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Diner
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This article is about the type of restaurant. For other uses, see Diner (disambiguation).
The Summit Diner in Summit, New Jersey, is a prototypical Northeast U.S. rail car-style diner, built by the O'Mahony Company in 1938.
A diner is a small fast food restaurant that is found in the Northeastern United States and Midwest, as well as in other parts of the US, Canada, and parts of Western Europe. Diners offer a wide range of foods, mostly American cuisine, and have a distinct exterior structure, a casual atmosphere, a long counter with bar stools where patrons eat their meals, and late operating hours. Diners frequently stay open 24 hours a day, especially in cities and towns with a busy bar scene or with factories with night shift workers. Bar patrons seeking a post-"last call" venue to socialize and get food as well as shift workers leaving their factories historically provided a key part of the customer base.
From the 1920s to the 1940s, diners were usually prefabricated in factories (like mobile homes) and delivered to the restaurant site. As a result, many early diners were typically small and narrow, because they had to fit onto a rail car or truck for delivery to the restaurant site. Some of these diners have been expanded over the years through additions onto the prefabricated structure, while many contemporary diners are fully built on-site instead. Diners were historically small businesses operated by the owner; however, many diners are currently operated by chains.
Diners typically serve American food such as hamburgers, french fries, club sandwiches, and other simple, quickly cooked, and inexpensive fare. Much of the food is grilled, as early diners were based around a grill. Coffee is the ubiquitous beverage at diners, even if it is not always of high quality. Diners often serve hand-blended milkshakes and desserts such as pies, which are typically displayed in a glass case. Classic American diners often have an exterior layer of stainless steel siding—a feature unique to diner architecture. In some cases, diners share nostalgic, retro style features also found in some restored drive-ins and old movie theatres.
Contents
[hide]
1 History
1.1 Manufacturers
2 Sterling Streamliner diners
2.1 Prefabricated diners
3 Architecture
4 Cultural significance
5 In media
6 Alternate spellings
7 Cuisine
8 Immigrant influences
9 See also
10 References
11 Further reading
12 External links
History[edit]
The Rosebud, a restored 1941 Worcester Lunch Car #773 in Somerville, Massachusetts
The Bendix Diner in Hasbrouck Heights, New Jersey
The first diner was created in 1872 by Walter Scott, who sold food out of a horse-pulled wagon to employees of the Providence Journal, in Providence, Rhode Island. Scott's diner can be considered the first diner with walk-up service, as it had windows on each side of the wagon. Commercial production of lunch wagons began in Worcester, Massachusetts, in 1887, by Thomas Buckley. Buckley was successful and became known for his "White House Cafe" wagons. Charles Palmer received the first patent (1893) for the diner, which he billed as a "Night-Lunch Wagon." He built his "fancy night cafes" and "night lunch wagons" in the Worcester area until 1901.
Manufacturers[edit]
DeRaffele Manufacturing Co. Inc
Fodero Dining Car Company
Jerry O'Mahony Diner Company
Kullman Dining Car Company
Mountain View Diners Company
Silk City Diners
Tierney Dining Cars
Worcester Lunch Car Company
Sterling Streamliner diners[edit]
Inspired by the streamlined trains, and especially the Burlington Zephyr, Roland Stickney designed a diner in the shape of a streamlined train called the Sterling Streamliner in 1939.[1] Built by the J.B. Judkins coach company, who had built custom car bodies,[2] the Sterling and other diner production ceased in 1942 at the beginning of American involvement in World War II. Two Sterling Streamliners remain in operation: the Salem Diner at its original location in Salem, Massachusetts and the Modern Diner in Pawtucket, Rhode Island.
Prefabricated diners[edit]
Interior of a 1938 Sterling manufactured diner, with curved ceiling, in Wellsboro, Pennsylvania
As the number of seats increased, wagons gave way to pre-fabricated buildings made by many of the same manufacturers who had made the wagons. Like the lunch wagon, a stationary diner allowed one to set up a food service business quickly using pre-assembled constructs and equipment.
Until the Great Depression, most diner manufacturers and their customers were located in the Northeast. Diner manufacturing suffered with other industries during the Depression, though not as much as many industries, and the diner offered a less expensive way of getting into the restaurant business as well as less expensive food than more formal establishments. After World War II, as the economy returned to civilian production and the suburbs boomed, diners were an attractive small business opportunity. During this period, diners spread beyond their original urban and small town market to highway strips in the suburbs, even reaching the Midwest, with manufacturers such as Valentine.
In many areas, diners were superseded in the 1970s by fast food restaurants, but in parts of New Jersey, New York, the New England states, Delaware, and Pennsylvania, the independently-owned diner remains relatively common. Since the 1970s, most newly constructed diners lack the original narrow, stainless steel, streamlined appearance, and are usually much bigger buildings, though some are still made of several prefabricated modules, assembled on site, and manufactured by the old line diner builders. A wide variety of architectural styles were now used for these later diners, including Cape Cod and Colonial styles. The old-style single module diners featuring a long counter and a few small booths sometimes now grew additional dining rooms, lavish wallpaper, fountains, crystal chandeliers and Greek statuary. The definition of the term "diner" began to blur as older, prefabricated diners received more conventional frame additions, sometimes leaving the original structure nearly unrecognizable as it was surrounded by new construction or a renovated facade. Businesses that called themselves diners but which were built onsite and not prefabricated began to appear. These larger establishments were sometimes known as diner-restaurants.
