Goodfellas (1990)

I hate it. I'm really not trying to be a contrarian. I saw it long after it was released and heard all the raves and I just didn't take to it at all. I wanted the aptly named Karen to die immediately.

Saw it when it came out, in the theater, at age 17. I was blown away. I think its influence - on Tarantino, on The Sopranos, even on stuff like Boogie Nights and Trainspotting - has been such that it seems a lot less fresh now. I've never been able to recapture the way it felt when I first saw it.

I loved it, too. For a long time it was my favourite Scorsese film but like r2 stated, its influence has been imprinted on so many subsequent films plus it airs on television quite frequently, so it's not as fresh anymore. Still a great film. The soundtrack is amazing. The Layla (Piano Exit) sequence is brilliant.

I enjoyed it

It's a masterpiece.

Ray Liotta was SO fucking hot in this.

I like it a lot but then when I first saw Mean Streets, I stayed and watched the next showing because it was so amazing.

It’s brilliant.

Liotta was also pretty incredible in Something Wild. Demme said that he was the first person he saw for the part that actually made him feel scared, and that's why he was cast. It's odd that he hasn't had a bigger career.

Liotta is great as characters on the edge but he is also good as sweet-natured characters as he was in Dominick and Eugene and Corrina, Corrina.

Unfortunately, he aged horribly and had terrible plastic surgery.

Liotta is great as characters on the edge but he is also good as sweet-natured characters as he was in Dominick and Eugene and Corrina, Corrina.

Unfortunately, he aged horribly and had terrible plastic surgery.

Liotta deserves more work

Love this and Casino

I love it.

I wanted a man where you held your hand out to show them how big of a stack of money I needed that day

How could you not love Robert DeNiro's mom coming out to the kitchen late at night to feed the mob guys who are only there to get things they need to dispose of the body that's in the car trunk?

What the heck are they painting on their faces?

Beauty/skincare masks, R17.

It was Scorsese's mom, R16.

Sunday gravy sauce, Rose R17.

It's on my Top 10 of all time, possibly top 3. And I've seen WAY too many movies in my life. As many posters have mentioned, it has influenced so many directors since it came out, that seeing it for the first time now, it would seem dated and repetitive. But when it came out - WOW! - innovative, and breathtaking!

Part of the reason Godfather III was poorly received was that it was released a few months after Goodfellas, and paled in comparison. Scorsese had directed the far better sequel than Coppola.

It was alright

Love it

Ray is a great guy. I went to high school with him. I was a year behind him. Fun guy in high school -- a regular guy. I don't know much else about him. I mean, no scandalous shit or talk about him. Nice seeing a local guy do good work and be successful.

Everyone loves it because they've not read the boom. Scorsese didn't even have to write dialogue, all he did was license pop songs for the soundtrack.

Book^

I've read the book and still love the movie, so there.

It made me realize that Scorsese was wasting his time filming brilliant movies about these stupid bums who have no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Sick of it.

It's a peel-off mask by Max Factor, R17, with a brush attached to the lid. I actually had a bottle of it back in the day.

Loved it. That one shot with the camera when Henry took Karen to the night club and went thru the kitchen is a classic. Scorcese used music so well.

I loved it — when I first saw it at the theater, I literally wanted to stay and watch it again. Haven’t seen it in years, wonder how it holds up.

They had BAD skin and wore TOO much makeup- That sounds like a TYPICAL DL QUEEN.

I saw this when it came out and loved it instantly.

I've seen it only once since then, when it was on cable - I'm not one for watching a movie repeatedly - and this thread is making me want to see it again.

And I loved the scene with Scorsese's mother (who, I remember reading, cooked the food for this scene).

Ray Liotta was incredible, I wish he had gotten an Oscar. Ditto Lorraine Bracco.

So many great scenes. I love when Lorraine Bracco as Karen rings the doorbell of her husband’s mistress and screams so the whole building can hear that she’s A WHORE!!!!!!

The soundtrack is perfect, the acting is great, well-cast, funny.

I love when Karen screams “what was I supposed ta do, THEY WERE GONNA FIND IT!” And she was right, they were going to find it.

After posting that pic @ R33, I remembered that mother Catherine used that scene on the cover of her cookbook . . .

So many great lines. "He does these impersonations. You'd think it was the real people."

One that gets me crying with laughter for some reason is when Pesci says, "This way we don't go out like a bunch of hobos, one at a time." Something about that word hobos.

Best line ever!

Love it and it does hold up, IMO.

First scene eating at Mom's house was great. However, if you're not a DeNiro fan, you'll notice him doing something "extra" with the ketchup bottle. I do like DeNiro, so I can overlook it.

Too many good scenes to mention. I did like the guy who had the wig commercial. I also liked the scene where Liotta was super-paranoid & running errands w/helicopter flying overhead. Forgot what song was playing throughout that scene - Joe Jackson?

I always laugh at Joe Pesci in that dinner scene talking about the "deer" they hit and how his "whaddya call 'em, paws" got stuck in the grille.

One of the most perfect movies ever made, I love it. And as a ruleI hate mob movies.

That look of rage on Liotta's face during the pistol whip scene.

I saw Goodfellas ten years after it came out, so the reviews didn't influence me because I never read them.

LOVE LOVE LOVE Goodfellas, it's in my top ten movies of all time. Besides the characters and actors, the narrative, the music, the way it's shot and the editing, Goodfellas is a lot of FUN. I don't like gangster movies much, could barely get through The Godfather once.

Don't buy wigs that come off at the wrong time.

I should have mentioned the good female characters, which is rare in this like of movie. Lorraine Bracco was perfect as Karen, and totally authentic - a real Brooklyn girl* Under another director, Michelle Pfeiffer might have been cast.

* A real Brooklyn girl is similar to a real Long Island girl, especially in the 1950s-60s

[quote] However, if you're not a DeNiro fan, you'll notice him doing something "extra" with the ketchup bottle. I do like DeNiro, so I can overlook it.

Just a bit of trivia: The real Henry Hill said DeNiro met with him because Henry knew the character DeNiro was playing. DeNiro wanted to know all of Jimmy’s quirks and eccentricities and one of them, according to Henry, was the way the real Jimmy Burke put ketchup on his food. That’s why DeNiro does that in the scene.

While it sounds quaint now, I recall Henry saying it was more a pain in the ass the way DeNiro would bother him for every last detail.

A great film from beginning to end. Bracco is fantastic as is the woman who plays her mother.

I always wondered why Scorsese changed the names of the characters in this film and Casino. Both stories were already out there for years, it's not as if any of it was a secret.

Back when I had a favorite movies list, this was on it. And I otherwise don't like mob movies.

Liotta reminds me of Joaquin Phoenix in the pic at R44.

They should play father/son some time.

It's excellent and Joe Pesci scared the shit out of me.

R32, don't forget, they wore cheap clothes!

