Running Down the Family With a Pocket Full of Shells

Goodfellas is a 1990 film about the rise and fall of iii gangsters, spanning three decades.

Directed past Martin Scorsese. Written by Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese, based on Pileggi'due south book, Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family.

3 Decades of Life in the Mafia.taglines

Henry Loma [edit]

• As far back as I can remember, I ever wanted to be a gangster. To me, being a gangster was better than beingness President of the U.s.. Even earlier I first wandered into the cabstand for an subsequently-school task, I knew I wanted to be a role of them. It was in that location that I knew that I belonged. To me, information technology meant existence somebody in a neighborhood that was full of nobodies. They weren't like everyone else. I hateful, they did whatever they wanted. They double-parked in front end of a hydrant and nobody always gave them a ticket. In the summertime when they played cards all dark, nobody ever called the cops.
• Paulie might've moved slow, but it was only considering Paulie didn't have to move for anybody.
• He knew what went on at that cab stand up, and every one time in a while I'd have to have a beating. But by and so I didn't care. The way I saw it everybody takes a chirapsia onetime.
• Hundreds of guys depended on Paulie and he got a piece of everything they made. And it was tribute, just like in the old land, except they were doing information technology here in America. And all they got from Paulie was protection from other guys looking to rip them off. And that'south what it'due south all about. That's what the FBI could never understand. That what Paulie and the organization does is offering protection for people who tin't go to the cops. That's it. That's all. They're like the police department for wiseguys.
• One twenty-four hour period some of the kids from the neighborhood carried my mother's groceries all the way home. You know why? It was outta respect.
• For us to live any other way was nuts. Uh, to usa, those goody-expert people who worked shitty jobs for bum paychecks and took the subway to work every solar day and worried almost their bills were dead. I hateful they were suckers. They had no balls. If we wanted something, we just took it. If anyone complained twice they got hitting and then bad, believe me, they never complained once more.
• At present the guy's got Paulie as a partner. Any issues, he goes to Paulie. Problem with the pecker? He can go to Paulie. Trouble with the cops, deliveries, Tommy, he can call Paulie. Merely now the guy's gotta come with Paulie's money every week, no matter what. Business organization bad? "Fuck you, pay me." Oh, you had a fire? "Fuck you, pay me." Place got hit by lightning, huh? "Fuck you lot, pay me." Also, Paulie could do anything. Peculiarly stitch bills on the joint's credit. And why not? Nobody's gonna pay for it anyway. And as shortly as the deliveries are made in the front door, you movement the stuff out the dorsum and sell it at a discount. You take a two hundred dollar case of booze and you sell it for a hundred. It doesn't matter. Information technology'due south all turn a profit. So finally, when there'southward nothing left, when y'all tin can't borrow another cadet from the banking company or purchase another case of alcohol, y'all bust the joint out. You light a match.
• For nearly of the guys, killings got to exist accepted. Murder was the merely way that everybody stayed in line. Yous got out of line, yous got whacked. Everybody knew the rules. But sometimes, even if people didn't exit of line, they got whacked. I hateful, hits but became a habit for some of the guys. Guys would go into arguments over nothing and earlier you lot knew it, i of them was dead. And they were shooting each other all the time. Shooting people was a normal thing. It was no large deal. We had a serious problem with Billy Batts. This was actually a touchy matter. Tommy'd killed a made guy. Batts was part of the Gambino crew and was considered untouchable. Before you could touch a fabricated guy, you had to have a skilful reason. You had to have a sitdown, and you lot better get an okay, or y'all'd be the one who got whacked.
• Saturday night was for wives, merely Friday dark at the Copa was always for the girlfriends.
