goodfellas

theatrical release poster Directed by Martin Scorsese Produced by Irwin Winkler Written by Book:

Nicholas Pileggi

Screenplay:

Nicholas Pileggi

Martin Scorsese Narrated by Ray Liotta

Lorraine Bracco Starring Ray Liotta

Robert De Niro

Joe Pesci

Lorraine Bracco

Paul Sorvino

Cinematography Michael Ballhaus Editing by Thelma Schoonmaker Distributed by Warner Bros. Release date(s) September, 1990 (Italy, premiere at VFF)

September 19 (US) Running time 148 min. Country United States Language English Budget $25,000,000 Gross revenue $46,836,394 IMDb

Goodfellas (also spelled GoodFellas) is a 1990 crime drama film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is based on the non-fiction book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, who also wrote the screenplay for Goodfellas with Scorsese. The film follows the rise and fall of three gangsters, spanning three decades.

Scorsese originally intended to direct Goodfellas before The Last Temptation of Christ, but when funds materialized to make Last Temptation, he postponed what was then known as Wise Guy. The title of Pileggi's book had already been used for a TV series and for Brian De Palma's 1986 comedy Wise Guys, so Pileggi and Scorsese changed the name of their film to Goodfellas.

To prepare for their roles in the film, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Ray Liotta talked often with Pileggi, who shared with the actors research material that had been left over from writing the book. According to Pesci, improvisation and ad-libbing came out of rehearsals where Scorsese gave the actors freedom to do whatever they wanted. The director made transcripts of these sessions, took the lines that the actors came up with that he liked best, and put them into a revised script the cast worked from during principal photography.

Goodfellas performed well at the box office, grossing $46.8 million domestically, well above its $25 million budget; it received mostly strong positive reviews from critics. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards but only won one for Pesci in the Best Actor in a Supporting Role category. Scorsese's film won three awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts and was named best film of the year by the New York Film Critics Circle, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and the National Society of Film Critics. Contents [hide] 1 Plot 2 Cast 3 Development 3.1 Screenplay 3.2 Casting 3.3 Principal photography 3.4 Post-production 4 Soundtrack 5 Network TV version 6 Reception 6.1 Distribution 6.2 Awards 6.3 Legacy 7 References 7.1 Notes 7.2 Bibliography 8 External links //

Plot

In the opening scene, main character Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) admits, "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster," referring to his idolizing the Lucchese crime family gangsters in his blue-collar, predominantly Italian neighborhood in East New York, Brooklyn in the