I find it funny that De Niro would want to research a character because let’s face it, he plays the same character every time. Love the movie though. For me it’s so much better than the Godfather, which takes itself so seriously.

That poster is right that another director might have cast a Michelle Pfeiffer. She and Margot Robbie doing those Noo Yawk accents, just no. Lorraine sounds completely natural.

Is Ray Liotta related to Madame Liotta of Haunted Mansion fame?

R54

"A lot of pants suits and double knits"

Did ladies really act like the ones at OP?

Have you seen the real Karen Hill? She had no right to be calling other women cheap & low class.

Another photo of Karen Hill, probably wearing polyester/double knit

Generally liked it, loved some scenes, thought it could have been a decent bit shorter.

Why should Karen get all glam for that SCHLUB Henry Hill? They look made for each other, R60.

"Part of the reason Godfather III was poorly received was that it was released a few months after Goodfellas"

Yeah, about 15%. The other 85% was because it's such an abominably shitty movie.

Karen is a Five Towns girl, like my ex-sister-in-law.

Lorraine was good casting for Karen. Much more beautiful of course, but otherwise pretty perfect.

Long Island is the trashiest place, it's unbelievable.

^fuck you

[quote] I did like the guy who had the wig commercial

That was Robert DeNiro’s landlord. He wanted to be in movies, so DeNiro talked Scorsese into using him & he turned out to be quite good. He first appeared in King of Comedy. Rupert Pupkin is sitting in a restaurant talking to Diahnne Abbott. DeNiro’s landlord is sitting in a booth behind & to the side of Pupkin & he is imitating the Pupkin character. It’s bizarre!

2) The Murray character was a real guy and he had a commercial on NY local independent TV stations where he was in a pool with 2 women who were obviously prostitutes. I remember the commercial because my mother literally screamed laughing whenever she saw it, saying “I can’t BELIEVE the6 let this on TV! They’re whites & he is the ugliest man I’ve ever seen.” The IRL Murray (forget his real name) was a wig salesman, was an *incredibly* ugly man and was obviously a lowlife monster. It was a dire-funny.

3) I went to school on LI with some mafia princesses and their parents were exactly like the characters in Goodfellas. One girl I knew was best friends with a scary-ass fat girl whose father was involved in Air France, which was the most expensive airport heist until Lufthansa happened. Her father went to prison, not for Air France but for a plot to kill his girlfriend’s husband. The girl, Debbie (I was really afraid of her) and her mother believed the whole thing was a fake plot cooked up by police to get the father to rat on the Air France criminals. They were lowlifes, but knowing what I now know about cops, it probably *was* a plot to get him to confess. Anyway, unlike Henry Hill’s family in Goodfellas, Debbie’s family was looked after by their mob family & they had a protector named “Big Solly” who watched the house for them & generally provided safety (and kept an eye out for police who might be trying to get the mother to rat whatever she knew). My friend took me to Debbie’s house once. I met her parents and they were exactly what you’d think they were.

3) That’s why I like Goodfellas so much. It is absolutely authentic about those people in that time period. The clothes, the hair, the language, the roughness, the uncouth, scary behavior, the immorality. It really is more of a documentary than any mob documentary I’ve ever seen.

4] I learned to drive late in life and my driving instructor had been a truck driver at JFK airport. He knew that whole crew & told me all about them & about working at JFK. For one thing, he said, you had to commit crimes in order to keep your job there. The pay & benefits were good for working class guys who were mostly high school dropouts. They’d never get such a good deal “on the outside” and wanted to keep their airport jobs. If they told you to transport swag, you did it. If they told you to let yourself get hijacked, you did. They’d leave your truck somewhere where it would be easily found. But they stripped it “to make it look good.” The union was completely run by the mob because the mob paid off police, politicians & judges. Anyone who tried to get the union taken away from the mob wound up dead. It behaved corporations to have the mob take over unions in order to strip unions of their power & their money (which was embezzled by the mob)

5) Politicians & cops knew all about the illegal activity. The beatings, the murders, embezzlement. They let it happen because they were all getting a piece of the pie. Real estate developers were crooks who were as disgusting & criminal as the lowest mobsters. But again - they were just getting their piece of the pie. Jared Kushner's father tried to become head of the NY/NJ Port Authority because it didn’t just mean he could get his shell companies to know about & bid on massive transportation/real estate projects, but because it meant he would be in charge of which grift goes to which group. It is a huge political plum. You became a kingmaker among king makers. JFK, LaGuardia, Penn station, Grand Central, all subway lines, all railroads became your fiefdom to rule.

[quote] They’re whites

Supposed to be “they’re whores.”

[quote] It behaved corporations to have the mob take over unions

And this little gem?

I grew up with the children of the real life characters in this movie. Scorsese got it right. Absolutely authentic.

r67 that was a great post, very interesting.

The Port Authority does not control the subways (other than PATH) or the railroads, including Penn Station or Grand Central. It does control many bridges and tunnels you don’t mention, and, if course, the beloved bus terminal. Not to mention, you know, the ports.

[quote] It behaved corporations to have the mob take over unions

Behooved. Obviously spellcheck doesn’t have that word.

I recently watched a documentary on the Donnie Branco case & it did not give you anywhere near the picture of the 1970s-1980s mob as Goodfellas did. It was a little boring, in fact. I never saw the movie Donny Brasco but it was one of my husbands favorite movies of the time.

Please tell us more, R70, as long as you won't get whacked for it.

I love Goodfellas. It's a totally different type of gangster film from Godfather I & II and I can't say I love it more or less than those but maybe just a little more. Goodfellas is an almost perfect movie, the pacing, the shots, the music, every single fucking actor, every MINUTE of it is brilliant.

It's Martin Scorsese at the height of his power as a director and it's breathtaking. And it's so goddamn funny, which I also really love. Totally holds up and will probably always hold up.

Mickey Burke, Jimmy’s wife, is played in Goodfellas by John Garfield’s daughter. Mickey is the one in the scene in the OP who tells the story of Jeannie, who has a husband and a son in jail & a mother in the funeral parlor.

[quote] Lorraine was good casting for Karen. Much more beautiful of course, but otherwise pretty perfect.

Ray Liotta was so damn good-looking, IMO, in Goodfellas. The real guy he played was so damn not good-looking. That was a real gift to have Liotta play him.

Not sure what the hell happened to Liotta as he got older.

Ray Liotta was fuckable in Goodfellas. So was Deniro. Fuck, so was Pesci.

Another thing my driving instructor told me — he was far more scared of Jimmy Burke than he was of Tommy DeSimone. Tommy was crazy & unstable but only interested in his crew & his heists. Jimmy, on the other hand, had a hawk eye & watched everyone and everything around him. He watched anyone who had a job in that airport & would do things like suddenly say “How ya doing there, huh?” to some truck driver, punching his arm as if they were friends & looking him straight in the eye. It was his way of saying “I’m watching every one of you. I noticed you. What do you think about that, huh?”