• See, y'all know when you think of prison, you get pictures in your heed of all those old movies with rows and rows of guys behind bars...But it wasn't similar that for wiseguys. It really wasn't that bad. Excepting that I missed Jimmy. He was doing his fourth dimension in Atlanta...I mean, everybody else in the joint was doing existent time, all mixed together, living like pigs. But we lived solitary. And nosotros owned the joint.
• [later on the Lufthansa heist] It made him sick to have to plough money over to the guys who stole it. He'd rather whack 'em. Anyway, what did I care? I wasn't request for anything and as well, Jimmy was making squeamish money with me through my Pittsburgh connections. [showing a montage of dead gangsters] But withal, months later on the robbery they were finding bodies all over. [police surroundings a truck, open information technology to see a expressionless man hanging on a hook like a meat husk] When they plant Carbone in the meat truck, he was frozen then stiff it took them two days to thaw him out for the autopsy.
• You know, nosotros e'er chosen each other goodfellas. Like you said to, uh, somebody, "Yous're gonna like this guy. He's all right. He's a good fella. He'south one of us." You lot sympathize? We were goodfellas. Wiseguys. But Jimmy and I could never be made because nosotros had Irish gaelic blood. It didn't fifty-fifty matter that my female parent was Sicilian. To become a fellow member of a crew you've got to be one hundred per cent Italian so they can trace all your relatives back to the sometime country. See, it's the highest honor they tin requite you. It means yous belong to a family and coiffure. It ways that nobody can fuck around with you. Information technology also means you could fuck effectually with everyone just as long as they aren't also a member. It's like a license to steal. Information technology's a license to exercise anything. As far as Jimmy was concerned with Tommy being made, it was like nosotros were all being made. We would at present have one of our own as a member.
• [about Tommy's murder] It was revenge for Billy Batts, and a lot of other things. And there was zip that we could practice almost information technology. Batts was a made man and Tommy wasn't. And we had to sit all the same and take it. Information technology was among the Italians. It was existent greaseball shit. They fifty-fifty shot Tommy in the face so his female parent couldn't give him an open bury at the funeral.
• For a second, I thought I was expressionless, just when I heard all the noise I knew they were cops. Only cops talk that way. If they had been wiseguys, I wouldn't accept heard a thing. I would've been dead.
• If yous're part of a coiffure, nobody always tells y'all that they're going to kill you. It doesn't happen that way. There weren't any arguments or curses like in the movies. So your murderers come up with smiles. They come as your friends, the people who have cared for you all of your life, and they always seem to come at a time when y'all're at your weakest and most in need of their assistance.
• It was easy for all of us to disappear. My house and cars were either registered in the proper noun of my wife or my mother-in-police. My driver's license and social security number were phony. I never voted; never paid taxes. My birth certificate, abort sheet, and my service tape from the Army were all that existed to prove to the government I was ever alive.
• See, the hardest affair for me was leaving the life. I yet dearest the life. And we were treated like movie stars with musculus. We had information technology all, just for the asking. Our wives, mothers, kids, everybody rode along. I had paper bags filled with jewelry stashed in the kitchen. I had a sugar bowl full of coke next to the bed. Annihilation I wanted was a telephone call abroad. Free cars. The keys to a dozen hideout flats all over the city. I'd bet 20, thirty yard over a weekend and then I'd either blow the winnings in a week or go to the sharks to pay back the bookies. Didn't matter. It didn't mean anything. When I was broke I would go out and rob some more. We ran everything. We paid off cops. We paid off lawyers. Nosotros paid off judges. Everybody had their easily out. Everything was for the taking. And now it'due south all over. And that's the hardest part. Today, everything is different. In that location'due south no action. I have to wait around similar everyone else. Tin can't even get decent food. Right later on I got here, I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce and I got egg noodles and ketchup. I'm an boilerplate nobody. I get to live the remainder of my life like a schnook.

