History Film / Goodfellas

*** One of the mobsters introduced in the bar scene is Michael Franzese himself. However, the real Franzese is a member of the Colombo family, not the Lucchese family that Henry belongs to, and thus shouldn't be introduced as part of Henry's crew. When asked about this by Franzese, the real Henry Hill and the writer of the book just admitted that they name-dropped him because he was famous at the time.

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Parnell "Stacks" Edwards (played by Creator/SamuelLJackson) participates in the Lufthansa heist as a ''designated'' driver. He screws it up by parking the getaway van in front of a fire hydrant at his girlfriend's apartment, causing the police to impound it and find his fingerprints all over it. He ends up being the first of many to be whacked in order to keep the matter safe and quiet (though there are two other on-screen deaths before him). The film even gives him a slightly more dignified death -- in real life, he was still in bed and out of it, [[NoKillLikeOverkill and got shot in the head six times]].

The film became famous for several reasons, including a long tracking shot through the kitchen of the Copacabana; the montage near the end showing Henry's increasing drug-induced paranoia as he tries to run some guns, get a drug shipment off to UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}, [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking and make dinner for his family]]; and Tommy's [[SirSwearsalot profanity-laden dialogue]] and HairTriggerTemper, which threatened to make Joe Pesci typecast for some time — and won him the [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestActorInASupportingRole Oscar for Best Supporting Actor]]. The film was nominated for an additional five Oscars, including [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestPicture Best Picture]] and [[UsefulNotes/AcademyAwardForBestDirecting Best Director]], and was selected for the UsefulNotes/NationalFilmRegistry in 2000.

** Jimmy instructs Henry to be discreet with the Lufthansa heist money. Cut to Henry entering his house with a huge fake Christmas tree and shouting to his family, "I got the most expensive tree they had!"

* RealityIsUnrealistic: Martin Scorsese refused to believe that the prisoners were as well treated as they were in the book and later depicted in the film, but the prison guards assured him it was quite real and not exaggerated. Not mentioned in the film, however, was that the prisoners had to pay the guards $3,000 a month for the privileges, which is why Henry started dealing drugs in prison -- to pay for it.

*** The prison scene where mafia members are shown living luxuriously is fabricated. Franzese, who knows plenty of high-ranking mobsters in prison (including his father, an underboss, and Carmine Persico, the head of the Colombo crime family itself), says that he never saw made guys live that well in federal prisons.

* RealityIsUnrealistic:
** The person that Tommy is based on was reputedly '''worse''' in terms of temperament and violent tendencies.
** Martin Scorsese refused to believe that the prisoners were as well treated as they were in the book and later depicted in the film, but the prison guards assured him it was quite real and not exaggerated. Not mentioned in the film, however, was that the prisoners had to pay the guards $3,000 a month for the privileges, which is why Henry started dealing drugs in prison -- to pay for it.
* RealMenCook: The wise guys take cooking very seriously during their incarceration. The real Henry Hill published a cookbook in 2002, ''The Wiseguy Cookbook'' detailing the recipes for all the meals seen in the film and many more, including recipes he picked up in Witness Protection and the healthy diet he adapted later in life.

* BigBadWannabe: Tommy. Despite all his violence and bravado, he's still an unintelligent crook who [[spoiler:will inevitably be killed for his irrationality]], making him less of a threat and more of a violent thug.

** Tommy did not murder Billy Batts over a verbal slight. What had happened is that while Batts had been in prison, Tommy had taken over his numbers rackets for him, and when Batts was released, Tommy refuses to return control of the rackets to him.

[[caption-width-right:350:''"Look at me: never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut."'']]

''[=GoodFellas=]'' is a 1990 crime film co-written and directed by Creator/MartinScorsese, adapted from the book ''Wiseguy'' by Nicholas Pileggi (who also co-wrote), which follows the story of New York City gangster Henry Hill (Creator/RayLiotta) from his [[RiseAndFallGangsterArc induction into the Lucchese crime family in the 1950s to his downfall]] and entry into the Witness Protection Program in the 1980s.

* BigBadDuumvirate: [[ProperlyParanoid Jimmy]] and [[TheDon Paulie]] are personally responsible for much of the conflict here.