Tommy might shoot someone like Spider, who had close-up interactions with Tommy & his crew, but he wouldn’t bother with a “lowly” truck driver at JFK he didn’t know from Adam.

My instructor said that as far as he knew, Jimmy was responsible for far more murders than Tommy was. Jimmy’s son Frank was killed while Jimmy was in jail. My instructor said everyone hated Frank, who was a punk coasting on his father’s criminal career, and that Frank’s murder might’ve been payback to Jimmy for someone Jimmy murdered. Also, with Jimmy sent away to prison, Frank had no power or protection.

R79 = R67

R79, I think it was clear in the movie that Jimmy (DeNiro) was kill-happy after the Lufthansa heist.

Loved it. My favorite of his.

More human, smarter and less proud of the shit it's full of than "The Godfather."

I always liked it a lot more than The Godfather. More detail, far more realistic, faster paced, more entertaining. Godfather is one of those films you feel you have to respect but it's actually a little boring.

I sometimes do “Keep your fuckin hands off me you son of a bitch or I’ll cut em off” ...

Love the movie, but sad that it started the “real housewives” and “mafia wives” type tv shows.

What I like about Liotta's performance is he never looks 100% comfortable around De Niro and Pesci. He might have been somewhat intimidated by De Niro as an actor, but the nervous vibe he gives off works because Henry is less hardened than Jimmy and Tommy.

KAAAAAAAAaaren why did you do that? That was all I haaaad, Kaaaaaren.

Did Karen Hill ask to speak to the mafia manager?

For the poster asking why Scorsese changed the name of DeNiro's character: At the beginning of the film, Burke's scary-trashy daughter showed up and started demanding a pile of money in exchange for the right to use her father's name. Scorsese just shrugged and picked a different name instead.

Dunno why he changed the names in Casino. It is a looser adaptation than Goodfellas, so that might account for it.

Makes sense to change all the damn names. Puts you further away from defamation lawsuits & still a good story.

Karen didn't call the manager. She took care of her own business.

Ray Liotta doesn't look so bad in his films, even Marriage Story (2019), yes, he's old now but isn't hard to look at, but in red carpet photos he looks absolutely frightful. Slitty eyes and a mouth that looks like it's been attacked with a razor blade.

Wow, R67, what a FANTASTIC post!

Thanks.

Bracco's character was from Lawrence, Long Island and she's from Hicksville. Great casting.

2015 cast reunion. Ignore Hoda, Savannah and Craig’s voice.

I love Ray Liotrta’s laugh.

R19 Actually, in the film she played Tommy DeVito's (Joe Pesci) mom.

I really want to rewatch this now. Where is it streaming? Thanks.

It just left Netflix yesterday, dammit.

DAMN!

[quote]Love the movie, but sad that it started the “real housewives” and “mafia wives” type tv shows.

What? Those things have zero to do with "Goodfellas." The real housewives were inspired by "Desperate Housewives" (hence "real") and the other reality shows were inspired by them. They have absolutely nothing to do with this "based on a true story" film that predates them by over a decade.

Seriously, WTF are you talking about??

Goodfellas should've won Best Picture instead of Dances With Wolves.

Goodfellas is an enduring classic and one of the best films ever made. Does anyone still talk about Dances With Wolves?

Amazon Prime has Goodfellas to rent for $4.

"Not sure what the hell happened to Liotta as he got older."

It's called weight gain, bad wigs and horrible plastic surgery. The usual.

There is NO character in Goodfellas called "Murray." It's Morrie, and that's much much different.

I like Scorsese, but "Goodfellas" was too long by about an hour.

"I'm gonna let everybody in this building know you're a WHORE!"

"Hello, is this the superintendent? You have a WHORE living in 2r!"

[quote]...they were all married to girls named Marie. And they named all their daughters Marie.

I've seen it many times and still love the film.

A favorite scene is where Karen goes to see Jimmy, pleading for money. Ass she leaves he tells her to stop at one of the shops on the same street where they are unloading some stolen clothing. She begins to get nervous that it is a set-up to have her killed. DeNiro is wonderfully sinister/innocent/ambiguous and Bracco's fear grows so palpable.

It's an incredible movie. You almost can't believe that people like this, and the things they did, really existed once upon a time.

R67 Fabulous post.

R67 whatever happened to Debbie the scary fat mob girl? Did she go onto Mob Wives or one of those shows?

It's an epic that's light on its feet unlike the heavy, dirge-like, reverential Godfather with one-dimensional characters. Goodfellas is often funny but in all 6hrs of Godfather I&II there's hardly a shred of humor or irony.

R104 What would you have cut? I don't think there's a single scene that doesn't belong.

Masterpiece.

It’s better than The Godfather movies, for sure.

I'm almost positive it was Rolling Stones playing in that scene, r41. Now, between the nagging need to know if I'm right or wrong about that, and this thread, I'll be re-watch this film. I think I have it on dvd somewhere, hopefully.

R113 I think it is Harry Nilsson

I think we are both be correct, r114, based on my very half-assed search on youtube, and wikipedia search. I need to rewatch this.

The ending of this film is one of my favorites.

Goodfellas was also the inspiration for one of the greatest TV shows of all time, The Sopranos.

R104, what would you take out?

I disagree that Goodfellas is too long: There isn't a wasted scene. This contrasts with Scorsese vehicles like Casino and Wolf of Wall Street, which did go on a bit too long (though they hold up otherwise). The worst example of too long is The Irishman: What a bloated mess that was.

R118 = SPOT ON!

Yeah, I mean which scenes adding up to a fucking HOUR would you cut?

No way.

People know it's a true story, right?

Nope. None of us knew that.

Certainly no one on this thread that’s been discussing the looks of the real people vs. cinema; or why Scorsese changed the names from real to fictional; or Maury’s commercial or anything.

Nope. We sure didn’t know that.

Waiting to hear which scenes should have been cut out...

Peak Scorsese. Love Ray Liotta! Omg his laugh!! Someone post a gif please!

R122, Ha! I realized my stupidity too late! (R121 here, thanking you for your rather gentle snark!)

"Godfather" movies vs. "Goodfellas." Well, first off, the titles are hints at the movies' scope and purpose. FFC wanted a sweeping epic, to show the evolution of the Mafia, from the poor villages of Sicily to the mean streets of New York, its subsequent internecine turf wars, and its intertwining with the "respectable" worlds of politics and high society, with corruption and depravity rampant. The Godfather, the patriarch, the one who looks after the extended family, the king-maker, dies in his sunlit garden, playing with his grandson.

"Goodfellas" is seen from the bottom up, from the viewpoint of and with the focus on the expendables. They made it to the suburbs, but not to Hollywood, Las Vegas, or D.C. Nobody famous or important attends their weddings. In the mob wars, they are the killers and the killed. Their horizons extend to airport terminals and highway truckstops. The ultimate "kingmaker" is a disgraced rat.