Karen Hill [edit]

• One night, Bobby Vinton sent u.s.a. champagne. There was naught like it. I didn't think there was anything strange in any of this. You lot know, a twenty-i-year-old kid with such connections. He was an heady guy. He was actually nice. He introduced me to everybody. Everybody wanted to exist squeamish to him. And he knew how to handle it.
• I know at that place are women, similar my best friends, who would accept gotten out of there the minute their fellow gave them a gun to hide. But I didn't. I gotta admit the truth. It turned me on.
• Well, we weren't married to nine-to-five guys, but the first fourth dimension I realized how different was when Mickey had a hostess political party. They had bad skin and wore too much brand-upwards. I mean, they didn't look very expert. They looked mussed-up. And the stuff they wore was thrown together and cheap. A lot of pant suits and double knits. And they talked about how rotten their kids were and nearly beating them with broom handles and leather belts. But that the kids still didn't pay any attending...Afterwards a while, it got to be all normal. None of information technology seemed like crimes. It was more like Henry was enterprising and that he and the guys were making a few bucks hustling, while the other guys were sitting on their asses waiting for hand-outs. Our husbands weren't brain surgeons. They were blue-collar guys. The only way they could make actress money, real actress money, was to exit and cut a few corners...We were all so very shut. I hateful, at that place were never whatsoever outsiders around. Admittedly never. And being together all the time made everything seem all the more normal.
• We always did everything together and we always were in the same crowd. Anniversaries, christenings. We but went to each other's houses. The women played cards, and when the kids were built-in, Mickey and Jimmy were always the first at the infirmary. And when we went to the Islands or Vegas to vacation, we e'er went together. No outsiders, e'er. Information technology got to be normal. It got to where I was even proud that I had the kind of married man who was willing to go out and adventure his neck just to get us the picayune extras.
• But still I couldn't hurt him. How could I injure him? I couldn't even bring myself to leave him. The truth was that no matter how bad I felt I was still very attracted to him. Why should I requite him to someone else? Why should she win?

Dialogue [edit]

Jimmy: [To young Henry, after he gets cleared in court] Congratulations, here's your graduation present [Puts money in Henry's pocket]

Henry: For what? I got pinched.

Jimmy: Hey, everybody gets pinched, but you did information technology right. You told 'em nothing and they got nothing.

Henry: I idea you'd be mad.

Jimmy: I'yard not mad, I'm proud of ya. You took your first pinch like a man, and you lot learned the two most important things in life. You listenin'? Never rat on your friends, and Always keep your mouth close. [Gives Henry an affectionate lite slap on the cheek and leads him out of the courtroom. Outside, Paulie and many of the other gangsters are waiting for him.]

Paulie: Hey, you broke yer crimson! [The other gangsters cheer and congratulate Henry]

---

Henry: Yous're a pistol! You're really funny. You're really funny!

Tommy: What practice y'all mean I'g funny?

Henry: It's funny, yous know. It's a good story, it'due south funny, you're a funny guy!

Tommy: [dangerously] What practise you mean? You hateful the way I talk? What?

[Everyone becomes tranquility]

Henry: It's merely, y'all know, you're simply funny. It's funny, the manner y'all tell the story and everything.

Tommy: Funny how? I mean, what'south funny about information technology?

Anthony: Tommy, no, yous got it all wrong —

Tommy: Oh, oh, Anthony. He's a big boy, he knows what he said. [to Henry] What did ya say? Funny how?

Anthony: Y'all're right.

Henry: Just —

Tommy: What?

Henry: Simply, ya know, you're funny.

Tommy: You mean, let me empathise this, 'cause, ya know maybe information technology's me, I'm a little fucked upwards maybe, just I'm funny how? I mean funny like I'm a clown? I amuse you lot? I make yous laugh, I'm here to fuckin' amuse yous? What exercise you lot mean funny? Funny how? How am I funny?

Henry: Simply... yous know, how you tell the story — what?

Tommy: No, no, I don't know. Yous said information technology! How do I know? You said I'm funny. How the fuck am I funny? What the fuck is and then funny virtually me?! Tell me, tell me what'south funny!

[Long pause]

Henry: Get the fuck out of hither, Tommy!

[Everyone laughs]

Tommy: Ya motherfucker! I almost had him, I almost had him! You stuttering prick, yous! Frankie, was he shaking? I wonder most you sometimes, Henry. You may fold under questioning!

---

Karen: [narrating] After awhile, it got to be all normal. None of it seemed similar criminal offense. Information technology was more like Henry was enterprising, and that he and the guys were making a few bucks hustling, while all the other guys were sitting on their asses, waiting for handouts. Our husbands weren't brain surgeons, they were bluish-collar guys. The just style they could make extra coin, real actress coin, was to leave and cutting a few corners.

[Cuts to Henry and Tommy hijacking a truck]

Tommy: Where's the strongbox, you fuckin' varmint?!

Karen: [narrating] We were all so very shut. I mean, there were never whatever outsiders around. Absolutely never. And being together all the time made everything seem all the more normal.