* BigBad: Jimmy Conway is responsible for much of the conflict here.

* BigBadWannabe: Tommy. Despite all his violence and bravado, he's still an unintelligent, small-time thug who [[spoiler:will inevitably be killed for his irrationality]], making him less of a threat and more of a violent bully. After the Lufthansa heist, he's beaten by [[EvilGenius Jimmy Conway]], the ''true'' BigBad of the movie.

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[[quoteright:290:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/goodfellas17.jpg]]

* AdaptationExplanationExtrication: In the aftermath of the Lufthansa heist, Jimmy turns almost overnight from being an AffablyEvil guy who tips generously and even shoves a twenty-dollar bill into the pocket of a truck driver he's robbing, to a murderous FauxAffablyEvil paranoid asshole who seems to not want to pay any of the guys who did the heist. This is not explained in the film. The explanation is that, in real life, Jimmy Burke (Jimmy's original) thought that the heist would yield about $2m but was stunned to find that it actually yielded around $6m. Burke was very reluctant to give the guys who'd carried out the heist any of the surplus money over the amount they'd agreed; it wasn't that he didn't want to give anyone their share, he just didn't want to spread any of the good luck. Rather than deal with their demands for extra money, he killed them. In addition, the much higher than expected haul meant the heist picked up far more heat than anticipated and every cop in the city knew their crew was responsible and all they needed was the smallest bit of evidence to round the whole crew up. This is explained a little differently in the film, where Jimmy is shown to be on edge because his crew does the stupid thing and draws attention to themselves by buying expensive items right after the heist, which next to his extreme greed, is alluded by Henry as a big reason why he has them all whacked in the end.

** Jimmy was Jimmy Burke in real life. The filmmakers decided to use [[NomDeMom his mother's maiden name of Conway, which he used as an alias,]] after his sister threatened to sue them.

** Even Paul Sorvino is significantly better-looking than the real Paul Cicero.
* AdaptationalUgliness: The real Tommy was 6'2", had long hair and a moustache, was built like a boxer and was described as very good looking. In the film, he is played by the short and portly Joe Pesci.

* AgeLift: Joe Pesci was 46 at the time of filming, and plays Tommy as being roughly the same age as Henry (21 when first shown, through to 35 at the time of his death). Thomas [=DeSimone=], who Tommy [=DeVito=] is based on, was actually six years younger than Hill, and was in his teens and twenties throughout the real-world events in the movie, being murdered in 1979 at age 28.

* AllGirlsWantBadBoys: Henry pistol-whips the guy who gropes Karen, then gives her the gun to hide, and she confesses in voiceover "I gotta admit — It turned me on." This is probably the only example where he wasn't this bad considering how much his victim deserved it.
* AmazonChaser: Henry expressives absolutely zero intest in Karen until he stands her up and she forces Tommy to track him down for her so she can tear into him in front of his crew. You can literally see the moment when he realizes she turns him on, and he immediately and genuinely begs her to give him another chance.

*** One of the mobsters introduced in the bar scene is Michael Franzese himself. However, the real Franzese is a member of the Colombo family, not the Lucchese that Henry belongs to, and thus shouldn't be introduced as part of Henry's crew. When asked about this by Franzese, the real Henry Hill and the writer of the book just admitted that they name-dropped him because he was famous at the time.

** Tommy did not kill Billy Batts over a verbal slight. While Batts was in jail, Tommy had run his numbers rackets for him, and when Batts was released, Tommy wanted to keep running them.

** The real Henry Hill didn't actually enjoy being in the mafia and [[EvenEvilHasStandards grew increasingly uncomfortable with the tasks they assigned him]]. He also constantly lived in fear that his fellow mafia members would kill him on a whim. He made several attempts to leave the mafia lifestyle during his life but kept getting pulled back in due to his criminal habits. The point of no return came when he became an accomplice to Billy Batts' murder, meaning there was no way Jimmy and Tommy would let him leave alive.

* BlackDudeDiesFirst: Parnell "Stacks" Edwards (played by Creator/SamuelLJackson) participates in the Lufthansa heist as a ''designated'' driver. He screws it up and is the first of many to get whacked in order to keep the matter safe and quiet (though there are two other on-screen deaths before him). The film even gives him a slightly more dignified death -- in real life, he was still in bed and out of it, [[NoKillLikeOverkill and got shot in the head six times]].