But most of us are not in the milieu of these tales, so why their popularity? Because of what we do see of ourselves and our notions of family, friendship, love, honor, rituals, success, legacy.

Ray Liotta scares the hell out of me and gives me the creeos—always has. He was great in Goodfellas, Something Wild and Unlawful Entry. He played evil so well in the latter, and Kurt Russell played scared average Joe really well, too.

Next time you watch Something Wild, pay attention to the scene where he’s in a Speedo and chases Melanie Griffith—he runs fast as hell! I wonder if he was in track.

It's important to note that The Godfather was a best selling novel by Mario Puzo before the movie, and big topic of conversation before a minute of film was made. The big publicity push around the movie was because of the book's popularity. Had The Godfather been on its own, I doubt it would have become such a huge hit or iconic epic. Really.

I know it was you, r127. You broke my heart. You broke my heart.

I haven't watched Godfather 1 nor 2 for a long time, but IMO, they both hold up. Someone upthread commented that neither movie (G1 & G2) had anything comedic in it & I agree. IMO, Goodfellas was faster-paced, more colorful (figuratively and literally), had pop music in it, and had very funny moments. All those things get seared into the brain like eating candy.

Goodfellas was 2 hours + 28 minutes. If I had to cut something from it, maybe I'd cut the scenes with his 2nd girlfriend (Debi Mazar). (And I really like Debi Mazar.) Reason: I read some criticism about the Sopranos and someone said that the string of gumars (Tony's) wasn't bringing that much to the plots. I would agree, except for Gloria Trillo.

The end of Goodfellas does start to drag a bit. I would maybe cut the scene with Karen getting scared that Jimmy (Deniro) was going to kill her. Cut the scene of Liotta going to Jimmy's house with the guns & Jimmy rejects the guns (can't screw in the silencers).

Also *maybe* would cut the scene with the "lucky hat" stuff. However, I do really love the feeling of Liotta rushing around like that, doing coke, losing his mind.

I have a really low tolerance for any movie over 2 hours and I do think the 2.5 hours was justified.

You need the scene with Karen getting scared by Jimmy, as it convinces her to go into witness protection with her husband. The scenes with Debi Mazar not only show you how Henry's making the drug business work, but also that he learned nothing from his prison experience: He goes right back to living the way he lived before, complete with goomar.

The silencer scene could be cut, though it's so short it wouldn't affect things much either way.

Very funny movie. I was a child when it came out so I only saw it after its influence had been adopted by directors, but it still felt fresh to me and I was still surprised by the places it went. Great performances and soundtrack. Hard to listen to Jump Into the Fire or Layla without thinking about it.

[quote] You need the scene with Karen getting scared by Jimmy, as it convinces her to go into witness protection with her husband.

That's a good point, but Karen was still waffling about whether or not she wanted to go w/Henry into the WPP.

The man playing the FBI agent in the scene with Henry and Karen is the real FBI agent who convinced the real Henry Hill to go into witness protection. The production contacted him about borrowing some things from his office to make the set look realistic. He asked for the part, they let him try out, and he got it. He is very convincing in the scene.

Any of you interested in more behind-the-scenes tidbits should check out Made Men: It's a very fast and readable account of the production from start to finish.

R125, don’t give me that babe in the woods routine.

Ya know what, no, no, that’s it. Now I gotta turn my back on ya.

[quote] The man playing the FBI agent in the scene with Henry and Karen is the real FBI agent who convinced the real Henry Hill to go into witness protection

He wasn’t an FBI agent he was a federal prosecutor in charger of the federal organized crime strike force in NY

Well, whatever. He was the real guy.

The book by Mario Puzo was very good. I read it as a kid because it was around the house. The movie is pretty faithful to it.

The “lucky hat” part is hysterical! Her deadpan delivery.

R106, And my Sicilian-American mother was named Marie!

And you can't swing a dead cat in a Sicilian-American family without hitting an Anthony or a Tony!

I loved the scene where Pesci's long-suffering mother fixed them some impromptu meal with all of the frills at some ungodly hour. Very real. Poor lady.

"Ma, it's a sin." (regarding the "deer paw" and Pesci's need to take her knife).

I love this movie but I would never in a thousand years knock the Godfather I&II. They're brilliant films, all three of them. They're just very different looks at American gangsterism. Scorsese's is much more realistic, less glamorous and funnier. I still wouldn't put down the Godfathers - such good movies.

The definition of black comedy. The rogues gallery of supporting characters is stunning. Incredible pacing and the best use of voiceover ever. Obviously the "one day in the life" sequence is a masterwork on its own. I've seen it many times and have found few flaws.

It's a testament that when I heard "the babysitter" in Goodfellas was also cast in the Irishman I knew exactly who they were talking about and could immediately remember her performance - it's my lucky hat!

R45 makes a good point. It is fun in the way few "important" movies are.

[quote]And you can't swing a dead cat in a Sicilian-American family without hitting an Anthony or a Tony!

To that I would add "Vinnie."

Bracco was STUNNING at the time, so swapping a movie star in wouldn't have made a difference in that department. However, she really went for it and gave an amazing performance that felt completely authentic in a way a Michelle Pheiffer would have gone for but missed and because the rest of the movie is so flawless it would stick out as inauthentic.

My coworker jokes with her husband when he's going to go for a jog and says "not without ya car keys ya not!"

No way Michelle Pfeffer could've passed for Jewish.

There are scenes in the Godfather where they're interacting with senators and corporate CEOs. Totally different story. Both are about America, one is an epic fable about core societal corruption and the other is about what outsider communities feel they need to do just to grab a little local piece of that kind of generational power.

If you cut the Karen thinks Jimmy's going to kill her scene, I will whack you. It's a great scene, one of the film's most memorable and genuinely frightening. It still makes me hold my breath for her and I've seen it a dozen times. The movie is not too long, it doesn't need to be cut. Your patience for sitting still is too short, you need some sort of intermission or maybe it's just not meant to be.

R129 the stuff with Karen and the whooors is a big reason the movie is rich and memorable. You then would start to lose big chunks of side plots and then it's just a heist movie with a bunch of dudes. I think frankly Goodfellas has camp value because of Bracco, Mazar, the hostess party, etc. It's all just so precise I can't imagine making cuts without losing the whole effect.

Oh God, Mazar's goomar apartment tour.

Perfection.

Yeah, I could buy it if someone thinks Casino or (especially) The Irishman are too long, but definitely not GoodFellas. It's 2 1/2 hours but there's no fat. All the side stuff adds detail and texture and makes the movie what it is.

"You need the scene with Karen getting scared by Jimmy"

This is one if the scenes people mention most to Karen (Bracco), so NO FUCKING CUT!

The Karen/Jimmy scene is one of the first things you think of when you think of Goodfellas. It's an important scene.

BTW the real Henry Hill died in 2012. Age 69, heart disease from all the smoking, drinking and coke.

The interiors in this movie are so ridiculously tacky and ugly. Everybody's house is just awful.

The Italian-Americans I've known have "normal" houses that are quite tasteful, but they weren't working-class. I guess the trash interiors in this movie are exclusively working-class Italian-Americans in the NY area.

I love the posts from the guy who actually grew up in this time and place. Very insightful.

I love that movie. It’s one of those movies that still holds up. Damn good music in it too. Perfect casting. The scene where they just killed that guy. They go to Joe Pesci’s mom’s house. She immediately gets up and feeds them. They start laughing at the painting she shows them because it looks like the guy they just killed. Bummed the Ray Liotta didn’t have a bigger career. He had the most beautiful eyes.

Ray Liotta got some BAD work done.

(R160) Good night. Did he go to Mickey Rourke’s plastic surgeon?🤢

Huh, he actually looks pretty good there. I've seen some photos in the past year or so in which he looks like a nightmare.

OMFG!

oh GOD. There it is!

Burn it with 🔥

Hot AF in his prime.

Fun fact: Ray Liotta is not actually Italian. He was adopted by an Italian American family but he is actually of Scottish heritage. He didn't learn this until he found his birth mother in the 2000s.

He's good looking but he always had bad skin. I suppose that didn't do Redford any harm. Never mind.

"he interiors in this movie are so ridiculously tacky and ugly. Everybody's house is just awful."

DUH!

Is Scorsese going to retroactively erase him from his films?

Anyway, I did not know that. Interesting!

He supposed to be in some new movie on HBO max with Don Cheadle and David Habour.

I guess a lot of actors have bad skin. A friend of mine went to the Golden Globes one year. And said that Robert Downey Jr. and Brad Pitt had acne scars.

Liotta should have played John Gotti. The resemblance is eerie.

I like the way his face looks, r172. His "bad" skin ads to his appeal in my opinion. I think it makes him more distinctive, a little edgier. or something. No idea if he's any of those things in real life, but visually it works for me.

Ahem.

R150, See r125. Thanks.

R157, you didn't know them in the late-1960s or 1970s.

r177 many of the Italian-Americans I've known were around back then. These are middle-class Italian-Americans in New England.

R178, it doesn't matter if they were around then, it matters that YOU were not around them then. Doesn't matter what class; styles come and go.

r179 these same tasteful Italian-Americans were around in the 60s/70s and their houses weren't tacky. Italian-Americans outside the NY area and who are not working class are not the same.

Chuck Low, the landlord/actor who played Morris, is in an episode of L&O: Disappeared. It's airing now on Bounce. He has a small part playing a shop owner.

Today, March 3:

9:00 p.m., Paramount Network.

You can watch Goodfellas for free on any of the pirate steaming sites.

It doesn't have to be about Italians, R180. Anyone could have latched on to that tacky modern decor of the time. Most all new furniture and fixtures at stores were all similar and of that style. My upper middle class WASP grandparents didn't have it, they had kept their "1947 chic."

[quote] You can watch Goodfellas for free on any of the pirate steaming sites.

I thought these only showed pirate movies.

If that's what you like r185.

Extended scene of OP's clip

R142 Hoof. The hoof.

[quote]I loved the scene where Pesci's long-suffering mother fixed them some impromptu meal with all of the frills at some ungodly hour. Very real. Poor lady.

She wasn't even asked to! They just popped over to get a shovel to bury Billy Batts with and she wakes up and comes downstairs and insists on feeding them.

Well, you know, she couldn’t sleep while Tommy was there, you know. She hadn’t seen him so long.

R189, what’s the matter? You don’t talk too much.

That whole scene round the table was improvised as well.

Yes, and Mama Scorcese was not told what the characters were supposed to have been doing before dropping in. Marty just told her she was playing a woman whose son--one she hasn't seen for awhile--has dropped in unexpectedly.

The way she says "What's the matter, Henry? You don't talk too much" is so perfect given that he's really worried about the fact they've just killed a made man who's still in the trunk of his car outside. It couldn't have been better if it was scripted.

It's on in ten minutes - PRMTH - Paramount Network

what's a hostess party?

Henry take such tiny bites at Mama Scorsese's table. Must have pissed her off.

Great scene

R196 He was only half Italian.

The good half.

As I watched Goodfellas again last night I saw that Ray Liotta is the weak link in the movie. So many of his lines and responses read "actor fake" among the other actors. Even his laugh when Karen's mother yells at him for coming home so late. His confession to Paulie near the end - fake. Many were good or just fine, but there were too many that weren't. I understand why he didn't have a bigger career.

What about Chazz Palminteri as Henry?

You're insane R200. His confession to Paulie is supposed to be fake. He doesn't give a shit. He's only pissed he got caught. He's amazing in this. Even on mute with just facial expressions and his eyes. When Karen has the gun on him? When she's about to blow him? His laugh at Joe Pesci's clown story? Go fuck your mother's ear you stugotz,.

Relax, Ray. You have no career. Now go fuck your mother.

Since this thread had been bragging so much about how supposedly great Goodfellas was, I decided to go and watch it ... Yeah, Um... it's not even close to being a "masterpiece" as some of you have made it out to be lol. Halfway in I thought I was gonna slip into a coma, I'm so serious. That's how slow things were moving.

However, it did have some good points, the highlight for me was the opening scene, by far the best part of the film, and the end scene, definitely a gripping moment. That and the build up of young Henry's story from kid-servant-of-gangsta goons and then adulthood where he becomes an official member of the mob was intriguing, unfortunately it went downhill after that. The introduction of Karen and allowing her to take over the narration, away from Henry, felt like a gross violation. It completely destroyed the intimacy that had just been built up for Ray Liotta's character. Besides being annoying, whiny and immature, cross-eyed Karen wasn't remotely an interesting figure and should have been kept more in the background. A lot of the scenes involving marital issues between Henry and Karen, and mainly her scenes felt like filler, they could've been cut short. The whole scene where she's crying like a baby because he stood up her up on a double date, and then came storming after him was extremely embarrassing to have to sit through— suddenly I was watching Twilight; it looked like a scene out of every generic teen flick. And how many times did we have to see Tommy act like damn a-hole and lose it? I mean after the second time it was just tedious.... He deserved a much more gruesome death than he got.

Overall the film wasn't as impressive as I thought it would be, it moved too much at a snail's pace. I can see why it's not revered as much as The Godfather. I don't really care for gangsta films either way but this one reminded me why.

Also, Ray Liotta looked way too old to be playing a 21 year old, at a time when the character is supposed to be a young man it didn't look particularly convincing. I don't get the appeal of the soundtrack? I guess it's supposed to accompany each period with whatever music was popular at the time, but it seemed to overshadow rather than compliment the film. It was loud, evasive and sounded out of place in some parts.

