open/close all folders
Goncharov
Played by: Robert De Niro
A Russian-born gangster looking to make a name for himself after escaping to Italy.- Ambiguously Gay: He isn't very affectionate to Katya, and admits he can't bring himself to be close with her. However, he has a very intense relationship with Andrey.
- Deadpan Snarker: His brand of humor are dry comments that are sometimes hard to tell apart from when he's being dead serious.
- Face Death with Dignity: After Andrey fatally stabs him, he accepts his death with grace and seems almost glad, using his last breath to give Andrey a forgiving smile and one last pull from his cigarette.
- Living Lie Detector: His bullshit sensor is impeccable... except for when it comes to Andrey.
- No Full Name Given: We never know his first name. In the original book series his full name is Lo Straniero. It is unclear if the movie version has the same name.
- One Last Smoke: Downplayed in that he didn't realize it would be his last cigarette, but after Andrey fatally stabs him, he uses his final breath to take a pull from the cig he'd managed to light.
- Running Gag: He can never seem to figure out which pocket his lighter is in when someone asks for a light.
Katya
Played by: Cybill Shepherd.
Goncharov's intelligent, ambitious wife.- Consummate Liar: Katya can spin a perfectly believable lie out of thin air and convince everyone of it within minutes. She says it's a necessary survival skill. Goncharov, however, is never fooled.
- Deadpan Snarker: She has a mean wit. It's one of the things she and her husband have in common.
- Lipstick Lesbian: Bisexual, but she still counts. Katya wears makeup, high fashion, lots of jewelry, and feminine hairstyles.
- Manipulative Bastard: Katya has a real gift to talking people into doing things they wouldn't normally do, and making things go her way.
- Not with Them for the Money: She insists she didn't marry Goncharov for financial reasons. It's hard to be sure if she's telling the truth or not.
Andrey/Andrei Daddano
Played by: Harvey Keitel
A mobster, both friend and foe to Goncharov.- Affably Evil: Comes with being a friendly neighborhood mafia don.
- Bad Boss: At first seems like A Father to His Men, but this facade fades after the death of Mario. Like many points in the movie, it is ambiguous as to whether it truly was a façade, or if Mario's death pushed him over the deep end and resulted in a degradation of his sanity.
- The Don: Head of his organization.
- Hidden Depths: He really did value Herb as his closest friend, and, when the latter returns to Naples and, instead of welcoming Andrey as an old acquaintance, proceeds to tear into him over his failures in life, the look of betrayal and pain on Andrey's face is visceral. When Andrey retorts to Herb with a breaking speech of his own, it's clear that the hardened mobster is on the verge of tears.
- Jerkass Has a Point: When Herb returns to Naples and reads Andrey the riot act for how far the man had fallen since their parting, Andrey immediately fires back at Herb about how he fled Naples and left Andrey holding the bag after their botched takeover. Sure, Andrey may have only made the situation worse with his poorly-handled damage control, but it was indeed Herb who advised Andrey to do the takeover in the first place, failed to actually check the intel he'd been given, and ultimately left Andrey out to dry when the plan went to hell. Regardless of the mistakes Andrey made during the movie, he was dealing with a bad hand from the start.
- Murder-Suicide: He kills Goncharov (who was possibly on his way to kill Andrey himself) and then himself, though it is left ambiguous as to whether the act was planned, or only killed himself after killing Goncharov in self-defense.
Sofia
A mysterious young woman with whom Katya becomes taken.
- Artificial Limbs: Has a prosthetic right leg.
- Butch Lesbian: Downplayed. Sofia has long hair and wears some makeup, but prefers to wear suits and has a love of horror movies.
- Hero of Another Story: Because Katya is a criminal Femme Fatale that leads Sofia deeper into the criminal underworld, Sofia closely mirrors protagonists such as Walter Neff in Double Indemnity, Johnny Farell in Gilda, and Sam Spade in The Maltese Falcon (1941). Her side of the story most likely looks like a lesbian noir.
- The Mistress: She's heavily implied to become this for the married Katya.
- Morality Pet: Katya genuinely cares about her, though it doesn't stop her from manipulating her.
- Mysterious Past: She's rather cagey when asked about her life before moving to Naples. We know she's an orphan and had to look after herself as a kid, but that's about it. She declines to reveal whether she lost her leg later in life or was born that way, making a joke when Joe asks her about it.
- Nice Guy: Downplayed. She's probably the kindest person in the film, but she's still a criminal.
