Goodfellas

Theatrical release poster

Lorraine Bracco

Paul Sorvino

**Goodfellas** (stylized **GoodFellas**) is a 1990 American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese, produced by Irwin Winkler and distributed by Warner Bros. It is an adaptationof the 1985 non-fiction book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scorsese. The film narrates the rise and fall of mob associate Henry Hill and his friends and family from 1955 to 1980.

Scorsese initially titled the film Wise Guy and postponed making it; later, he and Pileggi changed the title to Goodfellas. To prepare for their roles in the film, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesciand Ray Liotta often spoke with Pileggi, who shared research material left over from writing the book. According to Pesci, improvization and ad-libbing came out of rehearsals wherein Scorsese gave the actors freedom to do whatever they wanted. The director made transcripts of these sessions, took the lines he liked most and put them into a revised script, which the cast worked from during principal photography.

Goodfellas premiered at the 47th Venice International Film Festival on September 9, 1990, and was released in the United States on September 19, 1990. The film was made on a budget of $25 million, and grossed $46.8 million. The critical consensus on Rotten Tomatoes calls it "arguably the high point of Martin Scorsese's career". The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, with Pesci winning for Best Supporting Actor. The film won five awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, including Best Filmand Best Director. Additionally, Goodfellas was named the year's best film by various critics' groups.

Goodfellas is widely regarded as one of the greatest films in the gangster genre. In 2000, it was deemed "culturally, historically, and 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 films and television series.

## Plot

In 1955, high school student Henry Hill, son of an Irish-American father and Sicilian-Americanmother, becomes enamored of the criminal life and Mafia presence in his working class Italian-American neighborhood in Brooklyn and begins working for local caporegime Paul "Paulie" Cicero and his associates: James "Jimmy the Gent" 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. Enjoying the perks of their criminal life, the three associates spend most of their nights in the 1960s at the Copacabana nightclub, carousing with women. Henry starts dating Karen Friedman, a Jewish-Americanwoman from the Five Towns area of Long Island. Initially troubled by Henry's criminal activities, Karen is eventually seduced by his glamorous lifestyle. Despite her parents' disapproval, they marry.

In 1970, Gambino family member Billy Batts repeatedly insults Tommy at a nightclub owned by Henry. Enraged, Tommy and Jimmy kill him. The murder of a made man would warrant retribution from the Gambinos; another made man, possibly even Paulie, would be forced to kill the perpetrators. Realizing this, Jimmy, Henry and Tommy cover up the murder. They transport the body in the trunk of Henry's car and bury it in upstate New York. Six months later, Jimmy learns that the burial site is slated for development, forcing them to exhume and relocate the decomposing corpse.

In 1974, a jealous Karen harasses Henry's mistress Janice and holds Henry at gunpoint. Henry moves in with Janice, but Paulie insists he return to Karen after collecting a debt from a gambler in Tampa with Jimmy. Upon returning, Jimmy and Henry are arrested after being turned in by the gambler's sister, an FBItypist, and receive ten-year prison sentences. In order to support his family on the outside, Henry has drugs smuggled in by Karen and sells them to a fellow inmate from Pittsburgh. In 1978, Henry is paroled and expands this cocaine business against Paulie's orders, soon involving Jimmy and Tommy.

Jimmy organizes a crew to raid the Lufthansa vault at John F. Kennedy International Airportand take $6 million. After some members buy expensive items against Jimmy's orders and the getaway truck is found by police, he has most of the crew murdered. In his voiceovernarration, as dead bodies are being discovered all over the city, Henry implicitly theorizes that Jimmy would have killed them anyway rather than share the profits of the heist. Tommy and Henry are spared by Jimmy. Tommy, however, is tricked into believing he is to become a made man and is ultimately shot dead in retribution for Batts' murder.

In 1980, Henry becomes a (ostensibly paranoid) nervous wreck from cocaine use and insomnia. He sets up a drug deal with his Pittsburgh associates, but is arrested by narcotics agents and jailed. 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 family virtually penniless. Feeling betrayed by Henry's drug dealing, Paulie gives him $3,200 and ends their association. Following a routine visit, Karen barely escapes a probable murder attempt by Jimmy. Henry meets Jimmy in a diner and is asked to travel on a hit assignment; the novelty of such a request makes Henry suspicious. Facing federal charges, and realizing Jimmy plans to have him and Karen killed, Henry decides to enroll in the witness protection program, even though it means that Karen will not be able to see her parents. He gives sufficient testimony to have Paulie and Jimmy arrested and convicted. Forced out of his gangster life, Henry now has to face living in the real world; he narrates "I'm an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook."

## Cast

* Robert De Niro as “Jimmy Conway”
* Ray Liotta as “Henry Hill”
* Joe Pesci as ”Tommy DeVito”
* Lorraine Bracco as “Karen Hill”
* Paul Sorvino as ”Paul Cicero“
* Frank Sivero as “Frankie Carbone”
* Tony Darrow as “Sunny Buns”
* Mike Star as “Frenchie”