History YMMV / Goodfellas

** "There was nothing we could do about it... X was a made man and Y wasn't. It was some real greaseball shit."

** "There was nothing we could do about it... X was a made man and Y wasn't"

*** Creator/RayLiotta appears in the prequel movie, ''Film/TheManySaintsOfNewark'', as twins "Hollywood Dick" and Salvatore Moltisanti, Christopher's grandfather and great uncle.

** "There was nothing that we could do about it. Batts was a made man, Tommy wasn't".

* EightDeadlyWords: Some viewers may find the protagonists’ endless, repetitive violence so dull and despicable that they don’t really care who gets killed or imprisoned for it.

*** Vincent Pastore (Big Pussy Bonpensiero) is the guy carrying a coatrack.

* WhatAnIdiot:
** [[spoiler: Jimmy wants to put a hit on Henry at the end because he is worried Henry'll squeal to the cops. It's the realization that he has a hit on him that makes Henry squeal in the first place.]] Note that despite the WhatAnIdiot aspect, this really happened on several occasions.
** Tommy killing Billy Batts, despite him of all people knowing that Batts was a Made Man and therefore under official protection. [[note]] In real-life it was even worse: ''he killed a second made-man 4 years after the Batts murder.'' [[/note]] [[spoiler:This eventually leads to Tommy's death as revenge.]]
** Johnny Roastbeef and Frankie Carbone deserve a mention due to their stupidity of immediately buying themselves expensive shit with their share of the Lufthansa loot, despite Jimmy ''explicitly telling them not to do so'' since it would draw attention from the cops. This is one of the reasons why he decides to get rid of them, so they essentially dug their own graves. However, it must be known that at that point, everyone was going to be killed. As Henry stated, that money was ''his''. He would kick up a share to Paulie, but he didn't want to share the loot with anyone else.
** Stacks Edwards, leaving the Lufthansa Heist getaway van parked right outside his apartment while he got high with his girlfriend, allowing the cops to find it.

** Did the Lufthansa Heist crew get whacked out of paranoia, or was Jimmy always planning on killing them? Stacks, Johnny Roastbeef and Frank Carbone’s murders can be somewhat justified as they didn’t do what Jimmy told them to do, but Frenchy is also whacked with no apparent grievance, and Maury is whacked essentially for being annoying. Henry’s narration that Jimmy "loved to steal" and felt "[the Lufthansa] money was his"suggest the murders were due to the character's immorality rather than paranoia, but the filmmaking suggests growing mistrust and paranoia.
** Was Jimmy upset over [[spoiler:Tommy’s death]] or was he upset that there wouldn’t be a made member in his crew? Or perhaps terrified he himself might get killed due to his involvement.

** When Paulie is being arrested, one of his guys yells, "Why don't you go to Wall Street, get some ''real'' criminals". Cut to 20 years later and Scorsese makes ''Film/TheWolfOfWallStreet'', the SpiritualSuccessor to both this movie and ''Film/{{Casino}}'' and is pretty up front about how Wall Street brokers are just as corrupt as gangsters.

** ''[=GoodFellas=]'', Creator/MartinScorsese, and Creator/LorraineBracco lost to ''Film/DancesWithWolves'', Creator/KevinCostner, and Creator/WhoopiGoldberg for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress, respectively. In hindsight, ''[=GoodFellas=]'' is considered Scorsese's greatest film (and one of the greatest films ever). For some (most notably, ''Series/SiskelAndEbert''), the loss for Best Director was particularly galling. Kevin Costner was already listed as a co-producer for ''Dances With Wolves'' (the heavy frontrunner for Best Picture), so it seemed redundant for the Academy to honor him again as a Director over Scorsese, especially given how much the latter's direction was specifically praised and analyzed. To make matters worse, ''Wolves'' was Costner's film debut, and many already thought Scorsese was due for recognition after losing out for ''Film/RagingBull'' against Creator/RobertRedford and ''Ordinary People'' (coincidently enough, Redford had beaten Marty for a directorial debut, also).

*** Creator/MichaelImperioli (Christopher) has one of his first roles in this film as the waiter who runs afoul of Tommy.

** Was Jimmy upset over [[spoiler:Tommy’s death]] or was he upset that there wouldn’t be a made member in his crew?

** Was Jimmy upset over Tommy’s death or was he upset that there wouldn’t be a made member in his crew?

** Was Jimmy upset over Tommy’s death or was he upset that there wouldn’t be a made member in his crew.

** Creator/LorraineBracco
** Creator/MichaelImperioli, best known as Christopher from ''Series/TheSopranos'', has one of his first roles as the waiter who runs afoul of Tommy. , Tony "Paulie Walnuts" Sirico as one of Paulie Cicero's henchmen in the 1955 scenes, and Tony "Larry Boy Barese" Darrow as the hangout owner who complains to Paulie about Tommy.

