Goodfellas

Goodfellas (1990)

6 suggested corrections

(26 votes)

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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

Revealing mistake: Morrie gets whacked by Tommy with an ice pick. After that, Morrie is dead and lifeless. Soon after, Frankie Carbone (post Jimmy leaving) exits the car. When he does, the car light comes on and you can see Morrie blink. (01:45:40)

mriggins

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Suggested correction: Morrie does not blink, but his body moves slightly due to the car rocking.

Twotall

You can see him blink in the edition I have.

mriggins

I saw it yesterday on the Netflix version. Morrie blinked.

The mistake is valid. When Tommy says, "Where you going, you dizzy motherf*cker you," specifically just as he says the words "you dizzy," we do indeed see Morrie's left eye blink (the shadow covers his right eye). It has nothing to do with: "his body moves slightly due to the car rocking." This mistake is quite visible when streaming (MAX and Tubi, timecode 01:45:43), and it's especially visible on a laptop or iPad.

Super Grover

Other mistake: Even though this is a fictional event of how Billy Batts was murdered, he was a made man in the Gambino Crime Family. So, it doesn't make sense for him to have a party of him coming home from prison at a rival family's establishment, meaning Henry Hill's club, which was a Lucchese Crime family hangout. He would have had the celebration on his own turf, around his own family.

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Suggested correction: While there is no way to prove how factual it actually is, this is almost exactly the way the real-life Henry Hill told the story in the mafia memoir, Wiseguy. The only differences being that Batts was not killed that night, but a couple of weeks later, and Henry did not own the club, Jimmy did.

ctown28

Well, that isn't at all the disagreement here. My only concern was, why was a Gambino made man having a party at a rival family's establishment and not on their own turf? That's the blooper here.

Because of the fact that he actually had the "party" at a rival family's establishment, negates it from being a mistake. And when he was killed a couple weeks later, he was killed in that same establishment.

ctown28

Continuity mistake: When Tommy kills Stacks he shoots him once in the back of the dome, then cracks Carbone's castanets about the coffee. Then it cuts to a slo-mo reprise of the whacking with a Henry voice over and Tommy shoots 6 times.

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Suggested correction: After Tommy shoots Stacks in the back of the head, you see Carbone come into the room with the coffee pot, a shocked expression on his face. While the camera is focused on Carbone you can hear Tommy continue to shoot Stacks several times off-screen.

BaconIsMyBFF

Also, the slo-mo of Tommy shooting Stacks the blood splatter is already on the wall before he shoots him.

Other mistake: When we see the shot couple in the pink car, there's blood spatter inside the windows and windshield, so that means the windows were up when they were shot, and they were shot in the car. It makes no sense that neither the windshield nor the windows are broken. If Jimmy shot them from the front, he would've had to have shot them through the windshield. If he shot them from the side, he would've had to have shot them through the window.

MikeH

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Suggested correction: This one is pretty weak. Jimmy knew them. He could have easily walked up to the door and opened it, as if to admire the car, as if to talk, or for any other reason, shot them, and closed the door.

Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the movie they pull to the side of the road and stab and shoot the not yet dead man in the trunk. In this scene Jimmy shoots him 4 times. Later, when they get to this scene in the story and show it again in slow mo, Jimmy fires the gun 5 times. (01:00:34)

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Suggested correction: Jimmy shoots the gun 3 times in each scene.

Revealing mistake: In the scene where Lorraine Bracco points a revolver at Ray Liotta's head, after Ray Liotta turns the tables and now points the gun at Lorraine Bracco as he gets up and walks away you can see Ray Liotta steps on Lorraine Bracco's hand and she opens her mouth wide like shes screaming but it must have been cut from the audio, as Ray walks off camera his expression changes to show that he knew he had accidentally stepped on his co-workers hand.

More mistakes in Goodfellas

Henry Hill: Jimmy was the kind of guy that rooted for bad guys in the movies.

More quotes from Goodfellas

Trivia: In the book Wiseguy, it is stated that even in the gangster world, discipline and order had to maintained. No one could kill anyone they wanted whenever they pleased. Dead bodies were not allowed to be haphazardly left in the streets for all to see. People who had grudges against certain individuals had to sit down with mob chiefs to get their okay to have them 'whacked'. Since Tommy killed Billy Batts and several others without permission, he sealed his own fate. There are similar cases mentioned in the book regarding loose cannons, deadbeats, and snitches and their ultimate demise. Henry put it so in the case of Stacks Edwards: "It was Jimmy who gave the order, but it was Paulie who gave Jimmy the look."

Allister Cooper, 2011

More trivia for Goodfellas

Question: In the scene where Tommy believes he is being made, right after he walks into the room you hear him say "Oh no!" right before he is shot. Tommy obviously realizes that he was set up. However, what is it that he sees in the room that tips him off?

Answer: He was expecting a crowded room full of friends congratulating him. Also it was common knowledge among the mafia that being walked into an empty room when you were due to be made meant you were about to be executed, so Tommy likely knew he'd met his end just moments before the shot.

William Bergquist

Answer: A man being 'made' is an event shrouded in ceremony. The top people in the family are there, among others to congratulate the new soldier. Tommy walked into an empty room.

Just as others have pointed out, the film implies Tommy realised something was wrong the moment he walked in and saw the place was empty...no other "made men" there for the ceremony. However, I always wondered why he hadn't caught on to what was happening when he saw there were only a couple vehicles parked out in the driveway.

Answer: Either the fact that the room was empty (being made is a big ceremonial event with many people) or he felt the gun pressed against the back of his head right before they shot him.

Answer: There should have been more people waiting for him.

Answer: Wasn't the floor covered with a plastic sheet? That would have given it away.

Or it was a floor with no carpet (tiled, I believe)...easier to mop up.

More questions & answers from Goodfellas

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