---

Karen: [narrating, at a makeup party with other wives] It was crude seeing the wives of other gangsters. They did non take care of themselves; they looked beat out up and their faces were caked with makeup. Most of the time was spent talking about how rotten their kids were; how they decked them or whipped them with electrical wiring and the kids still wouldn't pay attention. [later in her bedroom] I don't call up I can practise it, Henry.

Henry: Do what?

Karen: This whole thing. Jeannie said her husband was sent to jail. God preclude, what if that happened to you?

Henry: Bet she didn't tell you why her hubby went there?

Karen: How come?

Henry: To get abroad from Jeannie! Karen, when it comes to the Mafia no one goes to jail unless they want to. Nosotros shell the arrangement and I got it all figured out. I am organized; I got my shit together. You know who goes to jail? Nigger stickup men. Know why they get caught? Because they fall asleep in the getaway car.

---

Tommy: Simply don't go bustin' my assurance, Baton, okay?

Billy: Hey, Tommy, if I was gonna break your assurance, I'd tell you to go home and get your shine box. [To his friends] At present this kid, this kid was great. They, they used to call him Spitshine Tommy. I swear to God! Now he'd make your shoes look like fuckin' mirrors. 'Scuse my language. He was terrific, he was the best. He made a lot of money, too. Salud, Tommy!

Tommy: No more shines, Baton.

Billy: What?

Tommy: I said no more than shines. Maybe yous didn't hear almost it, you've been away a long time; they didn't go up there and tell you. I don't smoothen shoes anymore.

Billy: Relax, will ya? You flipped right out, what's got into you lot? I'm breakin' your assurance a piffling flake, that's all. I'm simply kiddin' with ya.

Tommy: Sometimes yous don't sound like yous're kidding, you know? There'southward a lotta people around...

Billy: Tommy, I'm but kiddin' with you. We're having a party and I simply came home, and I haven't seen you in a long time, and I'm breakin' your balls, and right away you lot're getting fuckin' fresh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you.

Tommy: I'm sorry as well. It'southward okay. No problem.

Billy: Okay, salud. [moment of silence as he takes a drink] Now go home and become ya fuckin' shinebox!

Tommy: [smashes his glass in anger] Motherfuckin' mutt! You lot, you fuckin' slice of shit...! [Henry and Jimmy restrain him]

Billy: [taunting] Yes, yeah, yeah, come up on, come on! Come up on! Let him go!

Tommy: Henry, he bought his fucking button! That false old tough guy! You lot bought your fucking push button! Continue that motherfucker hither, keep him hither! [leaves]

---

Tommy: Spider, that bandage on your human foot is bigger than your fucking head. Next thing you know he'll take one of these fucking walkers. But you can all the same dance. Requite u.s. a couple of fucking steps, Spider. Y'all fucking bullshitter, you. Tell the truth. Yous want sympathy, is that right, sweetie?

Spider: Why don't you go fuck yourself, Tommy?

[Everyone, but Tommy, laughs]

Jimmy: I didn't hear right. I can't believe what I heard. [giving Spider cash] This is for you lot. I got respect for this child, he'due south got a lot of fucking balls. Healthy! Don't take no shit off nobody! A guy shoots him in the pes, he tells him to go fuck himself. Tommy, you gonna permit this fucking punk get abroad with that? What's this world coming to?

Tommy: [continuing and shooting Spider] That's what the fucking world'southward coming to, how do ya like that? How's that?

Henry: What is incorrect with you lot?!

Jimmy: What is the fucking thing with you?! What, are y'all stupid or what?! I was kidding with you. Are you a sick bedlamite?

Tommy: How do I know you lot're kidding? You breaking my fucking balls?!

Jimmy: I'm fucking kidding with you, you lot fucking shoot the guy?!

Henry: [inspecting Spider on the floor] He's dead.

Tommy: [after a cursory silence] I'm a good shot, what do you lot desire from me?

Anthony: How could you miss at this altitude?

Tommy: You got a problem with what I did, Anthony? Fucking rat, anyway. His family'south all rats, he'd have grown up to be a rat.

Jimmy: Stupid bastard, I can't fucking believe you. Now, yous're gonna dig the fucking thing at present. You're gonna dig the hole. I got no fucking lime, you're gonna do it.

Tommy: Fine! I'll dig the fucking hole, I don't requite a fuck. What is it, the outset pigsty I ever dug? I'll fucking dig the pigsty. Where are the shovels?

