," all of the different paths of Henry's complicated Mafia career collide. He must coordinate a major cocaine shipment; cook a meal for his family; pick up his brother at the hospital; deliver guns; placate his mistress, who processes the cocaine he sells; cope with his clueless babysitter/drug courier; avoid federal authorities who, unknown to him, have had him under surveillance for several months; and satisfy his sleazy customers, all the while a nervous wreck from lack of sleep and heavy drug use. Henry and his courier are arrested by police as he backs out of his driveway. Karen bails her husband out of jail, after destroying all of the cocaine that was hidden in the house. Henry and his family are left penniless.

After Henry's drug arrest, Cicero and the rest of the mob abandon him. Convinced that he and his family are marked for death, especially after a meeting with Conway, Henry decides to become an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He and his family enter the federal Witness Protection Program, disappearing into anonymity to save their lives, but not before he testifies against Paulie and Jimmy in court. He is now an "average nobody"; "I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook." The movie ends with a quick shot of Tommy firing a pistol directly into the camera to the sound of Sid Vicious' raucous rendition of My Way.

Actor Role Based on[1][2]
Robert De Niro Jimmy Conway Jimmy Burke
Joe Pesci Tommy DeVito Tommy DeSimone
Ray Liotta Henry Hill Henry Hill
Lorraine Bracco Karen Hill Karen Hill (née Friedman)
Paul Sorvino Paul Cicero Paul Vario
Chuck Low Morrie Kessler Martin Krugman
Frank DiLeo Tuddy Cicero Theodoro Vario
Frank Sivero Frankie Carbone Paolo LiCastri
Johnny Williams Johnny Roastbeef Angelo Sepe
Mike Starr Frenchy Robert McMahon
Frank Vincent Billy Batts William "Billy Batts" DeVino
Samuel L. Jackson "Stacks" Edwards Parnell Steven "Stacks" Edwards
Frank Adonis Anthony Stabile Anthony Stabile
Catherine Scorcese Tommy DeVito's Mother Thomas DeSimone's Grandmother
Gina Mastrogiacomo Janice Rossi Linda Coppociano
Debi Mazar Sandy Megan Cooperman
Margo Winkler Belle Kessler Fran Krugman
Welker White Lois Byrd Judy Wicks
Julie Garfield Michalia Conway Mickey Burke
Detective Ed Deacy himself himself
Christopher Serrone young Henry Hill young Henry Hill
Charles Scorsese Vinnie Thomas Agro
John Manca Nicky Eyes Himself
Michael Imperioli "Spider" Michael "Spider" Gianco
Tony Darrow Sonny Bunz Angelo McConnach
Tony Ellis Bridal Shop Owner Jerome Asaro
Elizabeth Whitcraft Tommy's Girlfriend at the Copa Theresa Ferrara

This article needs additional citations for verification.
Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (February 2007)

The film is based on New York crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi's book Wiseguy. Martin Scorsese read a review of the book and this inspired him to read it[3] on the set of Color of Money in 1986.[4] According to Pileggi, Scorsese cold-called the writer and told him "I've been waiting for this book my entire life." To which Pileggi replied "I've been waiting for this phone call my entire life."[5] Scorsese and Pileggi collaborated on the screenplay and over the course of the 12 drafts it took to reach the ideal script, the reporter realized that "the visual styling had to be completely redone...So we decided to share credit."[5]

Scorsese originally intended to direct the film before The Last Temptation of Christ, but when funds materialized to make Last Temptation, Scorsese decided to postpone Wise Guy (working title). He was drawn to the documentary aspects of Pileggi's book. "The book Wise Guys gives you a sense of the day-to-day life, the tedium - how they work, how they take over certain nightclubs, and for what reasons. It shows how it's done."[5]

Once De Niro agreed to play Conway, Scorsese was able to secure the money needed to make the film.[4]

In preparation for their roles, De Niro, Pesci and Liotta met with the real Henry Hill to discuss the story, the characters, what they sounded like, and what real life gangsters Jimmy Burke and Tommy DeSimone were really like. De Niro often called Hill several times a day to ask how Burke walked, held his cigarette, etc.[6] [7] Driving to and from the set, Liotta listened to FBI audio cassette tapes of Hill, so he could practice speaking like his real-life counterpart.[7]

The film was shot in 1989 in New York City.