A hostess party is a sales event in which the hostess receives a cut of the sales. Tupperware parties were a thing when I was a kid. The hostess invites friends, who're supposed to know it's not a regular party. Major faux pas if they're surprised when they arrive. They get special attention from someone in direct sales. My SIL hosted one when I was visiting. It was for some clothing line she liked. The sales woman brought in a rack of samples so people could try things on in bedrooms or bathrooms. My SIL laid out a spread for lunch. I had to make myself scarce so I didn't put a damper on things. Her mother has a ton of Princess House gewgaws, which apparently are sold the same way.

The soundtrack really added to the various scenes.

[quote]where he becomes an official member of the mob

He never did, as was pointed out in the movie. His father was Irish, which barred him from becoming an actual Mafioso or "made guy".

Without the Karen scenes, Goodfellas becomes just another dick-swinging crime movie instead of a full picture of Henry Hill's life. Those scenes help make the movie the classic it is.

[quote] but it seemed to overshadow rather than compliment the film.

Oh, dear!

I would rank the mafia movies I've seen like this:

Once Upon a Time in America>Godfather2/Goodfellas>Godfather.

R204, I couldn't even get through a paragraph of your dull bullshit

R209 got an icepick in the back of his head because there were no spelling errors.

"bragging"?

A neighbor of ours sold "Beeline Fashions" at hostess parties. Her husband sold something from their basement. One of their sons wanted to be a veterinarian and practiced by disabling birds and squirrels to operate on them. I always figured "Beeline Fashions" were as weird as everything else in their family. I think Tupperware was the only thing that was a draw for these things.

What did I think of i8t? Overrated. But then I never liked movies about the mob anyway. Mobsters are boorish, psychotic creeps; I don't find them amusing at all.

It's interesting to read other posters' critical "reviews" of Goodfellas. I think people (like me) who saw it when it first ran will always have a soft spot for it.

I mean, a lot of the things in it (style-wise and theme-wise, including the way it uses music and the approach to condensing a decades-long narrative) have become clichés, and even Scorsese himself has tended to lazily repeat some of its moves, so I understand why someone seeing it now might be underwhelmed. But it kinda blew everything else out of the water in the fall of '90.

Amazing that this didn't win Best Picture over Dances With Wolves, which was an inferior film and has not aged well at all.

Dances With Wolves would be very problematic today with Kevin Costner as the White Savior and Mary McDonnell playing a Native American when she's not Native American.

I understand that Scorcese, etc., want to inject music into these movies and provide a mood for a scene. But you also have to consider what kind of music these movie characters would actually have listened to. Rolling Stones, all the time? I don't think so.

Same with the Sopranos, especially at the Bada Bing strip bar. The music is good on its own, but does it really blend into the scene? Not always.

The movie was a real departure from mob movies by highlighting the personal lives of mobsters. It's also populated with great small parts---the mother-in-law, Murray the hairpiece guy, Henry's whore, etc. and inserting real people like Henny Youngman and Bobby Vinton who were period perfect but largely forgotten by the time the film was released. An great scenes like the hostess party or the confrontation over the intercom. Not to mention all the Paulies and Peteys.

"Dances with Wolves" was an absolute piece of shit.

Watching the Bada Bing girls trying to dance to the weird songs the producers picked out was always funny. "Living on a Thin Line" is a great song and worked really well for the themes of the episode where Tracy the stripper was murdered, but it was a shitty song to bump and grind to.

In real life, those Bada Bing strippers would've been stripping to "Girls Girls Girls" by Motley Crue and other shit like that. The best you could hope for would be the Black Crowes.

[quote]But you also have to consider what kind of music these movie characters would actually have listened to. Rolling Stones, all the time? I don't think so.

The music in Scorsese movies is usually just what Scorsese likes, and what he thinks he will contribute to the impact of any particular scene. It's basically commentary, not necessarily authentic to the characters (for better or worse).

And boy, does Scorsese like the Stones. He uses them in every movie.

And Eric Clapton.

[quote]But you also have to consider what kind of music these movie characters would actually have listened to. Rolling Stones, all the time? I don't think so.

The music was meant to evoke the time period

[quote] Dunno why he changed the names in Casino.

He couldn't very well come out and call the corrupt senator Harry Reid.

I could almost see Dances With Wolves beating Goodfellas for Best Picture at the time, (not that it'd be my choice), but no fucking way should Scorsese have lost Best Director. To Costner or anyone! Goodfellas was his finest achievement. And that's saying a lot!

I liked Dances With Wolves, but it was no Goodfellas.

[quote]these same tasteful Italian-Americans were around in the 60s/70s and their houses weren't tacky. Italian-Americans outside the NY area and who are not working class are not the same.

There's an entire ongoing Tasteful Friends thread about a beauty In Johnstown, Penn., that gives lie to these assertions.

[quote]Ray Liotta was SO fucking hot in this.

He was perfect for that role, kind of edgy, kind of sexy, kind of dirty, kind of beat up but still a guy you could somehow relate it.

Ray Liotta has a nice butt.

I loved it, The scene where Jimmy thinks he’s going to be “made” breaks my heart. Even though he’s a cold blooded killer...... his mom looks at how nice he looks beforehand, DeNiro crying, kicking the phone booth. “Where is everybody.” After he is shot, big fat mobster swipes his hands together, “ and that’s that.” “And they shot him in the face so his mother couldn’t have an open casket.”

A poster described Godfather trilogy having almost a “reverential” feel to it. Exactly. Goodfellas is far superior

R200 I think De Niro is the one who gives the least impressive performance out of the main 5 actors. He seems to mostly coast through it as he does in many of his films, competent but not outstanding. Someone up thread talked about knowing someone who met Jimmy Burke and how intimidating he was. De Niro just isn't that intimidating in this, his character is only really sinister because of what he does rather than how he acts.

R219 On the DVD commentary with Henry Hill and the FBI agent who was his handler, the agent says they once bugged one of the mobsters' cars but it didn't work and all they could hear was the car's heater and disco music. So I guess that's what these guys were really listening to.

[quote]r209 got an icepick in the back of his head because there were no spelling errors.

Pssst. Look up the word “complement.” That’s what music does to a scene or a movie. Music doesn’t tell a movie “you look hot today.”

Now go and get your fucking shine box!!

R235 For a while, disco was the only thing on mainstream radio back in those days.

WATCH YOUR MOUTH, r236! Can't you be a good Catholic for fifteen fucking minutes?

R237 That did occur to me, actually. What records do you reckon mobsters would put on by choice? Sinatra? Italian opera?

In the 60s, my Italian-American family liked Jerry Vale, Connie Francis, Perry Como, Steve and Eydie. Oddly enough, not Sinatra or Tony Bennett – I think they were considered somehow highbrow. Certainly not opera.

I only said opera because it always gets used in mafia films, including this one (the scene where young Henry helps a man who's been shot and Tuddy tells him off for wasting aprons on wrapping him up)

R241 you’re right of course, opera is used very effectively that way. I’m just saying my family found it too fancy. We were middlebrow as Italians go.