---

Paulie: [most Henry'due south cheating] Karen came to the business firm. She's very upset. This is no good; you gotta straighten this out. We gotta take calm.

Jimmy: We don't know what she'll do.

Paulie: She'southward hysterical. Very excited. She'southward wild. And you got to take it easy. You got children. I'm not saying become back to her this minute, but you got to become back. Yous got to go on up appearances.

Jimmy: I got the 2 of them come to my house every day commiserating, the 2 of them. I just tin't take information technology. I tin't exercise it, Henry. I tin't do information technology. Nobody says y'all tin can't do what you want. Nosotros all know that. This is what it is. We know what it is. You have to do what's right. You have to get home to the family. You got to become dwelling, okay? Look at me. You got to go domicile. Smarten up.

Paulie: I'll talk to Karen. I'll straighten this out. I know merely what to say to her. I'll say y'all'll become dorsum to her and it'll be similar when you commencement got married. I'll romance her. It'll be beautiful. I know how to talk to her, specially to her. In the meantime, Jimmy and Tommy were going to Tampa this weekend. Instead y'all go with Jimmy.

Jimmy: You come with me.

Paulie: Accept a skilful time. Sit down in the sun. Take a few days off.

Jimmy: We'll have a proficient fourth dimension.

Paulie: Subsequently that, you'll go dorsum to Karen. There's no other style. No divorce. Nosotros're not animoli.

Jimmy: No divorce. She'll never divorce him. She'll impale him, just not divorce him. [they laugh]

---

Karen and her children are visiting Henry in jail

Guard: Mrs. Hill, this way. Sign this volume, delight.

Karen signs ledger only something catches her eye

Name of Inmate: Henry Hill

Name of Visitor: Janice Rossi

Company's center

Karen: I saw her, Henry.

Henry: What are you talking about?

Karen: I saw her name in the register.

Henry: Jesus Christ.

Karen: Y'all want her to visit you lot? Allow her stay upwardly all night, crying and writing letters to the parole board.

Henry: What am I doing here? Where am I? I'm in jail. I can't end people from coming to run into me.

Karen: Adept. Allow her sneak this stuff every week. [Karen dangles a bag of illegal drugs in front him] Let her fight these bastards every week!

Henry: Wait what you're doing! End information technology!

Karen: I'm sorry. Let her sneak this shit in for yous.

Henry: Volition you stop information technology, Karen? Will you terminate it?

Karen: Permit her do it! Allow her practice it!

Henry: STOP It!!!

[Kids react to anger; Karen starts to sob]

Karen: Nobody is helping me. I am all lone. Belle and Morrie are broke. I asked your friend Remo for the money that he owes y'all, and you know what he told me? He told me to take my kids downwardly to the police station and get on welfare.

Henry: Karen, It's going to exist okay.

Karen: Yes? Even Paulie, since he got out, I've never seen him. I never see anybody anymore.

Henry: It'south only you and me. That'southward what happens when you go away. I told you that we're on our own. Forget everybody else. Forget Paulie. As long as he's on parole, he doesn't want anybody doing annihilation.

Karen: I tin't do it.

Henry: Yes, you can. Karen, Heed to me. All I need is for you to bring me this stuff. I got a guy in here from Pittsburgh who'll help me move information technology. Believe me, in a month we're gonna be fine. Nosotros won't demand anybody.

Karen: I'm afraid. I'chiliad afraid if Paulie finds out...

Henry: Or I just say, Don't worry almost him. He is not helping united states out. Is he putting any nutrient on the table? We've gotta help each other. We've merely gotta-- Mind, Nosotros've gotta be really careful while nosotros practice it.

Karen: I don't want to hear a discussion most her anymore, Henry.

Henry: Never.

---

Henry has only been released from prison house

Henry'due south Children: Daddy! Are you out for proficient? Are you coming to my recital? Hither is a picture I drew!

Henry takes a expect at the depression-rent tenement his wife and kids are looking in and reacts with disgust

Henry: Karen, go packed. We are moving out. I am going to Pittsburgh tommorow.

Karen: What? You take a coming together with your parole officer tommorow.