Scorsese broke the film down into sequences and storyboarded everything because of the complicated style throughout. According to the filmmaker, he "wanted lots of movement and I wanted it to be throughout the whole picture, and I wanted the style to kind of break down by the end, so that by his [Henry] last day as a wiseguy, it's as if the whole picture would be out of control, give the impression he's just going to spin off the edge and fly out."[3]

The long tracking shot through the Copacabana nightclub was shot eight times, a few times because Henny Youngman kept forgetting his lines.[8]

The scene where Paulie slaps Henry as a warning not to be dealing behind the family's back was added by Paul Sorvino, hence Liotta's expression. The shocked look on his face is actually real; as he had not expected this, and Scorsese kept it in the final cut because he liked Liotta's reaction.[citation needed]

Most of the dialogue, especially Pesci's, was ad-libbed by the actors, with the urging of De Niro. The entire 'hoof' scene with Tommy's mother (Martin Scorsese's mother Catherine), after killing Billy Batts was completely improvised.[citation needed] According to Maxim magazine, Pesci wrote and directed the "You think I'm funny?" scene at Scorsese's request.[citation needed]

Scorsese wanted to depict the film's violence realistically, "cold, unfeeling and horrible. Almost incidental."[4]

The studio was initially nervous about the film due to its strong violence and language. The film reportedly received the worst preview response in the studio's history. Scorsese has said that "the numbers were so low it was funny." Despite this unnerving initial reception, Scorsese's film was released without alteration and the extremely positive critical response to it cemented Scorsese's reputation as among America's foremost filmmakers. The film has been seen by many critics as a comeback film for the director after a difficult decade in the blockbuster obsessed Hollywood of the 1980s.

Award Person
Best Actor in a Supporting Role Joe Pesci
Nominated:
Best Actress in a Supporting Role Lorraine Bracco
Best Picture Irwin Winkler
Best Director Martin Scorsese
Best Film Editing Thelma Schoonmaker
Best Adapted Screenplay Martin Scorsese
Nicholas Pileggi


When Joe Pesci won the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor, his entire speech was "This is an honor and a privilege, thank you." It is the third shortest Oscar-acceptance speech, after William Holden's, who simply said "Thank you" upon winning for Stalag 17, and Alfred Hitchcock's, who merely said "Thanks," when he received an Honorary Oscar. Later, Pesci admitted that he didn't say more, because "I really didn't think I was going to win." [9]

Scorsese's loss of the Best Director Oscar to Kevin Costner (who won for directing Dances with Wolves) was bemoaned by many as a repeat of 1981, when he lost the Oscar for directing Raging Bull to Robert Redford who won the award for his directorial debut, Ordinary People. Scorsese remained philosophical about his Oscar losses, saying "We're lucky we even get to make movies anymore." He finally won the Best Director Oscar in 2007 for The Departed.

The film was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture - Drama and won the BAFTA Award for Best Film.

GoodFellas is #94 on the American Film Institute's list of 100 Years, 100 Movies and #92 on its updated version from 2007. In 2000 the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry. In 2005 Total Film, named GoodFellas as the greatest film of all time.

Roger Ebert, a friend and supporter of Scorsese, named GoodFellas the "best mob movie ever" and placed it among the best films of the nineties. Ebert is not alone in his praise; many critics consider it a seminal film of the nineties, with a score of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes[10]. They consider it the third in his quadfecta (Scorsese's earlier films Taxi Driver and Raging Bull were considered masterpieces of their respective decades, with GoodFellas a masterpiece of the nineties, and then The Departed as his masterpiece of the 00's).[citation needed]

Ray Liotta was suggested for an Oscar Nomination, but not taken up, much to the dismay of some fans and even Martin Scorsese.

Premiere Magazine listed Tommy Devito as #96 on its list of The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time, calling him "perhaps the single most irredeemable character ever put on film."

Goodfellas Music from the Motion Picture
Goodfellas Music from the Motion Picture cover
Soundtrack by Various Artists
Released October 9, 1990
Genre Soundtrack
Length 00:37:23
Label Atlantic / Wea

  1. "Rags to Riches" - Tony Bennett
  2. "Sincerely" - The Moonglows
  3. "Speedo" - The Cadillacs
  4. "Stardust" - Billy Ward and His Dominoes
  5. "Look in My Eyes" - The Chantels
  6. "Life Is But a Dream" - The Harptones
  7. "Remember (Walkin' in the Sand)" - Shangri-Las
  8. "Baby I Love You" - Aretha Franklin
  9. "Beyond the Sea" - Bobby Darin
  10. "Sunshine of Your Love" - Cream
  11. "Mannish Boy" - Muddy Waters
  12. "Layla (Piano Exit)" - Derek and the Dominos

In chronological order:[11]:

The film's soundtrack contains two compositions co-written by Eric Clapton: Cream's "Sunshine of Your Love" and Derek and the Dominos' "Layla." [12] But, the portion of "Layla" used is not the guitar riff, written by Clapton, but instead the piano coda, written by Dominos' drummer Jim Gordon.

