History NightmareFuel / Goodfellas

[[caption-width-right:318:''"When they found Carbone in the meat truck, he was frozen so stiff that it took two days to thaw him out for the autopsy."'']]]

[[caption-width-right:318:[''"When they found Carbone in the meat truck, he was frozen so stiff that it took two days to thaw him out for the autopsy."'']]]

[[caption-width-right:318:[-"When they found Carbone in the meat truck, he was frozen so stiff that it took two days to thaw him out for the autopsy."-]]]

*** If that wasn't enough, Henry Hill himself said that the only thing different about Tommy in the film was his physical appearance (in real life he was tall, well-built and had a moustache); ''everything else'' was spot-on. The fact that Tommy's craziness wasn't exaggerated ''at all'' is blood-curdling.

** Tommy's execution is pretty horrifying, especially as he realizes what's about to happen a fraction of a second before a bullet blows off half his face.

** This was intentional, Scorsese got complaints at the previews and he said that the audience should be angry, "The nerve of this guy" and that people should question the mentality and values of the culture that makes being a "schnook" such a bad thing.

* The way Henry's father beats his son when he's a teenager is brutally realistic. It's early on in the film, and highly disturbing.

* The scene where Jimmy starts thinking about whacking Morrie and all the other hired mooks. He just sits there smoking but then the music goes up and you know he's up to no good.

** During the party where Morrie is set to be whacked, Henry is internally trying to think about how to convince Jimmy not to kill Morrie. After the whole gang has such a good time with Morrie, Jimmy tells Henry their plan to kill him is cancelled, relieving Henry. Later that night, Tommy fatally stabs him in the back of the neck with a wire because he wouldn't shut up. To further show how much of a monster Jimmy is, Carbone is involved in the murder and is later killed himself. It legitimately doesn’t matter how good you are to Jimmy Conway or how loyal you are to the crew. The second Jimmy thinks you are in the way of him making more money, you will die.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0773_8.JPG]]
[[caption-width-right:350:Two words: '''Tommy [=DeVito=]'''.]]

* Yup, Tommy [=DeVito=] is NF incarnate.

-->'''Henry Hill''': ''When they found Carbone in the meat truck, he was frozen so stiff that it took two days to thaw him out for the autopsy''.

** During the party where Morrie is set to be whacked, Henry is internally trying to think about how to convince Jimmy not to kill Morrie. After the whole gang has such a good time with Morrie, Jimmy tells Henry their plan to kill him is cancelled, relieving Henry. Jimmy proceeds ''to kill him later that night anyway.'' To further show how much of a monster Jimmy is, Carbone is involved in the murder and is later killed himself. It legitimately doesn’t matter how good you are to Jimmy Conway or how loyal you are to the crew. The second Jimmy thinks you are in the way of him making more money, you will die.

* One of the things that really drives home the casual brutality of mobster mentality is in the famous "How am I funny?" scene. After Henry realizes Tommy is just messing with him, and everyone laughs it off, Jimmy comes up to talk to Tommy about an outstanding bill he has, and Tommy gets pissed and smashes a bottle over the poor guy's head, and all the other mobsters don't just act like assaulting someone for basically no reason is no big deal, it's ''funny'' to them, even though just moments ago they were honestly afraid Tommy was going to possibly murder Henry for no reason other than accidentally offending him. Also, who's to say [[HairTriggerTemper Tommy]] wasn't [[MoodSwinger serious]], and [[JustJokingJustification just changed his mind when Henry called him out?]]

* One of the things that really drives home the casual brutality of mobster mentality is in the famous "How am I funny?" scene. After Henry realizes Tommy is just messing with him, and everyone laughs it off, a waiter comes up to talk to Tommy about an outstanding bill he has, and Tommy gets pissed and smashes a bottle over the poor guy's head, and all the other mobsters don't just act like assaulting someone for basically no reason is no big deal, it's ''funny'' to them, even though just moments ago they were honestly afraid Tommy was going to possibly murder Henry for no reason other than accidentally offending him. Also, who's to say [[HairTriggerTemper Tommy]] wasn't [[MoodSwinger serious]], and [[JustJokingJustification just changed his mind when Henry called him out?]]

** During the party where Morrie is set to be whacked, Henry is internally trying to think about how to convince Jimmy not to kill Morrie. After the whole gang has such a good time with Morrie, Jimmy tells Henry their plan to kill him is cancelled, relieving Henry. Jimmy proceeds ‘‘to kill him later that night anyway.’’ To further show how much of a monster Jimmy is, Carbone is involved in the murder and is later killed himself. It legitimately doesn’t matter how good you are to Jimmy Conway or how loyal you are to the crew. The second Jimmy thinks you are in the way of him making more money, you will die.

* Two scenes with Jimmy in particular are meant to chill the audience by showing what a casual monster Jimmy really is. The first scene is when Jimmy asks Henry ''"Think Morrie tells his wife anything?"'' and Henry narrates that Jimmy by just asking the question, has revealed beyond a shadow of a doubt that he's going to kill Morrie. The second scene is towards the very end of the film after Henry and Karen have been busted, and it's very subtle because it doesn't involve any revealing narration: Jimmy asks Karen what kinds of questions the police have been asking Henry. Just by the nature of the question, the tone of his voice, and the look on his face, it's meant to clue in the audience that Jimmy is thinking the exact same thoughts about Henry at that moment, as when he decided to kill Morrie.

** Even worse: Scorsese had to ''[[HistoricalVillainDowngrade tone down]]'' some things Tommy did ''[[RealityIsUnrealistic in real life]]''...

** [=DeNiro=]'s eyes in that scene. They just say, with such incredible subtlety, "Time to go on a killing spree."

* The PeekABooCorpse reveals of the Lufthansa heist perps' bodies (especially Frankie Carbone in the meat locker), all [[SoundtrackDissonance set to]] the instrumental break in EricClapton's "Layla".

* Yup, Tommy [=DeVito=]

* One of the scariest things about the movie is how casual the mobsters treat murdering their own. One of the best examples is how, rather than simply pay everyone for their roles in the Lufthansa heist, Jimmy would rather just ''murder all of the people he hangs out with and considers friends'' and even Henry notes he doesn't particularly care as long as Jimmy doesn't kill him, too. Even later, it's shown that one of Tommy's murderers is Tuddy.
* One of the things that really drives home the casual brutality of mobster mentality is in the famous "how am I funny?" scene. After Henry realizes Tommy is just messing with him, and everyone laughs it off, a waiter comes up to talk to Tommy about an outstanding bill he has, and Tommy gets pissed, and ends up smashing a bottle over the poor guy's head, and all the other mobsters don't just act like assaulting someone for basically no reason is no big deal, it's ''funny'' to them, even though just moments ago they were honestly afraid Tommy was going to possibly murder Henry for no reason other than accidentally offending him. Also, who's to say [[HairTriggerTemper Tommy]] wasn't [[MoodSwinger serious]], and [[JustJokingJustification just changed his mind when Henry called him out?]]

-->'''Henry Hill''': ''When they found Carbone in the meat truck, he was frozen so stiff that it took three days to thaw him out for the autopsy''.
* Two scenes with Jimmy in particular are meant to chill the audience by showing what a casual monster Jimmy really is. The first scene is when Jimmy asks Henry ''"Think Morrie tells his wife anything?"'' and Henry narrates that Jimmy by just asking the question, has revealed beyond a shadow of a doubt that he's going to kill Morrie. The second scene is towards the very end of the film after Henry and Karen have been busted, and it's very subtle because it doesn't involve any revealing narration: Jimmy asks Karen what kinds of questions the police have been asking Henry. Just by the nature of the question, tone of his voice and the look on his face, it's meant to clue in the audience that Jimmy is thinking the exact same thoughts about Henry at that moment, as when he decided to kill Morrie.

** Even worse: Scorsese had to ''tone down'' some of the things Tommy did ''[[RealityIsUnrealistic in real life]]''...

* The PeekabooCorpse reveals of the Lufthansa heist perps' bodies (especially Frankie Carbone in the meat locker), all [[SoundtrackDissonance set to]] the instrumental break in EricClapton's "Layla".

* Two scenes with Jimmy in particular are meant to chill the audience by showing what a casual monster Jimmy really is. The first scene is when Jimmy asks Henry ''"Think Morrie tells his wife anything?"'' and Henry narrates that Jimmy by just asking the question, has revealed without a shadow of a doubt that he's going to kill Morrie. The second scene is towards the very end of the film after Henry and Karen have been busted, and it's very subtle because it doesn't involve any revealing narration: Jimmy asks Karen what kinds of questions the police have been asking Henry. Just by the nature of the question, tone of his voice and the look on his face, it's meant to clue in the audience that Jimmy is thinking the exact same thoughts about Henry at that moment, as when he decided to kill Morrie.

----
* Two scenes with Jimmy in particular are meant to chill the audience by showing what a casual monster Jimmy really is. The first scene is when Jimmy asks Henry ''"Think Morrie tells his wife anything?"'' and Henry narrates that Jimmy by just asking the question, has revealed without a shadow of a doubt that he's going to kill Morrie. The second scene is towards the very end of the film after Henry and Karen have been busted, and it's very subtle because it doesn't involve any revealing narration: Jimmy asks Karen what kinds of questions the police have been asking Henry. Just by the nature of the question, tone of his voice and the look on his face, it's meant to clue in the audience that Jimmy is thinking the exact same thoughts about Henry at that moment, as when he decided to kill Morrie.

----

-->'''Henry Hill''': ''When they found Carbone in the meat locker, it took him three days to thaw out for the autopsy''.

* One of the things that really drives home the casual brutality of mobster mentality is in the famous "how am I funny?" scene. After Henry realizes Tommy is just messing with him, and everyone laughs it off, a waiter comes up to talk to Tommy about an outstanding bill he has, and Tommy gets pissed, and ends up smashing a bottle over the poor guy's head, and all the other mobsters don't just act like assaulting someone for basically no reason is no big deal, it's ''funny'' to them, even though just moments ago they were honestly afraid Tommy was going to possibly murder Henry for no reason other than accidentally offending him. Also, who's to say [[HairTriggerTemper Tommy]] wasn't [[MoodSwinger serious]], and [[JustJokingJustification just changed his mind when Henry called him out?

* One of the things that really drives home the casual brutality of mobster mentality is in the famous "how am I funny?" scene. After Henry realizes Tommy is just messing with him, and everyone laughs it off, a waiter comes up to talk to Tommy about an outstanding bill he has, and Tommy gets pissed, and ends up smashing a bottle over the poor guy's head, and all the other mobsters don't just act like assaulting someone for basically no reason is no big deal, it's ''funny'' to them, even though just moments ago they were honestly afraid Tommy was going to possibly murder Henry for no reason other than accidentally offending him. Also, who's to say [[HairTriggerTemper Tommy]] wasn't [[MoodSwinger serious]], and [[JustJokingJustification just changed his mind when Henry called him out]]?

-->Henry Hill: ''When they found Carbone in the meat locker, it took him three days to thaw out for the autopsy''.

* The PeekabooCorpse reveals of the Lufthansa heist perps' bodies (especially in the meat locker), all [[SoundtrackDissonance set to the tune]] of the instrumental break in EricClapton's "Layla".