Architecture[edit]
Like a mobile home, the original style diner is narrow and elongated and allows roadway or railway transportation to the restaurant's site. In the traditional diner floorplan, a service counter dominates the interior, with a preparation area against the back wall and floor-mounted stools for the customers in front. Larger models may have a row of booths against the front wall and at the ends. The decor varied over time. Diners of the 1920s–1940s feature Art Deco or Streamline Moderne elements or copy the appearance of rail dining cars (though very few are, in fact, refurbished rail cars). They featured porcelain enamel exteriors, some with the name written on the front, others with bands of enamel, others in flutes. Many had a "barrel vault" roofline. Tile floors were common. Diners of the 1950s tended to use stainless steel panels, porcelain enamel, glass blocks, terrazzo floors, Formica and neon sign trim. Diners built in the 2000s generally have a different type of architecture; they are laid out more like restaurants, retaining some aspects of traditional diner architecture (stainless steel and Art Deco elements, usually) while discarding others (the small size, and emphasis on the counter).
Cultural significance[edit]
The diner Jax At The Tracks in Truckee, California, was featured in the food reality television series Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives in June 2010
Diners attract a wide spectrum of the local populations, and are generally small businesses. From the mid-twentieth century onwards, they have been seen as quintessentially American, reflecting the perceived cultural diversity and egalitarian nature of the country at large. Throughout much of the 20th century, diners, particularly in the Northeast, were often owned and operated by Greek-American immigrant families. The presence of Greek casual food, like gyros and souvlaki, on several diners' menus, testifies to this cultural link.[3][4]
Diners frequently stay open 24 hours a day, especially in cities, and were once America's most widespread 24-hour public establishments, making them an essential part of urban culture, alongside bars and nightclubs; these two segments of nighttime urban culture often find themselves intertwined, as many diners get a good deal of late-night business from persons departing drinking establishments. Many diners were also historically placed near factories which operated 24 hours a day, with night shift workers providing a key part of the customer base. All this meant diners could serve as symbols of loneliness and isolation. Edward Hopper's iconic 1942 painting Nighthawks depicts a diner and its occupants, late at night. The diner in the painting is based on a real location in Greenwich Village, but was chosen in part because diners were anonymous slices of Americana, meaning that the scene could have been taken from any city in the country-and also because a diner was a place to which isolated individuals, awake long after bedtime, would naturally be drawn. The spread of the diner meant that by 1942 it was possible for Hopper to cast this institution in a role for which, fifteen years earlier, he had used an Automat all-night restaurant.
But as a rule, diners were always symbols of American optimism. Norman Rockwell made his 1958 painting, The Runaway, generically American by placing his subjects, a young boy and a protective highway patrolman, at the counter of an anonymous diner.[5] In television and cinema (e.g. The Blob, Happy Days, Grease and Diner), diners and soda fountains have come to symbolize the period of prosperity and optimism in America in the 1950s. They are shown as the place where teenagers meet after school and as an essential part of a date. The television show Alice used a diner as the setting for the program, and one is often a regular feature in sitcoms such as Seinfeld. The diner's cultural influence continues today. Many non-prefab restaurants (including franchises like Denny's) have copied the look of 1950s diners for nostalgic appeal, while Waffle House uses an interior layout derived from the diner.
Manhattan was once known for its diners. The Moondance Diner was shipped to Wyoming to make room for development.[6] Diners provide, in rather the same way that fast food chains do, a nationwide, recognizable, fairly uniform place to eat and assemble. The types of food served are likely to be consistent, especially within a region (exceptions being districts with large immigrant populations, in which diners and coffee shops will often cater their menus to those local cuisines), as are the prices charged. At the same time, diners have much more individuality than fast food chains; the structures, menus, and even owners and staff, while having a certain degree of similarity to each other, vary much more widely than the more rigidly standardized chain and franchise restaurants. The Poirier's Diner and Munson Diner, both manufactured by the Kullman Dining Car Company of Lebanon, New Jersey, are listed on the National Register of Historic Places.[7]
In media[edit]
John Baeder, 2007, John's Diner with John's Chevelle
Diners are the focus of several artists, including photorealist painter John Baeder who spent about 40 years painting diners across the US.
Films and television centering around diners includes Waitress, a 2007 film about a diner waitress,[8] the Food Network show Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives, and Pennsylvania Diners and Other Roadside Restaurants, a 1993 documentary.
Alternate spellings[edit]
The word diner is sometimes spelled dinor in western Pennsylvania.[9]
Cuisine[edit]
A bacon cheeseburger from a New York City diner in a to-go container. Comes with a pickle slice, onion rings, coleslaw and french fries.
Many diners serve a metal cup alongside a milkshake, containing what cannot fit in the glass
Diners almost invariably serve American food such as hamburgers, french fries, club sandwiches, and other simple fare. Much of the food is grilled, as early diners were based around a grill. There is often an emphasis on breakfast foods such as eggs (including omelettes), waffles, pancakes, and French toast. Like the British greasy spoon, the typical American diner serves mainly fried or grilled food, for example: fried eggs, bacon, hamburgers, hot dogs, hash browns, waffles, pancakes, omelettes, deep fried chicken, patty melts, and sausages. These are often accompanied by baked beans, french fries, cole slaw, or toast. Some diners serve these "breakfast foods" throughout the business day and others who focus on breakfast may close at around 3 pm. These are most commonly known as pancake houses. Coffee is ubiquitous at diners, if not always of high quality. Many diners do not serve alcoholic drinks, although some may serve beer and inexpensive wine, while others—particularly in New Jersey and on Long Island—carry a full drink menu, including mixed drinks. Many diners serve hand-blended milkshakes. The food is usually quite inexpensive, with a decent meal (sandwich, side dish, drink) available for less than ten dollars.
