Otto Penzler ranks, analyzes, & celebrates the 106 greatest crime films of all-time. Catch up on the series and find new installments daily here.
__________________________________
Goodfellas (1990)
__________________________________
TYPE OF FILM: Crime
STUDIO: Warner Brothers
PRODUCER: Irwin Winkler
DIRECTOR: Martin Scorsese
SCREENWRITERS: Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese
SOURCE: Wiseguy, biography by Nicholas Pileggi
RUNNING TIME: 146 minutes
PRINCIPAL PLAYERS:
Robert De Niro……………………………………………………………..……….James Conway
Ray Liotta……………………………………………………………………………….Henry Hill
Joe Pesci……………………………………………………………………….…..Tommy DeVito
Lorraine Bracco…………………………………………………………………………Karen Hill
Paul Sorvino……………………………………………………………………………Paul Cicero
Frank Sivero…………………………………………………………………………………Frankie
Tony Darrow………………………………………………………………………………….Sonny
__________________________________
DID YOU KNOW?
__________________________________
Crime did pay for Henry Hill, the real-life character at the center of Goodfellas, and so did ratting on his friends. When it became evident that he was about to be either killed by his gangster cronies or arrested for his activities by the police, Hill turned state’s evidence and testified against his gangland associates in court. He was put into the Federal Witness Protection Program, where he remained safe from those he fingered. After the U.S. Supreme Court overturned New York’s “Son of Sam” law prohibiting criminals from profiting from their crimes, Hill also received $200,000 for the book and motion picture made from his experiences. He has also received substantial sums for appearing on talk shows (in disguise, of course) and as a consultant for television gangster shows.
__________________________________
THE STORY
__________________________________
Henry Hill, impressed with the cars and clothes of the neighborhood gangsters, decides to join the life by doing odd jobs for mob boss Paul Cicero and teaming up with two other thugs, Jimmy Conway and Tommy DeVito.
When Conway and DeVito kill a “made” member of the mob, Henry helps them bury the body. The three friends become wealthy and gain power in the mob, but their greed and stupidity, as well as the psychotic violence of DeVito, combine to undo them.
Henry, against the strict orders of his patron, Cicero, begins to traffic in drugs. DeVito is discovered to have murdered the “made” mobster, an uncondonable breach of mob rules, and is himself killed. Conway, helping to engineer a huge airport robbery, decides to eliminate partners so that he’ll have more money for himself.
Henry, meanwhile, spots the narcs closing in on him and decides his only way out is to go into Federal Witness Protection, testifying against his friends and former associates in court and sending them away for long prison terms while he mourns the life he has had to give up.
***
Goodfellas was successful both in commercial and critical terms, with reviewers often comparing it with Mean Streets, another Scorsese crime film which it closely resembles. It gives a close and accurate look at gangster life as the principals shared a single vision: to get married and raise a family, have a mistress on the side, spend a lot of time with male friends hanging out in bars, and do whatever is necessary to get money.
In addition to Henry Hill, the other characters are all based on genuine people. Jimmy Conway was based on James “Jimmy the Gent” Burke, whose nickname came from a film tough guy played by James Cagney.
Events depicted in Goodfellas also actually transpired, most famously the airport robbery that was based on the heist of a Lufthansa plane at Kennedy Airport in 1978.
The motion picture undoubtedly would have been named Wiseguy, as was the book, since it is a better-known bit of gangster terminology for a hoodlum, but a popular television series with that title was airing at that time.
Joe Pesci won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor for his role as Tommy DeVito. Nominations also went to the film for Best Picture and to Martin Scorsese for Best Director.
__________________________________
BEST LINE
__________________________________
Henry Hill, having turned state’s evidence, is not exactly contrite, “See, the hardest thing for me was leaving the life,” he admits while on the stand, “I still love the life. We were treated like movie stars with muscles. We had it all for the asking…Today everything is different. There’s no action. I have to wait around like everyone else…I’m an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.”