Henry: Don't worry, they owe me $xv,000. Who wants to go to Uncle Paulie's?

Children cheer. Cut to Paulie'due south house where people have a big dinner. Later Paulie speaks to Henry in private

Paulie: I do non want any more than of that shit.

Henry: I accept no idea what'southward going on here.

Paulie: I hateful the drugs! I do non desire whatsoever more of that junk.

Henry: Paulie, why would I want to go mixed upwards in that?

Paulie: Merely don't practice it. I am not talking virtually what you did in the can. You get a laissez passer for that. In there y'all had to exercise what you had to practise to support your family. I am talking about here and at present. I do not want to end upwards similar Gribbs. Gribbs got twenty years just for proverb proficient morning to some scuzz who was selling junk behind his dorsum! Gribbs is 70 years old; the poor man is going to die in prison. So I am warning everyone, it could be my son, information technology could be anyone.

[Cut to Henry making cocaine]

Henry: [voiceover] It took me 2 weeks of sneaking the stuff around, just when I did, it was a real score. In a month I had a down payment on my firm and things were rolling. I knew as long as the cash kept rolling in; Paulie would never discover out.

---

Henry: [sniveling] Paulie, I am really distressing.

Paulie: You fucked upwards good. You looked me in the heart and treated me similar shit; like I was nobody.

Henry: I couldn't come to you; non later on what you lot said to me. I was aback then; I am ashamed now. I swear on my kids, I am clean. Only I got nowhere else to go. I could really use some help at present.

Paulie: Take this.

[Paulie pulls a wad of greenbacks out of his pocket and easily it to Henry]

Henry: Thank y'all.

Paulie: And now I take to plough my back on you. At that place is no other way.

Henry: [narrating] My reward for a lifetime of service to Paulie: $three,200. Information technology was not even enough to pay for my casket.

---

Henry enters a diner

Henry{as narrator}: I got there 15 minutes early, Jimmy was already there waiting for me.

Jimmy: All my life I said, do not talk on the phone. At present you see why? Do not worry, I recall you lot stand a good adventure of beating this instance.

Jimmy: There was a kid we knew, turned out to be a rat.

Henry: Really?

Jimmy: Yeah. Constitute him hiding in Florida. How would you lot experience most going with Anthony, have intendance of that guy?

[Jimmy slips a message with information. Screen freeze-frames]

Henry: [narrating] Jimmy never asked me to whack a guy before. Now in the midst of all this he is asking me to go to Florida and do a hit with Anthony? [Screen resumes] That is when I knew I would take never returned from Florida alive.

Taglines [edit]

• Three Decades of Life in the Mafia.
• "As far dorsum as I can recall, I've ever wanted to exist a gangster."—Henry Loma, Brooklyn, North.Y. 1955.
• Murderers come with smiles.
• Shooting people was 'No big deal'.
• In a world that's powered by violence, on the streets where the violent have ability, a new generation carries on an old tradition.

Cast [edit]

• Robert De Niro - Jimmy Conway
• Ray Liotta - Henry Colina
• Joe Pesci - Tommy DeVito
• Lorraine Bracco - Karen Hill
• Paul Sorvino - Paul Cicero
• Chuck Low - Morris 'Morrie' Kessler
• Christopher Serrone - Young Henry Hill
• Frank Sivero - Frankie Carbone
• Tony Darrow - Sonny Bunz
• Frank Vincent - Billy Batts
• Frank Adonis - Anthony Stabile
• Catherine Scorsese - Mrs. DeVito, Tommy'south Mother
• Gina Mastrogiacomo - Janice Rossi
• Suzanne Shepherd - Karen'south Mother
• Debi Mazar - Sandy
• Kevin Corrigan - Michael Hill
• Charles Scorsese - Vinnie
• Michael Imperioli - Spider
• Tony Sirico - Tony Stacks
• Samuel L. Jackson - Stacks Edwards
• Vincent Pastore - Homo with Coat Rack
• Ray DeBenedictis - "Pete"
• Jerry Vale - Himself
• Henny Youngman - Himself

External links [edit]

• Goodfellas quotes at the Internet Movie Database
• Goodfellas at Rotten Tomatoes
• Goodfellas at Filmsite.org

howardanated1959.blogspot.com

Source: https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Goodfellas

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