There is regional variation among diners with traditional regional American food. In Michigan and the Ohio Valley at "Coney Island–style" restaurants, coney dogs are served, as are certain types of Greek cuisine like gyros influenced by Greek diner owners. In Indiana and Illinois, fried pork tenderloin sandwiches are typically on the menu. The Northeast has more of a focus on seafood, with fried clams and fried shrimp commonly found in Maine. In Pennsylvania, cheesesteak sandwiches and scrapple are fixtures in most diners. Diners in the southwest serve tamales. In the southern U.S., typical breakfast dishes include grits, biscuits and gravy, and soul food such as fried chicken and collard greens. In New Jersey, the "Pork roll, Egg, and Cheese Sandwich" is a staple of many diners. Many diners have transparent display cases in or behind the counter for the desserts. It is common with new diners to have the desserts displayed in rotating pie cases. Typical desserts include a variety of pies, often on view in a separate transparent case. Most diners in New York and Chicago also offer cheesecake.
Immigrant influences[edit]
Several foreign ethnic influences have been introduced into the diner industry. Many diners in the United States — especially in New Jersey, Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Connecticut — are owned or operated by Greek Americans. Eastern European owners, chiefly Polish, Ukrainian, and Eastern European Jews, are also typical. Italian Americans also have a notable presence. And in some places where there are significant Latino populations, Mexicans and Cubans may also have notable presences. These influences can be seen in certain frequent additions to diner menus, such as Greek moussaka, Slavic blintzes, and Jewish matzah ball soup, deli-style sandwiches (e.g., corned beef, pastrami, Reubens), and bagels and lox.
See also[edit]
Food portal
Companies portal
Cha chaan teng – the term for diners in Hong Kong
Dhaba – the term for diners in India
Diner lingo
Greasy spoon
List of diners
Lunch counter
References[edit]
Jump up ^ Witzel, Michael Karl (2006). The American Diner. MBI Publishing. pp. 76–78. ISBN 978-0-7603-0110-4.
Jump up ^ "1939 Sterling Diner". Antique Car Investments. Retrieved 2010-08-07.
Jump up ^ Berger, Joseph (March 16, 2008). "Diners in Changing Hands; Greek Ownership on the Wane". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-05-27.
Jump up ^ Kleiman, Dena (February 27, 1991). "Greek Diners, Where Anything Is Possible". New York Times. Retrieved 2009-05-27. ... Greeks became a visible presence in the diner and coffee shop business in the late 1950s after several waves of immigration. They congregated largely on the East Coast, where the food service industry provided an easy economic foothold for many immigrants who were often unskilled and unable to speak English. As with immigrants from many nations, one relative would send word of opportunity back home, encouraging others to come to America.
Jump up ^ Norman Rockwell - The Runaway
Jump up ^ Brown, Kristen V. (August 16, 2008). "Moondance diner gathering dust in Wyoming one year after move". Daily News. New York.
Jump up ^ National Park Service (2009-03-13). "National Register Information System". National Register of Historic Places. National Park Service.
Jump up ^ Jennifer Wright (30 January 2015). "How Diner Waitress Uniforms Have Evolved From Scandalous Bloomers to Gingham Dresses". Eater. Retrieved 8 April 2016.
Jump up ^ Diners of Pennsylvania by Brian Butko and Kevin Patrick, Stackpole Books, 2nd edition (May 1, 2011) ISBN 0-8117-2878-1 and ISBN 978-0-8117-2878-2
Further reading[edit]
Baeder, John, Diners. Rev. and updated ed. New York: Abrams, 1995.
Butko, Brian, and Kevin Patrick. Diners of Pennsylvania. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 1999.
Garbin, Randy. Diners of New England. Mechanicsburg, PA: Stackpole Books, 2005.
Gutman, Richard J. S. American Diner: Then and Now. New York: HarperPerennial, 1993.
Witzel, Michael Karl The American Diner. MBI Publishing Company, 1998.
"Greasin' up the Griddle, and Rollin' into History" The Journal of Antiques and Collectibles, August 2003, retrieved on December 29, 2007.
Charles Palmer's 1893 patent
External links[edit]
Media related to Diners at Wikimedia Commons
Look up diner in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.
[hide]
v
t
e
Diners
Diner Manufacturers
Fodero Dining Car Company
Jerry O'Mahony Diner Company
Kullman Dining Car Company
Mountain View Diners Company
Silk City Diners
Worcester Lunch Car Company
Notable Diners
See List of diners
Key Features
American cuisine
Art Deco design
Diner lingo
Flattop grill
Lunch counter
Neon signs
Retro style
Roadside location
Soda fountain
Stainless steel accessories
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Goodfellas
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jump to navigation Jump to search
For other uses, see Goodfellas (disambiguation).
Goodfellas
Theatrical release poster
Directed by
Martin Scorsese
Produced by
Irwin Winkler
Screenplay by
Nicholas Pileggi
Martin Scorsese
Based on
Wiseguy
by Nicholas Pileggi
Starring
Robert De Niro
Ray Liotta
Joe Pesci
Lorraine Bracco
Paul Sorvino
Cinematography
Michael Ballhaus
Edited by
Thelma Schoonmaker
Distributed by
Warner Bros.
Release date
September 9, 1990 (1990-09-09) (Venice)
September 19, 1990 (1990-09-19) (United States)
Running time
145 minutes[1]
Country
United States
Language
English
Budget
$25 million[2]
Box office
$46.8 million[3]
Goodfellas (stylized as GoodFellas) is a 1990 American crime film directed by Martin Scorsese. It is an adaptation of the 1986 non-fiction book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, who co-wrote the screenplay with Scorsese. The film narrates the rise and fall of mob associate Henry Hill and his friends and family over a period from 1955 to 1980.
Scorsese initially titled the film Wise Guy and postponed making it; later, he and Pileggi changed the title to Goodfellas. To prepare for their roles in the film, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Ray Liotta often spoke with Pileggi, who shared research material left over from writing the book. According to Pesci, improvisation and ad-libbing came out of rehearsals wherein Scorsese gave the actors freedom to do whatever they wanted. The director made transcripts of these sessions, took the lines he liked best and put them into a revised script, which the cast worked from during principal photography.
Made on a budget of $25 million, Goodfellas grossed $46.8 million. It received positive reviews from critics and was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director, with Pesci winning for Best Supporting Actor. The film won five awards from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, including Best Film and Best Director. Additionally, Goodfellas was named the year's best film by various critics' groups.
Goodfellas has been called one of the greatest films in the crime genre. In 2000, it was deemed "culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant" and selected for preservation in the National Film Registry by the United States Library of Congress. Its content and style have been emulated in numerous other films and television shows.[4]
Contents
1 Plot
2 Cast
3 Production
3.1 Development
3.2 Screenplay
3.3 Casting
3.4 Principal photography
3.5 Post-production
4 Soundtrack
5 Release and reception
5.1 Distribution
5.2 Critical response
5.3 Lists
5.4 Awards
6 Home media
7 Legacy
8 References
8.1 Bibliography
9 External links
Plot[edit]
In 1955, Henry Hill, a high school student, becomes enamored with the criminal life in his neighborhood, and begins working for Paul "Paulie" Cicero and his associates: James "Jimmy the Gent" Conway, a truck hijacker; and Tommy DeVito, a fellow juvenile delinquent. Henry begins as fence for Jimmy, gradually working his way up to more serious crimes. Enjoying the perks of their criminal life, the three associates spend most of their nights at the Copacabana nightclub, carousing with women. Henry meets and later marries Karen Friedman, a Jewish woman from the Five Towns area of Long Island. Karen is initially troubled by Henry's criminal activities, but is soon seduced by his glamorous lifestyle.
In 1970, Billy Batts, a mobster in the Gambino crime family, repeatedly insults Tommy at a nightclub owned by Henry. Enraged, Tommy and Jimmy attack and kill him. Knowing their murder of a made man would mean retribution from the Gambinos, which could possibly include Paulie being ordered to kill them, Jimmy, Henry, and Tommy cover up the murder. They transport the body in the trunk of Henry's car, and bury it in upstate New York. Six months later, Jimmy learns that the burial site is slated for development, forcing them to exhume the decomposing corpse and move it.
Henry sets up his mistress, Janice Rossi, in an apartment. When Karen finds out about their relationship, she tries to confront Janice, and then threatens Henry at gunpoint. Henry moves out to live with Janice, but Paulie directs him to return to Karen after completing a job for him. Henry and Jimmy are sent to collect a debt from a gambler in Tampa, but they are arrested after being turned in by the gambler's sister, a typist for the FBI. Jimmy and Henry receive ten-year prison sentences.
In prison, Henry sells drugs smuggled in by Karen to support his family on the outside. In 1978, Henry is paroled, and expands his cocaine trade against Paulie's orders, soon involving Jimmy and Tommy, whose behaviour becomes increasingly erratic. Jimmy organizes a crew to steal money from the Lufthansa vault at John F. Kennedy International Airport, coming away with $6 million. After a few members of the crew buy expensive items and the getaway car is found by police, Jimmy has most of the crew killed. Tommy is spared Jimmy's wrath, but is eventually killed by the Gambinos in retribution for Batts' murder, having been fooled into thinking he would become a made man.
In 1980, Henry has now become a nervous wreck from cocaine use and insomnia. He tries to organize a drug deal with his associates in Pittsburgh, but he is arrested by narcotics agents, and jailed. After he is bailed out, Karen explains that she flushed $60,000 worth of cocaine down the toilet to prevent FBI agents from finding it during their raid, leaving the family virtually penniless. Feeling betrayed by Henry's drug dealing, Paulie gives him $3,200, and ends their association. Facing federal charges and realizing Jimmy plans to have him killed, Henry decides to enroll in the Witness Protection Program. He gives sufficient testimony to have Paulie and Jimmy arrested and convicted. Forced out of his gangster life, Henry now has to face living in the real world. He narrates: "I'm an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook".
The end title cards reveal that Henry is still in the Witness Protection Program and in 1987, he was arrested in Seattle, Washington for narcotics conspiracy and he received five years probation. Since 1987, Henry has been clean. Henry and Karen Hill separated in 1989 after 25 years of marriage. Paul Cicero died in 1988 in Fort Worth Federal Prison at the age of 73 due to respiratory illness. Jimmy Conway is serving a 20 years to life sentence for murder in a New York prison and that he will not be eligible for parole until 2004 when he will be 78 years old.
