In the film, Henry Hill, played by Ray Liotta, becomes involved in the mafia at a young age: as he says in the beginning of the film; "As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster."

As a boy, Henry idolized the Lucchese crime family gangsters in his blue-collar, predominantly Italian New York City neighborhood in East New York, Brooklyn, and in 1955 quit school and went to work for them at a local cab stand.

The local Lucchese mob capo, Paul Cicero (Paul Sorvino) (based on the actual Lucchese mobster Paul Vario) and Cicero's close associate Jimmy Conway (De Niro) (based on actual associate, Jimmy Burke) help cultivate the boy's developing criminal career. From left to right: Ray Liotta as Henry Hill, Robert De Niro as Jimmy "The Gent" Conway, Paul Sorvino as Paul Cicero, and Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito. Henry and his associate Tommy (played by Joe Pesci in a widely acclaimed and Academy Award-winning performance) conspire with Conway to steal some of the billions of dollars of cargo passing through Idlewild Airport (later JFK). They help out in a key moneymaking heist, stealing over half a million dollars from the Air France cargo terminal in 1967 and paying Cicero his percentage of the take as per the mafia's code of tribute.

Shot on location in Queens and Manhattan, New York; and Fort Lee, New Jersey.

GOODFELLAS was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 2000.

GOODFELLAS was in competition at the Venice Film Festival, where director Martin Scorsese won the Silver Lion. It was shown at the American Museum of the Moving Image during a Scorsese/De Niro film festival. It was voted best film by the New York Film Critics Circle, who also voted Scorsese Best Director. Robert De Niro was voted Best Actor by the same organization for his work in this film, and in AWAKENINGS. It won the Best Film, Best Director, Best Supporting Actor (Joe Pesci), Best Supporting Actress (Lorraine Bracco), and Best Cinematography (Michael Ballhaus) awards from the Los Angeles Film Critics Association. Joe Pesci also won a Best Supporting Actor of 1990 award from the National Board of Review.

Actress Debi Mazar, former makeup artist for Madonna, plays a small role here. She went on to become the wisecracking receptionist on the short-lived TV series CIVIL WARS and appeared in the the cast of L.A. LAW in the 1993-94 season before branching out into a series of film roles, including GIRL 6, TREES LOUNGE, and THE INSIDER.

Chuck Low, who played Morris Kesssler, was actually Robert De Niro's real estate broker, who rented him the penthouse in what later became the TriBeCa Film Center.

Scorsese has been known to use his parents in his films, as he does here, and he actually made a documentary about their lives, ITALIANAMERICAN. His mother, Catherine Scorsese, also had a bit part in THE GODFATHER PART II.

Look for a young Michael Imperioli as Spider, who gets shot in the foot by Joe Pesci's crazy character. Imperioli went on to star in THE SOPRANOS, and in one episode his crazy character also shoots a helpless guy in the foot, mimicking the scene from GOODFELLAS.

Editorial reviews

"...GOODFELLAS makes poetic drama of warped ambitions. It's a prodigious achievement..." Rolling Stone - p.47 - Peter Travers (10/04/1990)

"...Packed with solid-gold dialogue, tight performances and way too many classic scenes to list here..." -- 5 out of 5 Stars Total Film - p.106 - Dan Jolin (06/01/2000)

"...Awesome GOODFELLAS is a punk movie, both in subject matter and attitude..." -- 4 out of 4 stars USA Today - p.1D - Mike Clark

"...Breathless and brilliant....GOODFELLAS is memorable for the ensemble nature of the performances..." New York Times - p.C11 - Vincent Canby (09/19/1990)

"...Filmed like a rainbow-hued thunderbolt and celebrating Mob lore in the fastest 2 1/2 hours in film history..." Film Comment - Harlan Kennedy (11/01/1990) <

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