- No Name Given: While she introduces herself as Sofia, we never know for sure if that's her real name. She also never gives her last name. In alternative credits sequences for different translations, they give her the surname "Anselmo" for the Spanish translation, "Toussaint" for the French, and "Meltzer" for German. A writer that does not want to be named said it was originally going to be "Dietrichson", but it was scrapped since the actors could not pronounce it while doing their fake accents.
Joseph "Ice Pick Joe" Morelli
Played by: John Cazale
A hitman for the mob.- Agent Peacock: In an otherwise fairly grounded film with typical Scorsese-style gangsters, Ice Pick Joe stands out, dressing and behaving like a Dick Tracy villain that hatched from a disco ball.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Orphaned, institutionalized, nearly lobotomized, living on the streets... the man's had a hard life.
- Doesn't Like Guns: Of a strange variation—he actually has nothing against handguns, but he absolutely loathes long guns and rifles, to the point of accusing them of being a "coward's weapon." His reasoning for this apparently stems from a belief that pistols (and other short-range weapons) require the user to get close enough to "feel" the life they take from their target, and thus forces the shooter to personally confront their act of killing, whereas with longer range weapons, the shooter is able to distance themselves and thus casually pick off a target without thinking too much about it.Joe: When you look at the man you just killed through the lenses of some...expensive, high-powered scope, is he even a man? Or just some bag of meat and blood? Will you sleep at night, unbothered by nightmares of seeing that last light drain from a man's eyes, not knowing that you just killed someone's loving brother, or father, or son? I know what I've done, who I've killed, and I feel the weight of every life I've ever taken. Can the same be said for your sharpshooter on the balcony there?
- Face Death with Dignity: He takes his eventual demise at the hands of Katya rather civilly, telling her he understands and would have done the same thing in her shoes, and this is despite the fact that Katya is essentially denying him the chance to turn his life around.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: He can be quiet and harmless one second, and enraged and violent the next. No one's ever sure what or who will set him off.
- Heel–Face Door-Slam: He wants to put a stop to the needless bloodshed and do something better with his life, but his first steps at even trying to do so get him killed.
- Innocently Insensitive: His question about Sofia's disability is pretty rude, but he seems to be honestly just curious. Sofia herself doesn't seem too offended, though she side-steps actually answering.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Despite being a violent Serial Killer, he has a soft spot for cats, and has a few in his apartment. He also has a soft soft for Katya (despite how antagonistic they act to each other) which ultimately leads to his death.
- Mood-Swinger: Part of why, skilled at killing as he is, Joe is also considered a potential liability. You can never be sure what mood you'll catch him in, or when that mood will flip to "murderous rage."
- Professional Killer: He kills people for the mob.
- Race Fetish: He's implied to have an oddly specific fascination with Bolivian women.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Frequently seen snacking out of a jar of olives with a cocktail fork.
- Wham Line: He delivers one to the hit squad hired by Katya, going on a monologue about the cowardice of using long guns against a target before pointing out the sharpshooter they have trained on him. Said sharpshooter is the only one to survive the encounter with Joe.
Mario Ambrosini
Played by: Al Pacino
A mid-level Naples mafioso who works with Goncharov.- A Lighter Shade of Black: Sure, he'll ruin your life, leave you penniless, and have your car repossessed if you have a bad run of luck at the tables, but he hates the idea of actually killing anyone.
- Does Not Like Spam: Mario doesn't care for traditional Italian food much - especially pasta.
- The Eeyore: A very, very sad man. Small wonder he rarely shows his face at the establishments he runs.
- The Gambler: Subverted. Mario runs a sizable high-stakes underground gambling operation, but he doesn't gamble himself, and comes across as very cautious.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: His attempts to break free of Andrey's control result in his death. And his death results in the threads of Andrey's empire slowly coming unraveled once he's discovered to be missing...
Valery Mikhailov
Played by: Gene Hackman
A divisive Russian mobster related to Katya.- Ambiguously Related: We're not sure exactly what Valery's relation to Katya is. We do know that she doesn't like him, but that doesn't narrow it down much.
- Hidden Depths: He has an interest in the concept of alien life and realistic science fiction.
- Hot-Blooded: He's usually loud, very passionate, and very violent-tempered.
- Husky Russkie: Downplayed, but he's very physical and seems to have a bit of a pot belly under that coat.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: He thinks that he's in a Heroic Bloodshed piece. Small wonder he doesn't stick around long... thanks, Sofia.