TOMMY: I like this one. One dog goes one way and the other goes the other.

MOTHER: One's going east, the other's going west So what!?

The coke-fueled music scenes IIRC use Gimme Shelter by Stones, Jump Into the Fire by Harry Nilsson, Message From Turner (Stones), a live version of Magic Bus (The Who, Live at Leeds), Monkey Man (Stones), Mannish Boy (Muddy Waters) and What Is Life (George Harrison).

The Who’s Live at Leeds was considered the greatest live rock album at that time The album was filmed as well as recorded and it was going to be a concert film but something happened to the camera and the film was ruined.

r236 was buried where no one will find him.

[R218] OMG you are so right. DWW is the ultimate “White Saviour”movie. It sucks so bad!

This is one of my favorite films. I watch it every 4 or 5 years. Yes, Ray Liotta was very sexy. In this particular film, perhaps it was the suits, the slicked back hair, but De Niro was so handsome. More so than any other film. Cooly confident, subtly vicious. There is a scene after the big heist, when the crew isn't obeying De Niro's edict that they not spend and draw attention. Standing at the bar, De Niro just looks at one, pure murder in his eyes. No dialogue. Absolutely chilling. Death sentence.

You could tell the scene with the toupee falling forward on Morris' head when Deniro strangles him that that wasn't supposed to happen and Ray Liotta was legitimately laughing. It was hilarious.

[quote] R236 was buried where no one will find him.

Just wait until that land gets sold for development.

R246 It sucked, I hated it even back then. But oddly enough it was sort of virtuous to like it.

It’s funny, I’m conflicted about the use of popular music in movies. On one hand it’s great, totally adds to the experience. On the other I can’t help thinking it’s sort of a shortcut and crutch. I think it started with American Graffiti, continued with The Big Chill, and was perfected by Scorsese. I recently watched The Virgin Suicides and every damn scene has a 70s song. We get it, already. I dunno, somehow it feels to me more creative and authentic to produce an actual original score.

[quote]But oddly enough it was sort of virtuous to like it.

It's funny how times change. Back then it was definitely "virtuous" to like DWW, but now it would be shredded for "white guy saves the indigenous people" narrative, and a white actress playing an indigenous woman. The movie would be 'worse than Hitler!' in our current cultural climate.

Yeah, you can’t blame Kevin Costner in retrospect. It was seen as totally OK and even great back then. Surely he meant well.

DWW has been pretty much forgotten, but Goodfellas is still hugely popular. It's a classic.

[quote]It’s funny, I’m conflicted about the use of popular music in movies. On one hand it’s great, totally adds to the experience. On the other I can’t help thinking it’s sort of a shortcut and crutch.

Using bursts of pop music to create an immediate, visceral reaction in the audience definitely started to seem like lazy shorthand in the 90s. At the time, I'd never quite seen anything like way Scorsese used music in GoodFellas, not just as background, but intense and almost operatic at times. The Layla piano coda, Jump in the Fire, etc left an indelible impression juxtaposed to the events on screen. It was different from the way the 80s movies of my youth (Beverly Hills Cop, the John Hughes films, etc) used music, where it often just seemed like a cross-promotional tie-in with a soundtrack album.

All that said...I still often prefer pop music to everything being coated in a bland wallpaper score. Music is often overused, or used badly, in films.

[quote] The Layla piano coda, Jump in the Fire, etc left an indelible impression

You’re damn right it did. To this day I cannot hear Layla and not think of that movie. Impossible.

Have any of you criticizing Mary McDonnell's role actually seen "Dances with Wolves"? She's not supposed to be Native American. She's a white woman raised by Indians.

STILL problematic r257! Why is the white woman the central figure? WHY couldn't it have been a Native American woman? I am EXHAUSTED by this!

The old trope of 'white person raised by savages and then saves the savages' would be a shitstorm of controversy today.

You bitches were just jealous of Karen. You know you'd behave like this if Ray Liotta was your man!

Goodfellas would've been an even better movie if Scorsese had put Liza in it. She could've been a coke dealer.

Shine box has only been mentioned once so far.

For some reason, that Billy Batts / Frank Vincent scene really took hold on fans.

I've seen interviews with Frank Vincent and he seems kind of mean in real life as well. I do like the roles he played over the years, though.

All this time, I thought Joe Jackson was singing "Jump into the Fire." Nilsson sang that lime in the coconut song and I can't reconcile it with Jump into the Fire. Oh, well.

Layla: I love / like this song, but did anybody ever notice that parts of the guitar solos (Clapton & Duane Allman) sound like cats fighting. I know it's sacrilegious, but that's my observation.

R259, she didn't "save the savages," for god's sake. NO one did. Now I know you didn't see the movie.

It's a figure of speech r264.

No, it isn't. It's a phrase purporting to describe the plot of a movie but is wholly inaccurate. What does that character have to do with "saving" anyone?

To be fair, nobody has seen Dances with Wolves since 1990.

Yeah, my memory's a little fuzzy. It definitely true that DWW would be shredded if it were made today.

Actually, I have! There are a lot of things about it I like, though not Kevin Costner or his performance. I like the scenery, the Native American characters (good and bad), and the general quiet of his lonely, self-sufficient life. It's a very beautiful movie visually.

It's a piece of dogshit r269. And Kevin Costner was one of the most boring, bland, charisma-free movie stars ever. There's a reason why his stardom didn't last very long.

The plot of Avatar is very similar to DWW. I've seen it referred to as "Dances with Smurfs."

R263 Thanks a lot, now I will never be able to listen to the song again without hearing “meowwww meowwwww meowwwww....”

Sorry, R272. But I'm glad someone else can also hear cats meowing during Layla.

R271 That is the name of a South Park episode.

[quote]I think it started with American Graffiti

Wasn't "It's a Wonderful Life" full of pop songs of the day?

Scorsese rarely played the game and kept his distance from Hollywood. Costner was in hit after hit, the golden boy of the time. Oscars are very short sighted.

"Bracco was STUNNING at the time, so swapping a movie star in wouldn't have made a difference in that department"

Lots of filmmakers do not like authentic New York Italian/Jewish women no matter how stunning. That's why we usually get the fakes with the fake accent.

What's with the "Murray" shit? The character's name is Morris, Morrie. No Murray.

Someone mentioned re: Ray Liotta's bad skin, Redford had bad skin too. Redford didn't have huge pockmarked skin, but he's covered, and I mean covered, with freckles. Must wear cover-up makeup all the time.

You can see him without makeup here -

[quote]Wasn't "It's a Wonderful Life" full of pop songs of the day?

Are you high? What are you talking about? I don't remember a single piece of music in that film and I watch it every year.

....

That's the Charlston, and it was not a "pop song of the day."

