Goodfellas
Goodfellas is a 1990 American biographical gangster film directed by Martin Scorsese, written by Nicholas Pileggi and Scorsese, and produced by Irwin Winkler. It is a film adaptation of Pileggi's 1985 nonfiction book Wiseguy. Starring Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Lorraine Bracco and Paul Sorvino, the film narrates the rise and fall of Mafia associate Henry Hill and his friends and family from 1955 to 1980.
Scorsese initially titled the film Wise Guy and postponed making it; he and Pileggi later changed the title to Goodfellas. To prepare for their roles in the film, De Niro, Pesci and Liotta often spoke with Pileggi, who shared research material remaining from writing the book. According to Pesci, improvisation and ad-libbing came from rehearsals wherein Scorsese gave the actors freedom to do whatever they wanted. The director made transcripts of these sessions, took the lines that he liked most and put them into a revised script, from which the cast worked during principal photography.
Goodfellas premiered at the 47th Venice International Film Festival on September 9, 1990, where Scorsese was awarded with the Silver Lion award for Best Director, and was released in the United States on September 18 by Warner Bros. Pictures. When released, the film grossed $47 million against a budget of $25 million and received widespread acclaim. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, with Pesci winning Best Supporting Actor. The film also won five awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, including Best Film and Best Director, and was named the year's best film by various critics' groups.
Widely regarded as one of the greatest films ever made, particularly in the gangster genre, the critical consensus on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes calls it "arguably the high point of Martin Scorsese's career". In 2000, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress. Its content and style have been emulated in numerous other pieces of media.
Plot
In 1955, teenager Henry Hill becomes enamored by the criminal life and Mafia presence in East New York, a working-class Italian-American neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City. He begins working for local caporegime Paulie Cicero and his associates Jimmy Conway, an Irish-American truck hijacker and gangster, and Tommy DeVito, a fellow juvenile delinquent. Henry begins as a fence for Jimmy, gradually working his way up to more serious crimes.Throughout the 1960s, the three men excel at carjacking, stealing cargo trucks from JFK Airport, and eventually commit the Air France Robbery. They spend most of their nights at the Copacabana nightclub, carousing with women. Henry starts dating Karen Friedman, a Jewish woman who is initially confused by Henry's criminal activities. She is soon seduced by Henry's glamorous lifestyle, and marries him, despite her parents' disapproval.
In 1970, Billy Batts, a made man in the Gambino crime family who was recently released from prison, insults Tommy at a nightclub that is owned by Henry. In response, Tommy and Jimmy beat, stab and fatally shoot Billy. Realizing that the unsanctioned murder of a made man will invite retribution, Jimmy, Henry and Tommy bury the body in Upstate New York. Six months later, Jimmy learns that the burial site is slated for development, prompting them to exhume and relocate the decaying corpse.
In 1974, Karen harasses Henry's mistress Janice, and threatens Henry at gunpoint. Henry moves in with Janice, but Paulie insists that he return to Karen after collecting a debt from a gambler in Tampa with Jimmy. Jimmy and Henry are arrested after being turned in by the gambler's sister, an FBI typist, and they receive ten-year prison sentences. To support his family on the outside, Henry has Karen smuggle in drugs from Pittsburgh, which he sells to fellow inmates.
In 1978, Henry is paroled and expands his cocaine business with Jimmy and Tommy, against Paulie's orders. Jimmy organizes a crew to raid the Lufthansa vault at JFK Airport, stealing six million dollars in cash and jewelry. After some members purchase expensive items against Jimmy's orders and the getaway truck is found by police, he has most of the crew killed. Only Henry and Tommy are spared, as Henry is making money through his Pittsburgh connection, and Tommy is about to become a made man. However, Tommy is killed when he arrives at the bogus initiation ceremony, in retribution for murdering Batts, much to Jimmy's dismay.
By 1980, Henry has become a nervous wreck due to heavy cocaine use. He sets up another drug deal with his Pittsburgh associates but is arrested by narcotics agents and incarcerated. After bailing him out, Karen explains that she flushed $60,000 worth of cocaine down the toilet to prevent FBI agents from finding it during their raid, leaving the Hills penniless.
Feeling betrayed by Henry's drug dealing, and realizing that he is a liability, Paulie gives him $3,200 and ends their association. Henry meets Jimmy at a diner and is asked to travel to a hit assignment, but the request makes him suspicious. Realizing that Jimmy plans to have him killed, Henry decides to finally become an informant and enroll with his family in the witness protection program. Henry gives sufficient testimony and evidence in court to have Paulie and Jimmy convicted, and moves to a neighborhood in an undisclosed location, in accordance with the witness protection program. Henry describes his unhappiness by leaving his exciting and turbulent gangster life, feeling condemned to live a boring, average life as a "schnook".
