GoodFellas

"Three decades of life in the mafia."

1990 2h 25m EN

🙌

8.4

BANGER

★8.4TMDB · 14,856

DramaCrime

Synopsis

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The true story of Henry Hill, a half-Irish, half-Sicilian Brooklyn kid who is adopted by neighbourhood gangsters at an early age and climbs the ranks of a Mafia family under the guidance of Jimmy Conway.

“Three decades of life in the mafia.”

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Cast

Robert De Niro
James Conway
Ray Liotta
Henry Hill
Joe Pesci
Tommy DeVito
Lorraine Bracco
Karen Hill
Paul Sorvino
Paul Cicero
Frank Sivero
Frankie Carbone
Tony Darrow
Sonny Bunz
Mike Starr
Frenchy

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Martin Scorsese
Writers: Nicholas Pileggi, Martin Scorsese
Languages: Italian, English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

ERA

Did you know

36 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

WORLD

Did you know

Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Italian, English.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

CAST

Did you know

228+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Martin Scorsese, shot by Michael Ballhaus. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Thelma Schoonmaker shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

CAST

Did you know

Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

ERA

Did you know

Marketing tagline: "Three decades of life in the mafia.".

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

WILD

Did you know

IMDB entry: tt0099685 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Martin Scorsese directs. Michael Ballhaus behind the camera. Thelma Schoonmaker cuts. Profitable at the box office. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in Italian, English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

136 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
2Dialogue crosses 2 languages: Italian, English.
3228+ people credited in cast and crew — a small city's worth of labour.
4Directed by Martin Scorsese, shot by Michael Ballhaus. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
5Editor Thelma Schoonmaker shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
6Robert De Niro and Ray Liotta and Joe Pesci carry the top of the cast.
7Marketing tagline: "Three decades of life in the mafia.".
8IMDB entry: tt0099685 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
914,856 TMDB user ratings logged — serious cultural footprint.
10Classified under 18 themes, including "prison", "florida", "new york city", "based on novel or book".
11Released under 49 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Michael Ballhaus
Editing: Thelma Schoonmaker
Production design: Kristi Zea
Costume design: Richard Bruno
Makeup / hair: Alan D'Angerio
Sound: Tom Fleischman
Stunt coordinator: Michael Russo
Runtime: 145 min · 2h 25m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $25,000,000
Box office: $47,072,327
Return: 188% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): R
IMDB: GoodFellas (1990)

Awards

National Board of Review: Top Ten Films
Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor

Individual records documented via Wikidata; the summary above may count more.

Also by

Martin Scorsese

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Community reviews

What people are saying

John Chard2014-11-16
★ 9/10
In a world that's powered by violence, on the streets where the violent have power, a new generation carries on an old tradition. Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas is without question one of the finest gangster movies ever made, a benchmark even. It’s that rare occasion for a genre film of this type where everything artistically comes together as one. Direction, script, editing, photography, driving soundtrack and crucially an ensemble cast firing on all cylinders. It’s grade “A” film making that marked a return to form for Scorsese whilst simultaneously showing the director at the summit of his directing abilities. The story itself, based on Nicholas Pileggi’s non-fiction book Wiseguy, pulls absolutely no punches in its stark realisation of the Mafia lifestyle. It’s often brutal, yet funny, unflinching yet stylish, but ultimately from first frame to last it holds the attention, toying with all the human emotions during the journey, tingling the senses of those who were by 1990 fed up of popcorn movie fodder. It’s not romanticism here, if anything it’s a debunking of the Mafia myth, but even as the blood flows and the dialogue crackles with electricity, it always remains icy cool, brought to us by a man who had is eyes and ears open while growing up in Queens, New York in the 40s and 50s. Eccellente! 9/10
Andre Wilfred Sanders2023-03-15
★ 7/10
Martin Scorsese (director) always loves details in crime films, but he is not primarily interested in the crime itself. That is why his films are always produced with details that you may see as unimportant to you, especially if you want to see the movie for the purpose of seeing scenes of theft, murder, and so on, but you see the opposite. Somewhat other details are visible on the scene mostly The film talks about liberation, stereotypes, and entering a new world for humanity. It was Ray Liotta (Henry). He wanted, as I said, to break free from stereotypes and enter the world of gangs. Martin Scorsese (the director) filmed this unfamiliar life and directed it in the form of a film similar to documentaries because he filmed it as if it were a real, realistic life. That is why the presence of Voice Over was important in order to give you the feeling that there is a person sitting next to you telling you the story while whispering in your ear as it happens in the movies documentaries.
CinemaSerf2023-08-26
★ 7/10
Ray Liotta is superb here as "Henry Hill", a man whom ever since he was young has been captivated by the mob. He starts off as a runner and before too long has ingratiated himself with the local fraternity lead by "Paulie" (Paul Sorvino) and is best mates with fellow hoods, the enigmatic and devious "Jimmy" (Robert De Niro) and the excellently vile "Tommy" (Joe Pesci). They put together an audacious robbery at JFK and are soon the talk of the town, but the latter in the trio is a bit of a live-wire and when he goes just a bit too far one night, the three of them find that their really quite idyllic lives of extortion and larceny start to go awry - and it's their own who are on their tracks. Scorsese takes him time with this story: the development of the characters - their personalities, trust, inter-reliance, sometimes divided, fractured, loyalties and ruthlessness and are built up in a thoroughly convincing fashion. We can, ourselves, see the obvious attractions for the young "Henry" of a life so very far removed from his working class Irish-Italian background - the wine, the women, the thrills; it's tantalising! If anything let's it down it's the last half hour; it's just a little too predictable and having spent so long building up the characters, we seem to be in just a bit too much of a rush; but that is a nit-pick. It's not the "Godfather" but it is not far short.