History Film / Goodfellas

** Frankie Carbone is a composite of Angelo Sepe and Richard Eaton.

** When Karen asks Henry what he does for a living, he replies, "I'm in construction." Karen feels his soft hands and points out that they don't look like the hands of a construction worker, so he elaborates and tells her that he's [[LegitimateBusinessmensSocialClub a union delegate]]. Karen, [[DistractedByTheLuxury obviously enchanted by the lavish lifestyle]], doesn't press the matter.

* GreaterScopeVillain: Paul Cicero, the capo who's boss of most of the goodfellas, even while the narrative mostly focuses on Henry, Jimmy, and Tommy.

The film is also considered rather notable for being a major influence on ''Series/TheSopranos'' (widely viewed as its SpiritualSuccessor), which went on to become one of the most acclaimed and influential television series of all time. Multiple cast members in ''The Sopranos'' (including Creator/LorraineBracco, Creator/MichaelImperioli, Creator/FrankVincent, Creator/VincentPastore, and Creator/TonySirico) previously appeared here, and the show's gritty and unglamorous portrayal of the Mafia was pretty clearly influenced by the film. The parallels between the two were originally going to be even ''more'' blatant: Creator/{{HBO}} originally wanted Creator/RayLiotta and Lorraine Bracco to play Tony and Carmella Soprano, effectively reprising their roles as Henry and Karen Hill; Liotta turned down the role[[note]]Though he would appear in the film prequel, ''Film/TheManySaintsOfNewark'', which is set in the same time period as ''[=GoodFellas=]''[[/note]], and Bracco requested the role of Dr. Melfi because she felt that Carmella was too similar to her role in ''[=GoodFellas=]''.

Creator/MartinScorsese's 1990 adaptation of the book ''Wiseguy'' by Nicholas Pileggi, which followed 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. Along with Henry, the film follows Henry's boss Jimmy Conway (Creator/RobertDeNiro), his best friend Tommy [=DeVito=] (Creator/JoePesci), and his wife Karen Friedman (Creator/LorraineBracco). The film details Henry's moving up the ranks, his eventual imprisonment, his role in (at the time) the largest heist in American history, and his involvement with the cocaine trade (which eventually gets him arrested by narcotics officers and shunned by the Mob). As the ground crumbles around him, he turns to the Feds for protection, eventually having to "live the rest of [his] life like a schnook".

The movie 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 Best Supporting Actor Oscar. The movie itself ended up losing Best Picture to ''Film/DancesWithWolves''. The movie was selected for the UsefulNotes/NationalFilmRegistry in 2000.

''[=GoodFellas=]'' was followed by ''Film/{{Casino}}'', based on the book of the same name (also by Nicholas Pileggi), which also featured De Niro (who 'phagocytated' Liotta's role in becoming the centre of the movie's romantic subplot), Pesci (still the same sort of vicious character - though with more sophisticated and sympathetic qualities; it should also be noted that both guys he played really existed), and Creator/FrankVincent (famously playing a ''very'' different role from Goodfellas' Billy Batts).

The film is also considered rather notable for being a major influence on ''Series/TheSopranos'' (widely viewed as its SpiritualSuccessor), which went on to become one of the most acclaimed and influential television series of all time. Multiple cast members in ''The Sopranos'' (including Creator/LorraineBracco, Creator/MichaelImperioli, Creator/FrankVincent, Creator/VincentPastore, and Creator/TonySirico) previously appeared here, and the show's gritty and unglamorous portrayal of the Mafia was pretty clearly influenced by the film. The parallels between the two were originally going to be even ''more'' blatant: Creator/{{HBO}} originally wanted Creator/RayLiotta and Lorraine Bracco to play Tony and Carmella Soprano, effectively reprising their roles as Henry and Karen Hill; Liotta turned down the role[[note]]Though he would appear in the film prequel, ''Film/TheManySaintsOfNewark'', which is set in the same time period as ''[=GoodFellas=]''[[/note]], and Bracco requested the role of Dr. Melfi because she felt that Carmella was too similar to her role in ''[=GoodFellas=]''.

* KickTheSonOfABitch:
** Henry beats a neighbor who groped Karen and then pushed her out of a car when she hit him back. The guy is probably one of the few non-mobster characters that deserved this.
** [[spoiler:Tommy. According to Henry, he got shot in the face so his mother couldn't have an open casket funeral.]]

* SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou: In a ShoutOut to ''Film/TheGreatTrainRobbery''.

** To ''Film/TheGreatTrainRobbery'', no less. Tommy [[SeanConneryIsAboutToShootYou shoots at the camera]] in the final scene.

* SomethingTheyWouldNeverSay: Henry knows he has to go on the lam when Jimmy asks Henry to go to Florida to do a hit, something Henry was never asked to lead before. Henry knows he wouldn't come back alive and turns himself into the feds for protection.

* BeingEvilSucks: A complex example as the film delivers mixed messages despite showing the misery of a criminal life; notably in-universe Henry argues for the opposite in his final lines, an inviting gateway to misaimed fandom, he implies that getting caught is the only thing he regrets about being a gangster. See DoNotDoThisCoolThing below. Played straight in real life though, as the real Henry Hill hated being part of the mafia and regretted ever getting involved with them.

** Topped by [[spoiler:what happens to Tommy. Becoming a Made Man is set to be the greatest honor of Tommy's life, and the day of the ceremony is all triumphal and celebratory, with both Jimmy and Henry gleefully excited for him, and for the implicit raised standing they'll have by being best friends with an official member. Tommy himself is uncharacteristically respectful and soft spoken, and even awestruck at the mafia bigwigs who are bringing him in... until it turns out Tommy is being led to his execution.]] The entire mood of the movie from that point on is all tragedy.

** 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 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 starting dealing drugs in prison -- to pay for it.
* RealMenCook: The wiseguys 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.

* RiteOfPassage: Getting pinched for the first time is a cornerstone for any mafioso. When Henry "pops his cherry" (gets arrested and judged) he's greeted with joy by the wiseguys in the aftermath, as he has kept his mouth shut, proved to be reliable and thus entered a new level.

* SacrificialLamb: Spider's murder at the hands of Tommy doesn't add any foreshadowing or any symbolism. Apparently, his death only serves another highlight or reminder of [[AxCrazy Tommy's murderous rage]] [[HairTriggerTemper and poor temper control]], and just adds another AndThisIsFor justification for his execution.

** Jimmy takes a level in sociopathy. This is what leads him to eliminate any links between Luftansa and himself.

* SeinfeldianConversation: Henry and Tommy engage in one while making sure no one puts out the fire they've set in the Bamboo Lounge. It goes on until Henry realizes how close they are to getting caught.

* SexyDiscretionShot: Happens between Henry and Linda after driving her home to her apartment. We then see the still shot of the apartment building minutes until the scenery changes to morning light.

* SurveillanceAsThePlotDemands: Justified. The regular police are easily bribed to look the other way, but when drug traffic comes into play, the Narcotics detectives, wiretapping and helicopter surveillance cannot be shaken off.

* AStormIsComing: The fact that Henry becoming a drug dealer and an addict is [[spoiler: the spiral that eventually makes him fall from grace, flip and collapse the main Paulie's organization]] is very subtly hinted via the usage of the song [[MeaningfulName ''Gimme Shelter'']] when his new activities are being introduced.

** Paulie's organization goes down because Henry disregards his explicit and learned command about ignoring drugs, and in turn Henry is caught because his incredibly dumb mule drops the ball by making a drug related call from inside Henry's house, after being repeatedly instructed against this. In addition, Henry's drug supplier doesn't clean up after herself, so even though the cops don't find any drugs in Henry's house, they find plenty when they raid the supplier's apartment, giving them an airtight case against Henry. Scorsese discussed that this series of mistakes is [[RealityIsUnrealistic seen as unlikely]] by a portion of viewers, [[LostAesop hurting the "crime does not pay" aesop]] of the story.

