Goodfellas

Goodfellas (1990)

30 corrected entries

(27 votes)

Corrected entry: When Spider insults Tommy he suddenly draws his gun and kills him, and the other people at the table quickly take cover from the gunfire. However, if you watch the other actors at the table, they all begin ducking out of the way before he even takes his gun out.

Correction: This is deliberate. They know Tommy has an explosive temper and he is likely to do something violent.

Corrected entry: There is a scene when Samuel L Jackson is killed in his bedroom. He's not wearing trousers, but after the murder there is a shot of him lying on the floor with trousers on.

Correction: He's pulling them on as he gets shot.

Corrected entry: When Henry is on his way to the hospital and not paying attention to traffic, he spots a gridlock and jams on the brakes. Tire tracks from a previous take are visible on the pavement. (01:55:10)

ryguy_1983

Correction: Those tire marks could easily belong to the car in front of Henry's which may have had to stop suddenly when the collision occurred, or any other vehicle. It's a public roadway.

Corrected entry: When Henry throws Karen off the bed after she has pointed the gun at him and he points the gun at her in one shot she has both shoes on and in the other the foot nearest the camera has no shoe then again in a split second the foot has a shoe.

Correction: I've looked through the scene and she has her shoes on the entire time including when she falls off the bed.

Lummie

Corrected entry: In the first Idlewild scene, when the truck driver goes out the door of the bar and sees the his truck has been "stolen", he comes back inside to use the pay phone. During that scene various modern cars and trucks can be passing by in the background. (00:16:20)

Correction: These cars are all moving in the background at highway speed, far too quickly to be individually identified or to take the viewer out of the scene in 1963. Since this would require slo-mo, it's not a mistake per the site rules.

Corrected entry: When Tommy blows away Stacks, he's got a silencer on the gun. However, when they show the scene in slo-mo, there's a huge bang every time Tommy shoots.

Correction: Despite their name, silencers do not completely and utterly silence the sound of a weapon being discharged. In a confined space such as Stack's apartment, the sound would still be loud though muffled. Also, the scene has been slowed down and the sound increased for dramatic effect.

Corrected entry: When Joe Pesci is getting "made" at the end, as soon as he opens the door he gets shot in the head and blood starts coming out of the hole. When you run it through in slo-mo it is a very cheesy poor special effect of a computer superimposed blood trickle.

Correction: If you need slo-mo, it doesn't count.

Corrected entry: When Jimmy is in the bar with Henry asking to go for a walk, he has a very distinctive tie on. Once outside, Jimmy asks Henry if "Morey tell his wife everything". Although they have just walked outside, Jimmy has a different tie on.

Correction: The shot where they are walking is immediately after the bar scene, but Jimmy never makes any mention of going for a walk, neither is there anything to suggest they have just left the bar. Jimmy's jacket has also changed in this scene, which means it's more likely that the scene does not take place after leaving the bar.

Lummie

Corrected entry: When Karen is sitting on top of Henry in the bed with a gun pointed to his face, the gun keeps changing colors. One second it's silver, the next it's black.

Correction: Looking from Henry's view it does look black and silver from Karen's viewpoint, the shadow seems to make it look black. From the sidepoint the shadow makes the barrel of the gun look black. While this may not be a mistake it certainly looks as if the lights have not been consistent from the different viewpoints.

Lummie

Corrected entry: When Karen goes to confront Janice about her affair with Henry, she pages Janice through the building intercom. Janice is seen crying on her couch and trying to cover her ears from the sound of Karen screaming at her. It is impossible for her to hear everything Karen is saying because she is not holding the "Listen" button on the intercom. All she would here is a buzzing sound.

Correction: That is how they used to be made. If someone buzzes your apartment, it would go right to listen and talk.

Factual error: In the scene at Idlewild airport, the actors walk past the rear of an easily identified 1965 Chevy Impala. Occasionally Chevrolet introduced vehicles early, but never two years early.

More mistakes in Goodfellas

Henry Hill: What happened?
Jimmy Conway: They whacked him. They fucking whacked him. I can't fucking believe it.

More quotes from Goodfellas
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Suggested correction: False. Joe Pesci told the anecdote to Scorsese in the earliest stages of the movie. Scorsese asked him to add it during previous script readings and further rehearsals while notes were being taken by crew members. Then it was finally shot following those rehearsals and notes. In this video all the actors involved tell how Scorsese works and even he himself says he rewrote that scene 4 times. Minute 13:04: https://youtu.be/_bbzUZuxEB8.

Sacha

I have actually seen interviews where they admitted it was improvised. The reactions from the other actors was genuine.

lartaker1975

Just submitted a link to a video where they tell how they improvised during rehearsals and then scripted it.

Sacha

More trivia for Goodfellas

Answer: The film leaves it ambiguous...it can be interpreted either way. She may have simply been being paranoid, but the circumstances, and Jimmy's behavior, were very suspicious.

More questions & answers from Goodfellas