Goodfellas
Director
Martin Scorsese
Classification
18
Genres
Drama
DVD Relese Date
25/01/1999
Description
Based on the book 'Wiseguy' by Nicholas Pileggi, 'Goodfellas' follows the career of an ambitious school boy who joins the Mob and becomes a member of the inner sanctum. Full of his own success, he kills the wrong guy and begins to deal in drugs.
Cast
Beau Starr, Debi Mazar, Elaine Kagan, Frank Vincent, Gina Mastrogiacomo, Illeana Douglas, James Quattrochi, Joe Pesci, Kevin Corrigan, Lorraine Bracco, Michael Imperioli, Mike Starr, Paul Sorvino, Ray Liotta, Robert De Niro, Samuel L. Jackson, Tony Sirico
Fun Film Info
According to Maxim magazine, Joe Pesci wrote and directed the "You think I'm funny?" scene at Martin Scorsese's request. The ending shot of Joe Pesci shooting at the camera is a visual reference to The Great Train Robbery (1903), whose ending shot is of the villain, Justus D. Barnes, shooting at the camera. It was claimed that at the time the real life gangster Jimmy Burke was so happy to have Robert De Niro play him that he phoned him from prison to give him a few pointers. Author/screenwriter Nicholas Pileggi denies this, saying De Niro and Burke had never spoken, but admitting that there were men around the set all the time who had known all of the principal characters very well.
Quotes
"Goodfellas is a tour de force that brilliantly evokes both the seductive glamour and moral degradation of organised crime" BBC; "No finer film has ever been made about organized crime" CHICAGO SUN-TIMES