** When Henry is washing out his car's trunk, which smells horribly because it has had [[spoiler:Billy Batts' festering corpse in it]], he tells Karen he hit a skunk.

** Jimmy knows well that antagonizing Billy Batts — a made man who is protected by default — isn't a brilliant idea and tries to defuse the situation. The guy is killed anyway, but the gang is very aware that his death should remain a secret.

** Numerous mob practices are explored and illuminated in such a way that makes them come across less as FriendlyNeighborhoodGangster or intelligent criminals, and more as egotistical and pigheaded buffoons who constantly stir up trouble during big important moments or jobs. Tommy continually pushes people's buttons and starts more trouble than he fixes, [[spoiler:eventually getting to the point where he kills a made man (a huge no-no in mob culture) and is marked for death because of it.]] Henry also initially comes across as suave and intelligent, but later demonstrates that his lack of education and formal learning are a huge problem for him when he starts getting into the drug trade and begins making dozens of mistakes, like sampling his own supply and involving his wife.

** The mafia's practice of YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness becomes a serious problem during the last third of the film. After [[spoiler:Tommy gets fooled into thinking he's getting made, when he's instead whacked at his supposed induction ceremony]], Henry devolves into a nervous wreck and his relationship with Jimmy becomes increasingly strained, both of them coming to believe the other is plotting their downfall for different reasons- Jimmy for his involvement in the Lufthansa heist, and Henry for his recent run-in with the narcs. The majority of the Lufthansa guys end up spending copious amounts of money [[TooDumbtoLive right after one of the biggest heists in American history]], which ends up causing all of them to get whacked by Jimmy, and only increases Henry's paranoia about remaining in the mob. [[spoiler: As a matter of fact, its heavily implied that Jimmy tried to get Henry killed by putting him up for phony hit, while later seemingly attempting to get Karen assassinated as well. This proves to be the last straw, and Henry gladly walks in to witness protection to rat on Paulie and Jimmy in order to save his own skin.]]

-->'''Tommy:''' In this day and age, what the fuck is this world coming to? I can't believe this, prejudiced against — [[HypocriticalHumour a Jew broad]] — prejudiced against Italians!
-->'''Girl:''' Unbelievable. You could see how a white girl could fall for him.
-->'''Tommy:''' So you condone that stuff? I don't want to be kissing Music/NatKingCole over here.

* EiffelTowerEffect: Averted. Despite being almost entirely set in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity, there are no sightings of the Art/StatueOfLiberty and the Empire State Building. Most of the action is set in Brooklyn and the remoteness and closed nature of their community is part of the general theme of the story. Indeed, Billy Batts is referred to by Paul Cicero as "the man from Downtown".

** Paulie's educated concerns about drug traffic and his reluctance to use telephones and his related fears about surveliance, wiretaps and RICO conspiracy charges. All become important in the final act of the film.

-->'''Jimmy:''' ''(to Henry)'' You think Morrie tells his wife everything?
-->'''Henry:''' ''(Narrating)'' That's when I know Jimmy was gonna whack Morrie.

** Paulie Cicero is depicted as AffablyEvil and a likable capo. Henry Hill explains him away as "protection for wiseguys among themselves". Mobster Paul Vario - his RealLife counterpart - had more direct involvement in the nastier (and bloodier) crimes committed by his crew. In ''Wiseguy'' (the book the film was based on), Hill recalled seeing Vario attack a barmaid with a baseball bat after she informed his wife they were having an affair. ''Wiseguy'' author Nicholas Pileggi writes, "He abhorred unnecessary violence (the kind he hadn't ordered), [[PragmaticVillainy mainly because it was bad for business]]."

** [[spoiler:No, Tommy, you don't kill a made man without the go-ahead from the boss.]] Sorry.
*** In real life, [[spoiler:Tommy was allegedly even dumber. While Paul Vario was in jail, Tommy allegedly made advances on Paul's wife and raped her when she turned him down. Paul naturally was furious when he found out, which is what motivated him to spill the beans on Billy Batts' murder and getting Tommy killed.]]