Goodfellas is one of the most amazing films in the History of Cinema. So many reviews have been written over the years. That’s why, we decided not to write one more review. Instead, we share to you 20 amazing facts about Scorsese’s masterpiece that you might not know.
- The F… word (and all its synonyms) can be heard 296 times during the film. That’s almost 2 F… per minute.
- Henry Hill was a real person. Ray Liotta was listening to the FBI tapes with Hill speaking every day while driving at the studios for shooting.
- Premiere Magazine voted the line “As far back as I could remember, I have always wanted to be a gangster” as one of the best lines of all times in the History of Cinema.
- Robert De Niro wanted to use real money in the scene where he enters the bar and gives money to everyone. A producer gave to him 5000 dollars. Nobody could leave the set until the producer received all his money back.
- The film received 6 nominations for the Academy Awards. Only Joe Pesci won, for Supporting Actor. His speech while receiving the award was the 6th shortest in the History of the Academy Awards.
- You may not believe it, but in Goodfellas there are only 10 murders.
- Martin Scorsese’s parents both appear in the film. Catherine Scorsese plays Tommy’s mother in the film. Charles Scorsese is the convict who uses too much onion in the tomato sauce.
- There were 5 slogans for the film: ‘“As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster” — Henry Hill, Brooklyn, NY. 1955’, ‘Three decades of life in the Mafia’. ‘Murderers come with smiles’. ‘Shooting people was “No big deal”. And finally, ‘In a world that’s powered by violence, on the streets where the violent have power, a new generation carries on an old tradition’.
- Sean Penn was a candidate to play Henry Hill
- Lorraine Bracco demanded to wear real diamonds and earrings for her scenes. The producers accepted this request and security guards were all the time around her.
11. Real Henry Hill received 550000 dollars for this film. He said that this money was pennies compared to the money he used to “earn” during his gangster days
12. Scorsese did not want to direct anymore gangster films. When he read Nicholas Pileggi’s book “Wiseguy”, he called Pileggi and told him “I was waiting all my life for this book”. And Pileggi replied “I was waiting all my life for this phone call”.
13. Although De Niro smokes all the time during the film, he never inhales the smoke.
14. Moreover, De Niro was not the first choice for the role of Jim Conway. Al Pacino had an offer to play in Goodfellas but he declined. Undeniably, a bad call.
15. Having said all the above, the final scene with Joe Pesci shooting at the camera is an honor to Edwin S. Porter’s film “The Great Train Robbery”, released in 1903. In case you do not know Porter’s film, you can discover it, along with the History of Cinema series in our Youtube channel: