Goodfellas

Goodfellas (also spelled GoodFellas) is a crime drama 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).

Cast
Actor Role
Robert De Niro Jimmy Conway
Joe Pesci Tommy DeVito
Ray Liotta Henry Hill
Lorraine Bracco Karen Hill
Paul Sorvino Paul Cicero
Chuck Low Morrie Kessler
Frank DiLeo Tuddy Cicero
Frank Sivero Frankie Carbone
Johnny Williams Johnny Roastbeef
Mike Starr Frenchy
Frank Vincent Billy Batts
Samuel L. Jackson "Stacks" Edwards
Frank Adonis Anthony Stabile
Catherine Scorcese Tommy DeVito's Mother Thomas
Gina Mastrogiacomo Janice Rossi
Debi Mazar Sandy
Margo Winkler Belle Kessler
Welker White Lois Byrd
Julie Garfield Michalia Conway
Detective Ed Deacy himself
Christopher Serrone young Henry Hill
Charles Scorsese Vinnie
John Manca Nicky Eyes
Michael Imperioli "Spider"
Tony Darrow Sonny Bunz
Tony Ellis Bridal Shop Owner
Elizabeth Whitcraft Tommy's Girlfriend at the Copa

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

Spoiler Plot Summary

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). Six months later, the land is set to be developed, 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 sentenced to ten years in prison (although, with Cicero's help, they are paroled after four years). In prison, 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.

Popular culture references
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 a 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.
Punk Rock band AFI made a parody of Goodfellas in their "He Who Laughs Last" video.
A spoof of Goodfellas can be found in Grand Theft Auto Vice City towards the rear left corner of the film studio that the player can purchase during the game. A movie poster identical to the Goodfellas one can be found reading "Badfellas." The same sign can be seen in Grand Theft Auto III near the Red Light District.

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