Cast[edit]
Ray Liotta as Henry Hill
Robert De Niro as James "Jimmy the Gent" Conway
Joe Pesci as Tommy DeVito
Lorraine Bracco as Karen Hill
Paul Sorvino as Paul "Paulie" Cicero
Frank Sivero as Frankie Carbone
Frank Vincent as Billy Batts
Tony Darrow as Sonny Bunz
Mike Starr as Frenchy
Chuck Low as Morrie Kessler
Frank DiLeo as Tuddy Cicero
Samuel L. Jackson as Parnell "Stacks" Edwards
Catherine Scorsese as Tommy DeVito's mother
Debi Mazar as Sandy
Michael Imperioli as Spider
Production[edit]
Development[edit]
Goodfellas is based on New York crime reporter Nicholas Pileggi's book Wiseguy.[5] Martin Scorsese did not intend to make another mob film until he saw a review of Pileggi's book, which he then read while working on the set of Color of Money in 1986.[6][7] He had always been fascinated by the Mob lifestyle and was drawn to Pileggi's book because it was the most honest portrayal of gangsters he had ever read.[8] After reading Pileggi's book, the filmmaker knew what approach he wanted to take: "To begin Goodfellas like a gunshot and have it get faster from there, almost like a two-and-a-half-hour trailer. I think it's the only way you can really sense the exhilaration of the lifestyle, and to get a sense of why a lot of people are attracted to it."[9] According to Pileggi, Scorsese cold-called the writer and told him, "I've been waiting for this book my entire life", to which Pileggi replied, "I've been waiting for this phone call my entire life".[10][11]
Scorsese originally intended to direct the film before The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), but when funds materialized to make Last Temptation, he decided to postpone Wise Guy. He was drawn to the documentary aspects of Pileggi's book. "The book Wise Guys gives you a sense of the day-to-day life, the tedium - how they work, how they take over certain nightclubs, and for what reasons. It shows how it's done".[10] He saw Goodfellas as the third film in an unplanned trilogy of films that examined the lives of Italian-Americans "from slightly different angles".[12] He has often described the film as "a mob home movie" that is about money, because "that's what they're really in business for".[8]
Screenplay[edit]
Scorsese and Pileggi collaborated on the screenplay, and over the course of the 12 drafts it took to reach the ideal script, the reporter realized "the visual styling had to be completely redone... So we decided to share credit".[10][13] They decided which sections of the book they liked and put them together like building blocks.[2] Scorsese persuaded Pileggi that they did not need to follow a traditional narrative structure. The director wanted to take the gangster film and deal with it episode by episode, but start in the middle and move backwards and forwards. Scorsese would compact scenes and realized that if they were kept short, "the impact after about an hour and a half would be terrific".[2] He wanted to do the voiceover like the opening of Jules and Jim (1962) and use "all the basic tricks of the New Wave from around 1961".[2] The names of several real-life gangsters were altered for the film: Tommy "Two Gun" DeSimone became the character Tommy DeVito; Paul Vario became Paulie Cicero, and Jimmy "The Gent" Burke was portrayed as Jimmy Conway.[13] Pileggi and Scorsese decided to change the title of their film to Goodfellas because two contemporary projects, the 1986 Brian De Palma film Wise Guys and the 1987–1990 TV series Wiseguy had used similar titles.[2]
Casting[edit]
Once Robert De Niro agreed to play Conway, Scorsese was able to secure the money needed to make the film.[7] The director cast Ray Liotta after De Niro saw him in Jonathan Demme's Something Wild (1986), and Scorsese was surprised by "his explosive energy" in that film.[12] Liotta had read Pileggi's book when it came out and was fascinated by it. A couple of years afterwards, his agent told him Scorsese was going to direct a film version. In 1988, he met the director over a period of a couple of months and auditioned for the film.[8] He campaigned aggressively for a role, but the studio wanted a well-known actor. He later said "I think they would've rather had Eddie Murphy than me".[14]
To prepare for the role, De Niro consulted with Pileggi, who had research material that had been discarded while writing the book.[15] De Niro often called Hill several times a day to ask how Burke walked, held his cigarette, and so on.[16][17] Driving to and from the set, Liotta listened to FBI audio cassette tapes of Hill, so he could practice speaking like his real-life counterpart.[17] To research her role, Lorraine Bracco tried to get close to a mob wife but was unable to, because they exist in a very tight-knit community. She decided not to meet the real Karen, saying she "thought it would be better if the creation came from me. I used her life with her parents as an emotional guideline for the role".[18] Paul Sorvino had no problem finding the voice and walk of his character, but found it challenging finding what he called "that kernel of coldness and absolute hardness that is antithetical to my nature except when my family is threatened".[19]
Principal photography[edit]
Two weeks in advance of the filming, the real Henry Hill was paid $480,000.[13] The film was shot on location in Queens, New York, New Jersey, and parts of Long Island during the spring and summer of 1989, with a budget of $25 million.[13] Scorsese broke the film down into sequences and storyboarded everything because of the complicated style throughout. According to the filmmaker, he "wanted lots of movement and I wanted it to be throughout the whole picture, and I wanted the style to kind of break down by the end, so that by [Henry's] last day as a wiseguy, it's as if the whole picture would be out of control, give the impression he's just going to spin off the edge and fly out."[6] He claims that the film's style comes from the first two or three minutes of Jules and Jim (1962): extensive narration, quick edits, freeze frames, and multiple locale switches.[9] It was this reckless attitude towards convention that mirrored the attitude of many of the gangsters in the film. Scorsese remarked, "So if you do the movie, you say, 'I don't care if there's too much narration. Too many quick cuts?—That's too bad.' It's that kind of really punk attitude we're trying to show".[9] He adopted a frenetic style to almost overwhelm the audience with images and information.[2] He also put plenty of detail in every frame because the gangster life is so rich. The use of freeze frames was done because Scorsese wanted images that would stop "because a point was being reached" in Henry's life.[2]