  • Goodfellas formed the basis for the "Goodfeathers", characters that were part of the cartoon TV series Animaniacs. Bobby was a caricature of Robert De Niro (although more like his character in Taxi Driver than Goodfellas); Pesto was a caricature of Joe Pesci (he constantly does the "You think I'm funny?" routine); and Squit, the main character, was a parody of Ray Liotta (he started every cartoon with "As far back as I can remember").
  • Michael Imperioli, who went on to star as Christopher Moltisanti on The Sopranos, did a scene in the episode "The Legend of Tennessee Moltisanti" where he enters a bakery in a bad mood and the clerk at the counter is not serving him; he gets angry and shoots the young man in the foot, reminiscent of the scene in which Imperioli's character is shot in the foot by Pesci's. When the clerk begins to complain about being shot in the foot, Imperioli's character replies "It happens", further cementing the reference.
  • The video of "Foolish" by R&B artist Ashanti is also a parody of Goodfellas. It has the scene where Henry and Karen go into Copacabana through the kitchen, followed by the famous "What do you do?" "Construction Worker" discourse, as well as the scene where Karen's mother throws Henry out, followed by many other scenes from the movie.

  1. ^ http://goodfellas.martin-scorsese.net/
  2. ^ http://www.chasingthefrog.com/reelfaces/goodfellas.php
  3. ^ a b Murphy, Kathleen. "Made Men", Film Comment, September/October 1990. 
  4. ^ a b c Goodwin, Richard. "The Making of Goodfellas", Hotdog. 
  5. ^ a b c Kelly, Mary Pat. "Martin Scorsese: A Journey", Thunder Mouth Press, March 2003. 
  6. ^ Wolf, Buck. "Rap Star 50 Cent Joins Movie Mobsters", ABC News, November 8, 2005. Retrieved on 2007-06-24. 
  7. ^ a b Papamichael, Stella. "GoodFellas: Special Edition DVD (1990)", BBC, October 22, 2004. Retrieved on 2007-06-24. 
  8. ^ American Cinematographer. Nov 2004.
  9. ^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/netnotes/article/0,,1308896,00.html
  10. ^ http://uk.rottentomatoes.com/m/goodfellas/
  11. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099685/board/flat/46602698?p=1
  12. ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0099685/soundtrack
  • In the Jay-Z rap music song "Money, Cash, Hoes", the conclusion of the song features a music-industry version of the famous speech from "Goodfellas" beginning with "no he's got to come up with Jay-Z's money every week"

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to:
v • d • e
Films directed by Martin Scorsese
1960s What's a Nice Girl Like You Doing in a Place Like This? (1963)  • It's Not Just You, Murray! (1964)  • The Big Shave (1967)  • Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967)
1970s Street Scenes (1970)  • Boxcar Bertha (1972)  • Mean Streets (1973)  • Italianamerican (1974)  • Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)  • Taxi Driver (1976)  • New York, New York (1977)  • American Boy: A Profile of Steven Prince (1978)  • The Last Waltz (1978)
1980s Raging Bull (1980)  • The King of Comedy (1983)  • After Hours (1985)  • The Color of Money (1986)  • The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)  • New York Stories (1989)
1990s Goodfellas (1990)  • Cape Fear (1991)  • The Age of Innocence (1993)  • Casino (1995)  • Kundun (1997)  • My Voyage to Italy (1999)  • Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
2000s Gangs of New York (2002)  • The Blues (2003) • The Aviator (2004)  • No Direction Home (2005)  • The Departed (2006)  • Shine a Light (2008)  • Shutter Island (2009)
Produced You Can Count On Me (2000)  • Nyfes (2004) • The Young Victoria (2008)  • The Wolf of Wall Street (TBA)
Awards
Preceded by
Dead Poets Society		 BAFTA Award for Best Film
1991		 Succeeded by
The Commitments
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goodfellas"
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