** Paulie is very aware that drugs can bring the whole thing down because he knows of a fellow old wiseguy who was arrested just for greeting some drug dealer, or so Paulie says. He also has an aversion to telephones and personal meetings, hinting he knows about wiretapping and criminal conspiracy cases.

* TensionCuttingLaughter: Done famously after a prolonged scene where Tommy appears to be offended at being called "funny" by Henry. Finally Henry realizes that it's a joke and bursts into laughter, breaking all the tension.

* TerribleTrio: Henry Hill, Tommy [=DeVito=] and Jimmy "the Gent" Conway are unrepentant, brutal mobsters who work for the Lucchese crime family in New York for two decades with Henry being the least terrible of the trio.

* ThouShaltNotKill: In a movie about gangsters, the main character Henry does not kill anyone. Not a soul. He buries bodies, steals things, beats people to a pulp, but he doesn't kill anyone. Justified in that, not being Italian on his father's side, he had no chance of becoming a "made man," and thus was more useful without having committed murders. In reality, Henry did commit three murders for the mob.

** Sonny Bunz tries to get Tommy whacked early in the movie over a bar tab. He barely gets away with his life, but in exchange he's forced to partner his lounge with the mafia, who drain his credit line dry then torch the joint for [[InsuranceFraud insurance money]].

* TookALevelInBadass: Henry starts doing petty errands for the Mafia as a teenager. Some time afterwards, he's setting cars on fire. A criminal escalation which doubles as TookALevelInJerkass.

* BeingEvilSucks: A complex example as the film delivers mixed messages despite showing the misery of a criminal life; notably in-universe Henry argues for the opposite in his final lines, an inviting gateway to misaimed fandom, he implies that getting caught is the only thing he regrets about being a gangster. See DoNotDoThisCoolThing below.

* 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. 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.

* KarmaHoudini: {{Subverted|Trope}}-[[spoiler: Henry Hill avoids prosecution and mob retribution, but he will spend the rest of his life BroughtDownToNormal, forever pining for the GloryDays. In real life, Hill's life was a mess for many years before going into rehab]].

* AluminumChristmasTrees:
** The Hill family buys a ''literal aluminum Christmas tree'' in the late 1970s — for many viewers who grew up in the TheNineties or later, this specific film is what taught them these trees existed.
** Jimmy Two-Times apparently has [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palilalia Palilalia]], a real speech disorder that causes people to repeat words and phrases.

*** 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 prison.

*** Paul Varrio is portrayed as a father figure to Henry in the movie. In reality, Varrio was a rough man that Franzese doubts was ever particularly close to Henry.

*** 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), says that he never saw made guys live that well in prison.

** One of the mobsters introduced in the bar scene is Mikey Franzese. 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 himself, the real Henry Hill and the writer of the book just admitted that they name dropped him because he had name value.

** Jimmy's solution to everything is to KillEmAll. Henry turned against him as a result.

* KillEmAll: Jimmy eventually wants to cut every link between himself and the heist.

--->'''Henry Hill:''' No more letters from truant officers. No more letters from school. In fact, no more letters from anybody. How could I go back to school after that and pledge allegiance to the flag and sit through good government bullshit. Hundreds of guys depended [[TheMafia on Paulie]] and he got a piece of everything they made. It was tribute, just like the old country, except they were doing it in America. All they got from Paulie was protection from other guys looking to rip them off. That’s what it's all about. That's [[GoodCannotComprehendEvil what the FBI can never understand]], that what Paulie and the organization [[NeighborhoodFriendlyGangsters does is offer protection for people]] who [[DirtyCop can't go to the cops]]. They're like the police department for wiseguys.

** Paulie's educated concerns about drug traffic and his reluctance to use telephones, indicating that he knows the consequences of such and also knows about RICO conspiracy charges and wiretaps.
** "You may fold under questioning!"

-->"Tommy's a bad seed, what do you want me to do, shoot him?" [[spoiler:Paulie later arranges Tommy's murder.]]

-->"Do you know why Jeannie's husband went to the can? Because of Jeannie! Because he wanted to get away from her, that's why!"