Cast
Production
Development
Goodfellas is based on New York crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi's book Wiseguy. Martin Scorsese did not intend to make another Mafia film, but he saw a review of Pileggi's book, which he read while working on The Color of Money in 1986. He had always been fascinated by the mob lifestyle, and was drawn to Pileggi's book because he thought that it was the most honest portrayal of gangsters that he had ever read.After reading the book, Scorsese knew what approach he wanted to take: "To begin Goodfellas like a gunshot and have it get faster from there, almost like a two-and-a-half-hour trailer. I think it's the only way you can really sense the exhilaration of the lifestyle, and to get a sense of why a lot of people are attracted to it." 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."
Scorsese decided to postpone making the film when funds materialized in 1988 to make The Last Temptation of Christ. He was drawn to the documentary aspects of Pileggi's book. "The book 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." He saw Goodfellas as the third film in an unplanned trilogy of films that examined the lives of Italian-Americans "from slightly different angles". He has often described the film as "a mob home movie" that is about money, because "that's what they're really in business for". Two weeks in advance of the filming, the real Henry Hill was paid $480,000.
Screenplay
Scorsese and Pileggi collaborated on the screenplay, and during the course of the 12 drafts that 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." They chose the sections of the book that they liked and assembled them like building blocks. Scorsese persuaded Pileggi that they did not need to follow a traditional narrative structure.Scorsese wanted to take the gangster film and deal with it episode by episode, but start in the middle and move backward and forward. Scorsese compacted scenes, realizing that if they were kept short, "the impact after about an hour and a half would be terrific." He wanted to use narration in a manner reminiscent of François Truffaut's 1962 film Jules and Jim, and use "all the basic tricks of the New Wave from around 1961." This is the first time since Mean Streets that Scorsese is credited as a co-writer.
The names of several real-life gangsters are altered for the film: Tommy "Two Gun" DeSimone became Tommy DeVito, taking the name from Pesci's friend and employee, the former 4 Seasons guitarist of the same name, Tommy DeVito. Paul Vario became Paulie Cicero, and Jimmy "The Gent" Burke became Jimmy Conway, after Burke's birth surname. Scorsese initially titled the film Wise Guy, but he and Pileggi decided to change the title of their film to Goodfellas because two contemporary projects, the 1986 Brian De Palma film Wise Guys and the 1987–1990 TV series Wiseguy, had used similar titles.
Casting
Once Robert De Niro agreed to play Jimmy Conway, Scorsese was able to secure the money needed to make the film. Ray Liotta, who played Henry Hill, had read Pileggi's book when it came out and was fascinated by it. A couple of years afterward, his agent told him that Scorsese was going to direct a film adaptation. In 1988, Liotta met with Scorsese over a period of a couple of months and auditioned for the film. He campaigned aggressively for a role, although Warner Bros. wanted a well-known actor; he later said, "I think they would've rather had Eddie Murphy than me".Scorsese cast Liotta after De Niro saw him in Jonathan Demme's Something Wild ; Scorsese was surprised by "his explosive energy" in that film. Al Pacino and John Malkovich were considered for the role of Conway, and Sean Penn, Alec Baldwin, Val Kilmer and Tom Cruise were considered for the role of Hill.
To prepare for the role, De Niro consulted with Pileggi, who had research material that had been discarded while writing the book. De Niro often called Hill several times a day to ask how Burke walked, held his cigarette, and so on. Driving to and from the set, Liotta listened to FBI audio cassette tapes of Hill, so that he could practice speaking like his real-life counterpart.
Madonna was considered for the role of Karen Hill. To research her role, Lorraine Bracco tried to get close to a mob wife but was unable due to the insular nature of Mafia communities. She decided not to meet the real Karen, saying that she "thought it would be better if the creation came from me". Paul Sorvino had no problem finding the voice and walk of his character, but found it challenging to find what he called "that kernel of coldness and absolute hardness that is antithetical to my nature except when my family is threatened".
Former EDNY prosecutor Edward A. McDonald appeared in the film as himself, re-creating the conversation that he had with Henry and Karen Hill about joining the Witness Protection Program. McDonald, who was friends with Pileggi, was cast on a whim; while a location scout was taking pictures of his office, McDonald casually remarked that he would be happy to play himself if needed. Pileggi called him an hour later asking if he was serious, and he was cast. The scene was unscripted, with McDonald improvising the line referring to Karen as a "babe-in-the-woods".