Joe Pesci didn't judge his character but found the scene where he kills Spider for talking back to his character hard to do, because he had trouble justifying the action until he forced himself to feel the way Tommy did.[8] Lorraine Bracco found the shoot to be an emotionally difficult one because it was such a male-dominated cast, and she realized if she did not make her "work important, it would probably end up on the cutting room floor".[8] When it came to the relationship between Henry and Karen, Bracco saw no difference between an abused wife and her character.[8]
According to Pesci, improvisation and ad-libbing came out of rehearsals wherein Scorsese let the actors do whatever they wanted. He made transcripts of these sessions, took the lines the actors came up with that he liked best, and put them into a revised script that the cast worked from during principal photography.[15] For example, the scene where Tommy tells a story and Henry is responding to him — the "Funny how? Do I amuse you?" scene — is based on an actual event that Pesci had witnessed. It was worked on in rehearsals where he and Liotta improvised, and Scorsese recorded four to five takes, rewrote their dialogue, and inserted it into the script.[20] The dinner scene with Tommy's mother was largely improvised. Her painting of the bearded man with the dogs was based on a photograph from National Geographic magazine.[21] The cast did not meet Henry Hill during the film's shoot until a few weeks before it premiered. Liotta met him in an undisclosed city; Hill had seen the film and told the actor that he loved it.[8]
The long tracking shot through the Copacabana nightclub came about because of a practical problem: the filmmakers could not get permission to go in the short way, and this forced them to go round the back.[2] Scorsese decided to film the sequence in one unbroken shot in order to symbolize that Henry's entire life was ahead of him, commenting, "It's his seduction of her [Karen] and it's also the lifestyle seducing him".[2] This sequence was shot eight times.[20]
Henry's last day as a wiseguy was the hardest part of the film for Scorsese to shoot, because he wanted to properly show Henry's state of anxiety, paranoia, and racing thoughts caused by cocaine and amphetamines intoxication.[2] Scorsese said to movie critic Mark Cousins in an interview the reason for Pesci shooting at the screen at the end of the film: "well that's a reference right to the end of The Great Train Robbery, that's the way that ends, that film, and basically the plot of this picture is very similar to The Great Train Robbery. It hasn't changed, 90 years later, it's the same story, the gun shots will always be there, he's always going to look behind his back, he's gotta have eyes behind his back, because they're gonna get him someday." The director ended the film with Henry regretting that he is no longer a wiseguy, about which Scorsese said, "I think the audience should get angry at him and I would hope they do—and maybe with the system which allows this."[2]
Post-production[edit]
Scorsese wanted to depict the film's violence realistically, "cold, unfeeling and horrible. Almost incidental".[7] However, he had to remove 10 frames of blood to ensure an R rating from the MPAA.[12] With a budget of $25 million, Goodfellas was Scorsese's most expensive film to date but still only a medium budget by Hollywood standards. It was also the first time he was obliged by Warner Bros. to preview the film. It was shown twice in California, and a lot of audiences were "agitated" by Henry's last day as a wise guy sequence. Scorsese argued that that was the point of the scene.[2] Scorsese and the film's editor, Thelma Schoonmaker, made this sequence faster with more jump cuts to convey Henry's drug-addled point of view. In the first test screening there were 40 walkouts in the first ten minutes.[20] One of the favorite scenes for test audiences was the one where Tommy tells the story and Henry is responding to him—the "Do I amuse you?" scene.[2]
Soundtrack[edit]
Main article: Goodfellas (soundtrack)
Scorsese chose songs for the soundtrack that he felt obliquely commented on the scene or the characters.[12] He only used music that could have been heard at that time. For example, if a scene took place in 1973, he could use any song that was current or older. According to Scorsese, a lot of non-dialogue scenes were shot to playback. For example, he had "Layla" (1970) playing on the set while shooting the scene where the dead bodies are discovered in the car, dumpster, and meat truck. Sometimes, the lyrics of songs were put between lines of dialogue to comment on the action.[2] Some of the music Scorsese had written into the script, while other songs he discovered during the editing phase.[20]
Release and reception[edit]
Distribution[edit]
Goodfellas premiered at the 47th Venice International Film Festival, where Scorsese received the Silver Lion award for best director.[22] It was given a wide release in North America on September 21, 1990 in 1,070 theaters with an opening weekend gross of US$6.3 million. It went on to make $46.8 million domestically.[3]
Critical response[edit]