** It also has a major rivalry with ''Film/TheGodfather'' over which is the better gangster film. Both are made by Italian-American film-makers and have achieved PopCulturalOsmosis with much iconic catch-phrases. Supporters argue that ''Goodfellas'' is more realistic gritty and far less romantic than ''The Godfather'' since its gangsters weren't romanticized with DelusionsOfEloquence, while others argue that ''The Godfather'' on account of being stylized, especially with Part II, can have an epic historical sweep over the immigration experience.
*** Although, to be fair, some people don't seem to notice that ''The Godfather Part II'' shows the ugliest side of the classic Mafia (which was largely intentional); Furthermore, ''The Godfather'' trilogy doesn't focus on lower-ranking mobsters like ''[=GoodFellas=]'', but rather on the top level of the Mafia and where the true power of the organization is concentrated.

** Did the Lufthansa Heist crew get whacked out of paranoia, or was Jimmy always planning on killing them? Stacks, Johnny Roastbeef and Frank Carbone’s murders can be somewhat justified as they didn’t do what Jimmy told them to do, but Frenchy is also whacked with no apparent grievance, and Maury is whacked essentially for being annoying. Henry’s narration that Jimmy “loved to steal” and felt “[the Lufthansa] money was his” suggest the murders were due to the character's immorality rather than paranoia, but the filmmaking suggests growing mistrust and paranoia.
* AwardSnub: ''[=GoodFellas=]'', Creator/MartinScorsese, and Creator/LorraineBracco lost to ''Film/DancesWithWolves'', Creator/KevinCostner, and Creator/WhoopiGoldberg for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress, respectively. In hindsight, ''[=GoodFellas=]'' is considered Scorsese's greatest film (and one of the greatest films ever). On the other hand, Creator/JoePesci not only got a fully deserved Oscar for Best Supporting, he didn't even expect to win and gave one of the shortest and most modest speeches in Academy history ("It's my privilege. Thank you.")

** For some (most notably, ''Series/SiskelAndEbert''), the loss for Best Director was particularly galling. Kevin Costner was already listed as a co-producer for ''Dances With Wolves'' (the heavy frontrunner for Best Picture), so it seemed redundant for the Academy to honor him again as a Director over Marty, especially given how much the latter's direction was specifically praised and analyzed. To make matters worse, ''Wolves'' was Costner's film debut, and many already thought Scorsese was due for recognition after losing out for ''Film/RagingBull'' against Creator/RobertRedford and ''Ordinary People'' (coincidently enough, Redford had beaten Marty for a directorial debut, also).

** Creator/MichaelImperioli, best known as Christopher from ''Series/TheSopranos'', has one of his first roles as the waiter who runs afoul of Tommy. Creator/LorraineBracco, Tony "Paulie Walnuts" Sirico as one of Paulie Cicero's henchmen in the 1955 scenes, and Tony "Larry Boy Barese" Darrow as the hangout owner who complains to Paulie about Tommy.

** Go to the comment section on any Website/YouTube video with either Joe Pesci, or Frank Vincent, (including clips from 'Raging Bull', ''Film/HomeAlone'', ''Film/{{Casino}}'' and ''Series/TheSopranos'', and even 'Film/DonnieBrasco'' which features neither actor but somewhat similar scenes) or the songs "The Boy I Love" and "Atlantis" and there's a good chance it'll be filled with "shinebox" jokes.

** Go to the comment section on any Website/YouTube video with either Joe Pesci, or Frank Vincent, (including clips from 'Raging Bull', 'Home Alone', 'Casino' and 'The Sopranos', and even 'Donnie Brasco' which features neither actor but somewhat similar scenes) or the songs 'The Boy I Love' and 'Atlantis' and there's a good chance it'll be filled with 'shinebox' jokes.

** Did the Lufthansa Heist crew get whacked out of paranoia, or was Jimmy always planning on killing them? Stacks, Johnny Roastbeef and Frank Carbone’s murders can be somewhat justified as they didn’t do what Jimmy told them to do, but Frenchy is also whacked with no apparent grievance, and Maury is whacked essentially for being annoying. Henry’s narration that Jimmy “loved to steal” and felt “[the Lufthansa] money was his” suggest the murders were due to the character’s immorality rather than paranoia, but the filmmaking suggests growing mistrust and paranoia.

%%** "Now go home and get your fucking shinebox!"

* AwardSnub: ''[=GoodFellas=]'', Creator/MartinScorsese, and Creator/LorraineBracco lost to ''Film/DancesWithWolves'', Creator/KevinCostner, and Creator/WhoopiGoldberg for Best Picture, Best Director, and Best Supporting Actress, respectively. In hindsight, ''[=GoodFellas=]'' is considered Scorsese's greatest film. On the other hand, Creator/JoePesci not only got a fully deserved Oscar for Best Supporting, he didn't even expect to win and gave one of the shortest and most modest speeches in Academy history ("It's my privilege. Thank you.")

*** Given she was shown arrested along with the rest of them, it looks like she really was just that stupid. Although that also raises the legitimate question of why Henry was trusting her with critical information and tasks anyway.

** "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster ".