When The Godfather hit theaters 1972, it defined, in many people's minds, the trials and tribulations of the Mafia elite. In well-to-do mansions with shadowy rooms, mobsters negotiated business deals and contract killings. The Corleones were at the top of their food chain; they were the men who gave orders to keep their hands clean.
That said, when Goodfellas came out in 1990, it was a revelation. The film's characters were not mythic characters, cloistered behind iron gates and trimmed bushes. These were the working class, blue-collar, street-level guys, doing all the dirty work in the outer NYC boroughs of Queens and Brooklyn. This was the Mafia with its glamour stripped away. There were no morally good people in this universe—just criminals with varying levels of decency and scruples.
Director Martin Scorsese envisioned this film as a documentary-style production covering three decades in the mob; it even has a voiceover to elaborate on the action unfolding in front of you. Here are 20 trivia facts about the making and release of Goodfellas.
1. Henry Hill was a real person
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The movie Goodfellas is based on the biographical book Wiseguy, written by Nicholas Pileggi. The book is based on the account of Henry Hill, an associate of the Luchese crime family before he became an FBI informant.
The main characters were all based around real people in Hill's life. Paul Vario, a caporegime for the family, became Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino). James Burke, another Luchese associate, became Jimmy Conway (Robert DeNiro). And Tommy DeSimone, a third associate of the Luchese crime family, became Tommy DeVito (Joe Pesci).
The events of the film were broadly true. The Billy Batts killing happened almost exactly the way it was portrayed in the film, although the events, which actually took place over two nights, were condensed into a single evening for the film. The Lufthansa Heist was also a real jewelry robbery, where nearly $6 million were stolen from JFK Airport.
2. Scorsese had to negotiate the number of times Batts got stabbed
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During a test screening, audience members walked out during the very first scene, when Pesci's character stabbed Billy Batts seven times with a kitchen knife. Scorsese eventually cut the seven stabs on-screen down to four on-screen stabs. Three additional stabs occurred off-screen, although you can still hear the sound of them.
3. Scorsese already had the soundtrack in his head
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The soundtrack for Goodfellas is iconic: a rich sampling of popular music over the course of three decades. According to music editor Christopher Brooks, Scorsese had already planned out the songs he wanted three years before production began. Goodfellas was, at the time, one of the most expensive soundtracks ever made because of the necessary licensing; even if Scorsese only used thirty seconds of a song, like he did with the Rolling Stones' "Gimme Shelter," he had to pay for it.
4. Scorsese used his own experiences for the movie Henry's childhood
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At the beginning of the movie, we see a young Henry looking down from his window at the gangsters hanging out on the street. It's something that Scorsese could personally relate to. Scorsese was a frail kid growing up in Little Italy; he suffered from chronic asthma, which forced him to stay inside his apartment a lot and watch life passing by around him. There was, however, a silver lining; staying inside nurtured an intense love of film. Scorsese credits his asthma with saving him from a life of crime.
5. Scorsese cast real mobsters in the film
6. De Niro had the real Henry Hill on speed dial
7. De Niro comboed his accessories
8. Scorsese had to properly tie Ray Liotta's tie
9. The "How the f*ck am I funny?" scene happened to Pesci in real life
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The famous "How am I funny?" scene was rooted in a real event, from when actor Joe Pesci used to be a waiter. While waiting on a mobster, Pesci told the man he was funny, and he got a less-than-enthusiastic response for his sass. Scorsese loved the anecdote so much that he decided to shoot it, even though it wasn't in the script. Pesci and Liotta both knew what was going to happen in the scene; they had improvised and rehearsed it beforehand. But Scorsese deliberately didn't inform the other actors surrounding them during the actual shoot, in order to elicit natural reactions.
10. Scorsese gave his actors conflicting directions to create tension
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During the scene where Sonny begs Paulie to take control of the restaurant, Scorsese told Sonny's actor, Tony Darrow, to improvise more, but didn't tell Paul Sorvino, Paulie's actor, about the change. This elicited real anger and confusion from Sorvino, who brought those emotions into the finished scene.
11. It took 8 takes to capture the Copacabana tracking shot
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The long Steadicam shot, where Henry takes Karen on a date to the Copacabana to see Henny Youngman, is still studied in film classes as a classic bit of filmmaking. It's a bit of seduction on Henry's part—that he's able to show this woman that he knows people and commands respect. It took the crew eight takes to capture the final footage.
12. Ray Liotta's mother died during production of the film
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Liotta's mother died from breast cancer during the production of the film, and Liotta used the anger over her death to drive his performance—most notably, during the scene where he pistol-whips Karen's neighbor Bruce. According to Mark Evan Jacobs, the actor who plays Bruce, he got legitimately hit on one of the takes.
13. De Niro really put the boots to Frank Vincent
14. Scorsese's mom made a memorable cameo
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Scorsese's mother Catherine played the role of Tommy's mother; it's the scene where they stop by her house to pick up a shovel, and she shows them a painting she made. Nearly the entire scene was improvised, and it was almost cut from the finished film for pacing. Test screenings, however, saved the scene; almost every audience member liked it, even if they hated the film as a whole.
15. You can thank Thelma Schoonmaker for that cocaine sequence
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Scorsese's longtime editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, began working with him on his first film in 1967. She's responsible for the infamous cocaine sequence in the second half of the movie, where Henry Hill spends a hectic day, snorting cocaine, trying to sell guns, and worrying about the helicopters in the sky.
“We wanted it to be jagged and raw and driving, frenetic,” said Schoonmaker in an interview. “We kept saying we could make it faster, we could make it faster, faster, faster. And I think, in a way, it sort of started this whole jump cut idea of cutting now that’s taken over a little bit too much.”
While Schoonmaker was nominated for a Best Editing Oscar for Goodfellas, she did not take the Academy Award home, although she has won for three Scorsese films: Raging Bull (1980), The Aviator (2004), and The Departed (2006)
16. There was a real U.S. Attorney in the film
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Ed McDonald plays himself at the end of the film; he was the prosecutor who brought down the real-life Henry Hill and later placed him and his family in witness protection.
17. There's a classic reference in the film's final scene
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One of the final shots is of Joe Pesci shooting directly at the camera. This is a direct callback to the revolutionary 1903 silent film The Great Train Robbery. It also ends with a criminal shooting a gun directly at the camera. To an early 1900s audience, this was a startling, thrilling way to end a film.
18. 'Goodfellas' had a massive F-bomb count
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There are 300 usages of the word f*ck in Goodfellas, which, for a time, made it the record holder for most usages in a film. Many of these usages were ad-libbed by Joe Pesci; the original script had less than 100. Scorsese actually topped his own benchmark with 2010's The Wolf of Wall Street, which had 506 usages of f*ck.
19. The test screenings were a disaster
20. Joe Pesci gave the perfect Academy Award acceptance speech
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Pesci won the film's only Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. His acceptance speech was notable for its brevity: "It's my privilege. Thank you." We're surprised he didn't drop an f-bomb for good measure.