On Rotten Tomatoes, a review aggregator, 96% of 88 surveyed critics gave the film a positive review; the average rating was 9/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Hard-hitting and stylish, GoodFellas is a gangster classic – and arguably the high point of Martin Scorsese's career."[23] Metacritic gave the film a weighted average score of 89 out of 100 based on 18 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[24] On CinemaScore, audiences gave the film an average grade of "A–" on an A+ to F scale.[25]
In his review for the Chicago Sun-Times, Roger Ebert wrote, "No finer film has ever been made about organized crime – not even The Godfather."[26] In his review for the Chicago Tribune, Gene Siskel wrote, "All of the performances are first-rate; Pesci stands out, though, with his seemingly unscripted manner. GoodFellas is easily one of the year's best films."[27] In his review for The New York Times, Vincent Canby wrote, "More than any earlier Scorsese film, Goodfellas is memorable for the ensemble nature of the performances... The movie has been beautifully cast from the leading roles to the bits. There is flash also in some of Mr. Scorsese's directorial choices, including freeze frames, fast cutting and the occasional long tracking shot. None of it is superfluous".[28] USA Today gave the film four out of four stars and called it, "great cinema—and also a whopping good time".[9] David Ansen, in his review for Newsweek magazine, wrote "Every crisp minute of this long, teeming movie vibrates with outlaw energy".[29] Rex Reed said, "Big, Rich, Powerful and Explosive. One of Scorsese's best films! Goodfellas is great entertainment."[This quote needs a citation] In his review for Time, Richard Corliss wrote, "So it is Scorsese's triumph that GoodFellas offers the fastest, sharpest 2½-hr. ride in recent film history."[30]
Lists[edit]
The film was ranked the best of 1990 by Roger Ebert,[31] Gene Siskel,[31] and Peter Travers.[32]
In 2012, the Motion Picture Editors Guild listed Goodfellas as the fifteenth best-edited film of all time based on a survey of its membership.[33]
Goodfellas is 39th on James Berardinelli's 2014 list of the top 100 Films.[34]
Awards[edit]
Award
Category
Nominee
Result
Academy Award Best Picture[35] Martin Scorsese and Irwin Winkler Nominated
Best Director[35] Martin Scorsese Nominated
Best Film Editing[35] Thelma Schoonmaker Nominated
Best Adapted Screenplay[35] Martin Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi Nominated
Best Supporting Actor[35] Joe Pesci Won
Best Supporting Actress[35] Lorraine Bracco Nominated
Golden Globe Award Best Motion Picture – Drama[36] Martin Scorsese and Irwin Winkler Nominated
Best Director[36] Martin Scorsese Nominated
Best Supporting Actor[36] Joe Pesci Nominated
Best Supporting Actress[36] Lorraine Bracco Nominated
Best Screenplay[36] Martin Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi Nominated
British Academy Film Award Best Film Martin Scorsese and Irwin Winkler Won
Best Director Martin Scorsese Won
Best Adapted Screenplay Martin Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi Won
Best Actor Robert De Niro Nominated
Best Editing Thelma Schoonmaker Won
Best Cinematography Michael Ballhaus Nominated
Best Costume Design Richard Bruno Won
Directors Guild of America Award Outstanding Directing - Feature Martin Scorsese Nominated
Writers Guild of America Award Best Adapted Screenplay Martin Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi Nominated
César Award Best Non-French Film Martin Scorsese and Irwin Winkler Nominated
Venice Film Festival Silver Lion for Best Director[37] Martin Scorsese Won
Audience Award Martin Scorsese Won
Filmcritica "Bastone Bianco" Award Martin Scorsese Won
New York Film Critics Circle Award Best Film Martin Scorsese and Irwin Winkler Won
Best Director Martin Scorsese Won
Best Actor Robert De Niro Won
Los Angeles Film Critics Association Award Best Film Martin Scorsese and Irwin Winkler Won
Best Director Martin Scorsese Won
Best Supporting Actor Joe Pesci Won
Best Supporting Actress Lorraine Bracco Won
Best Cinematography Michael Ballhaus Won
National Board of Review Award Best Supporting Actor Joe Pesci Won
Boston Society of Film Critics Award Best Film Martin Scorsese and Irwin Winkler Won
Best Director Martin Scorsese Won
Best Supporting Actor Joe Pesci Won
Chicago Film Critics Association Award Best Film Martin Scorsese and Irwin Winkler Won
Best Director Martin Scorsese Won
Best Supporting Actor Joe Pesci Won
Best Supporting Actress Lorraine Bracco Won
Best Screenplay Martin Scorsese and Nicholas Pileggi Won
National Society of Film Critics Award Best Film Martin Scorsese and Irwin Winkler Won
Best Director Martin Scorsese Won
Bodil Award Best American Film Martin Scorsese and Irwin Winkler Won
Home media[edit]
Goodfellas was released on DVD in March 1997, in a single-disc double-sided single-layer format that requires the disc to be flipped during viewing; in 2004, Warner Home Video released a two-disc, dual-layer version, with remastered picture and sound, and bonus materials such as commentary tracks.[38] In early 2007 the film became available on single Blu-ray with all the features from the 2004 release; an expanded Blu-ray version was released in February 2010, bundled with a disc with features that include the 2008 documentary Public Enemies: The Golden Age of the Gangster Film.[38] The film was released on 4K UHD Blu-Ray on December 6, 2016.[39]
Legacy[edit]
Goodfellas is #94 on the American Film Institute's "100 Years, 100 Movies" list and moved up to #92 on its AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) from 2007. In June 2008, the AFI put Goodfellas at #2 on their AFI's 10 Top 10—the best ten films in ten "classic" American film genres—after polling over 1,500 people from the creative community. Goodfellas was acknowledged as the second-best in the gangster film genre (after The Godfather).[40] In 2000, the United States Library of Congress deemed the film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.