This thread has been derailed with the odd addition of It's a Wonderful Life into the conversation, but now I am curious about this. What was the first film to use popular music throughout the film rather than create original soundtrack? American Graffiti is a good guess, and could be correct, but have a feeling there has to be something earlier than that.

Easy Rider used music effectively....The Graduate used Simon and Garfunkel...

I believe the S&G songs for The Graduate were written for the movie.

“Mrs. Robinson” in particular. That was definitely written for the movie.

Easy Rider crossed my mind as I was typing that, but not sure it's a movie / soundtrack that really lived beyond it's brief moment in time. A lot of the music did, and some of its aesthetic, but I don't think it did as a whole. Although I could be wrong about that.

The Graduate is a very good answer.

R285 Then it is a great example of film music that’s original AND popular.

I keep coming back to American Graffiti because I remember what a huge record album it was at the time, and it sparked a revival of oldies on the radio in the early 70s.

I'd say Kenneth Anger's short film "Scorpio Rising" was the first to use pop music in that way. He was a big influence on Scorsese, who in turn influenced everybody else. It's also incredibly homoerotic.

I do think Easy Rider might be the first movie that used a soundtrack of pop songs in the GoodFellas way. The S&G score for The Graduate seems more traditional in comparison - it's all one artist (with the exception of some pieces by Dave Grusin), some of it was written specifically for the movie, and it recurs throughout the film in different arrangements.

R285, Mrs Robinson was, the others were around before the movie. The music really makes the movie for me. Same with Midnight Cowboy,

Thought I might have come up with another one with Harold and Maude, but according to Wikipedia, but even in that Cat Stevens created original songs for that movie.

[quote] the time, I'd never quite seen anything like way Scorsese used music in GoodFellas,

The funny thing is that none of the songs in the car/helicopter/coke scenes are on the movie soundtrack album, which is kind of strange.

Real life Karen was fucking real life Paulie while real life Henry was in prison. It’s said that one of the reasons why real life Tommy was killed was because he tried to rape Karen while Henry was in jail & Paulie got very pissed about that.

[quote] A lot of the scenes involving marital issues between Henry and Karen, and mainly her scenes felt like filler

Goomars were important. I’ve told this true story before - my best friend in the early 70s had a friend from childhood whose father was involved in the Air France heist. He was brought up on charges of attempted murder of his goomar’s husband. He went to jail. His wife & daughter believed the police brought the charges as a bargaining tactic — rat out the others involved in Air France, or else go to jail. He chose jail. Their family had a guy who watched out for them while he was in jail - Big Solly. I met the father once and he offered me a scotch. It was 11 am. I was 17 (and looked 14). I said no thanks sir, but thank you for offering, sir. (Wtf did I know what to say to a mafia ex-con?)

Favorite line: when Janice, Henry's goomar, is giving a tour of her apartment and points out an object that "came from Siam."

Favorite piece of music: "Pretend You Don't See Her"

I also like that little bit of foreshadowing in Janice's apartment, when Henry gives the 'come fuck me face' to Sandy (played by Debi Mazar), his future goomar.

Debi Mazar should've had a bigger career.

[quote]That's the Charlston, and it was not a "pop song of the day."

"The Charleston" was one of the most popular songs in America in 1928, when that part of "It's a Wonderful Life" was set.

I think the Henry-Karen scenes humanize the movie. She's such a great character, and unusual for this like of movie. Wait, for ANY kind of movie.

The Charleston appears in IAWL as part of the setting at a dance. The music is part of the scene; it's playing for the characters who exist in that world, as part of the plot, in other words, they are dancing to that song in the scene, it's not just some cool music the film's director thought would add to the mood.

Jesus, some of you are just really fucking stupid. The original comment was that IAWL was "full of pop songs of the day," and all our troll could come up with is the Charleston, which, once again, was not a "pop song of the day" nor used as part of a "soundtrack;" it's music that's part of a scene.

Why does this need to be spelled out?

r300 is a great big Buffalo Gal

'Favorite piece of music: "Pretend You Don't See Her"'

What's the point of that song? Henry's with his girlfriend and can't see his wife?

I think the "meaning" was that Jerry Vale, a fairly successful singer with Italian roots, had a hit song. No need to read any further into it.

Obviously the song is a reference to Harry's double personal life. He has to 'pretend' he doesn't essentially have a second wife.

Poor Harry.

🤪

Ha--I've been posting in the Markle threads too much. It's Henry, of course.

I've been rewatching "All Above Eve." It had a bunch of popular tunes of the day in its party and restaurant scenes– Thou Swell, I'll Take Manhattan, How About You, Blue Moon. I suppose that's the earlier equivalent to Scorsese's approach.

Henry is not the only one out with his girlfriend. They all are during that scene. And have to pretend they don’t love the girlfriends. It’s a very beautiful song.

A few decades ago, I worked on series for Don Ohlmeyer called Crimes of the Century and we booked the real Henry Hill. He did the interview with makeup and in deep shadow.

I’m semi watching law and order amd I recognized guest star Lorraine Bracco’s voice.

“Does the superintendent know that there’s a white living in this building?! Janice Rossi! 2R! WHORE!!!!”

The bit where Tommy harangues his girlfriend for maybe being attracted to Sammy Davis Jr. (she can at least understand why he got May Britt) still feels relevant.

[It was loud, evasive and sounded out of place in parts.]

Oh, dear!

Jerry Vale was in there for atmosphere. It was a great touch, along with Henny Youngman. perfect pop culture representations. The film is brilliantly cast and both funny and violent. Great lines---the Maries, Paulies and Peteys, the Paul Sorvino character he has trouble keeping track of the Peteys and Paulies. The mstress sequence is great--her showing off the place and Karen announcing that a whore lives in the building. Bracco was great--Edie Falco was equally as good in The Sopranos but came at it in a different way.

Overrated film. Meh.

DWW was awful. Oscar or not it was obviously pretentious and patronizing when it was released. Costner's naked butt was the only thing anyone remembered.

Goodfellas, was not overrated at the time -it's really found its audience in the years since its release because of repeated airplay on AMC.

R316, AMC sucks. Crap station.

Goodfellas losing to Dances is as much of a travesty as Pulp Fiction losing to Forrest Gump. Hollywood never lauds the innovative pictures until later on.

Make that coffee to go!

That's a memorable line, IMO. Pesci character goes to driver's (Lufthansa heist) house to kill him. Tells sidekick to make some coffee so that driver doesn't suspect he's about to be killed.

When it's done, dumb sidekick is still wondering whether he should make coffee. Pesci says: Make that coffee to go!

Was Jimmy really going to have Karen whacked? I've never been sure.

I think so. He killed his compatriot in the airport heist AND his wife (the ones with the pink Cadillac), so I can see him going after Karen too.

Yeah I think so.

Karen had street smarts, good instincts.

R1 has REALLY bad taste.

R1 is correct, you R324 douche.