Roger Ebert named Goodfellas the "best mob movie ever" and placed it among the best films of the 1990s.[41] In December 2002, a UK film critics poll in Sight and Sound ranked the film #4 on their list of the 10 Best Films of the Last 25 Years.[42] Time included Goodfellas in their list of Time's All-TIME 100 Movies.[43] Channel 4 placed Goodfellas at #10 in their 2002 poll The 100 Greatest Films. Empire listed Goodfellas at #6 on their "500 Greatest Movies Of All Time".[44] Total Film voted Goodfellas #1 as the greatest film of all time.[45]
Premiere listed Joe Pesci's Tommy DeVito as #96 on its list of "The 100 Greatest Movie Characters of All Time," calling him "perhaps the single most irredeemable character ever put on film."[46] Empire ranked Tommy DeVito #59 in their "The 100 Greatest Movie Characters" poll.[47]
Goodfellas inspired director David Chase to make the HBO television series The Sopranos. Chase said "Goodfellas is the Koran for me." He also told Peter Bogdanovich: "Goodfellas is a very important movie to me and Goodfellas really plowed that ... I found that movie very funny and brutal and it felt very real. And yet that was the first mob movie that Scorsese ever dealt with a mob crew. ... as opposed to say The Godfather ... which there's something operatic about it, classical, even the clothing and the cars. You know I mean I always think about Goodfellas when they go to their mother's house that night when they're eating, you know when she brings out her painting, that stuff is great. I mean The Sopranos learned a lot from that."[48] Indeed, the film shares a total of 27 actors with The Sopranos,[49] including Sirico, Imperioli, Pellegrino, Lip, Vincent, and Bracco, who would later be cast in major roles in Chase's HBO series.
July 24, 2010, marked the 20th anniversary of the film's release. This milestone was celebrated with Henry Hill's hosting a private screening for a select group of invitees at the Museum of the American Gangster, in New York City.[50]
In January 2012, it was announced that the AMC Network had put in development a television series version of the movie. Pileggi was on board to co-write the adaptation with television writer-producer Jorge Zamacona. The two would executive produce with the film's producer Irwin Winkler and his son, David.[51]
Luc Besson's 2013 crime comedy film The Family features a sequence where Giovanni Manzoni (De Niro), a gangster who is under witness protection for testifying against a member of his family, watches Goodfellas. De Niro plays a main character in Goodfellas.[52]
In 2014, the ESPN-produced 30 For 30 series debuted Playing for the Mob,[53] the story about how Hill and his Pittsburgh associates helped several Boston College basketball players commit point shaving scandal during the 1978–79 season, an episode briefly mentioned in the movie. The documentary, narrated by Ray Liotta, was set up so that the viewer needed to watch the movie beforehand, to understand many of the references in the story.
In 2015, Goodfellas closed the 2015 Tribeca Film Festival with a screening of its 25th anniversary remaster.[54]
American Film Institute Lists
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies - #94
AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) - #92
AFI's 10 Top 10 - #2 Gangster film
References[edit]
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^ Jump up to: a b Malcolm, Derek (September–October 1990). "Made Men". Film Comment.
^ Jump up to: a b c Goodwin, Richard. "The Making of Goodfellas". Hotdog.
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^ Jump up to: a b c d Clark, Mike (September 19, 1990). "GoodFellas step from his childhood". USA Today.
^ Jump up to: a b c Kelly, Mary Pat (March 2003). "Martin Scorsese: A Journey". Thunder Mouth Press.
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Bibliography[edit]
Kelly, Mary Pat (2003). Martin Scorsese: A Journey. Thunder Mouth Press. ISBN 978-1-56025-470-6.
Pileggi, Nicholas; Scorsese, Martin (1990). Goodfellas. Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-16265-9.
Pileggi, Nicholas (1990). Wiseguy. Rei Mti. ISBN 978-0-671-72322-4.
Thompson, David; Christie, Ian (2004). Scorsese on Scorsese. Faber and Faber. ISBN 978-0-571-22002-1.
External links[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to: Goodfellas
"Getting Made The Scorsese Way". GQ. October 2010.
Goodfellas on IMDb
Goodfellas at AllMovie
Goodfellas at the TCM Movie Database
Goodfellas at Box Office Mojo
Goodfellas at Rotten Tomatoes
Goodfellas at Metacritic
"Reel Faces: Fact vs. Fiction". Chasingthefrog.com.
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Martin Scorsese filmography
Feature films
Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967)
Boxcar Bertha (1972)
Mean Streets (1973)
Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore (1974)
Taxi Driver (1976)
New York, New York (1977)
Raging Bull (1980)
The King of Comedy (1982)
After Hours (1985)
The Color of Money (1986)
The Last Temptation of Christ (1988)
New York Stories (segment "Life Lessons", 1989)
Goodfellas (1990)
Cape Fear (1991)
The Age of Innocence (1993)
Casino (1995)
Kundun (1997)
Bringing Out the Dead (1999)
Gangs of New York (2002)
The Aviator (2004)
The Departed (2006)
Shutter Island (2010)
Hugo (2011)
The Wolf of Wall Street (2013)
Silence (2016)
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