Goodfellas: The Making Of A Classic

faster cut hot okay good okay that's gonna become much faster it was so exhilarating talking with somebody who's ten times more passionate than you are a smile but not as long all right try one more that's why so great he enjoys it he doesn't put a cap on his own and he doesn't put a cap on yours and that's what makes it a joyous experience as opposed to you know like just a job you let me see the credit belongs to Morrow oh this would have been just another model he wanted to counter the romantic image of the Mafia and show not only what the pool is but what that decision means and that was his goal in that movie you touch her again you're dead Oh what goes on doggy dog struggles these people terrified I just know it from what I saw in the streets and that when I was when I saw it when I lived it I always said well that's the way it should be on film when we were in Chicago doing the color of money there was an article in New York magazine that was an excerpt from the book having dealt with that world to a certain extent I felt therefore I never really wanted to touch upon that world again but I found that the the style of the book was so interesting and I try to say boy if I can make a film like the style of this book cuz what's the point making of the gangster picture they've been several books about mob bosses but it was like getting a hold of a soldier in Napoleon's army that's who I want I want to know how it worked inside detail detail detail everything is detail I was interested in the minutiae of how to live as a wise guy I wanted to get into the good frame of mind of a guy who works that way every day and you also had the voice of Henry so much of that book was just his telling the story said Marty called and he said hello he said yeah mitem my name is Marty Scorsese he said I'm a film director movie director I think he said he said you know and I said I know who you are and he said well I'm calling it because he said I just read your book he said I've been looking for this book for years I said well I've been waiting for this phone call all my life so he said I want to do it but he wanted to write it with me but he couldn't make a deal with me so don't worry about it the deal with you is on the phone now we will make this movie don't you worry about anything else I mean all all directors will work with writers and sort of make it their own but I think in the particularly the case of Goodfellas it was so much about the world that he understood that he really wanted to put his stamp on I hadn't put my name on a script since Mean Streets and I wanted to create an exhilaration of that kind of life but he was stuck with somebody who didn't know anything so he really had to bring me along I think as far as film is concerned and um I was a willing people because it was fascinating and he's great teacher now when you're working with Marty of course he already sees the movie I didn't but it was all right he brought me along you know I did most of the typing I don't even but he writes longhand so I would type and then it would come out and then he would scratch these little things on it we'd work on it me then and the dialogue would be bounced back and forth between us so we would we would develop scene after scene in the scene this is what's gonna happen then we go to this and he also said put the corner put the corner and he wouldn't mention him piece of music I want that music here really was was important was the nature of the relationship between the main character in the audience that's the experiment with voiceover to us those goody good people who work shitty jobs for bum paychecks and who took the subway to work every day worried about their bills were dead and they were suckers they had no balls I think it's a wonderful way to tell a story of a film but so many times I think voice-over is used to patch a little crack in the script you know and and it's it and then it sort of does it work you need a body of material so that you have enough richness of character to be able to justify the voice-over because the narrative that part is not important it's the language it's the it's the web that he's spinning as as a personality he's getting you to like him and that's the danger of the character the other thing we did was a straight chronology and that's the way the first draft is written and then marty was looking at it you know it's a little slow we have to do this is a movie we got to do something like hook him he loved the idea always loved the idea these guys driving around with a guy they think is dead in the back of the car there's still alive because the moment of that Billy batts murder is the where everything changes for them and so rather than going from the young boy directly to the ending the rise and fall which is it is just very traditional rise and fall but we wanted to give it something extra so we took that out of the middle of the book put it in the front he says Winnie they kill them put the trunk down then I'll freeze on Ray Liotta looking out and then BAM you're in the movie marty was lucky in this case he got to just pick the person that was right for the role you know bobbin and joe pesci were sort of obvious from the start and Ray just had the qualities he was believable good'cause was my fourth movie I had heard about the book I picked it up just by accident one day just to have something to read from New Jersey to LA read it really liked it heard they were gonna make the movie and I met Marty and I would meet him every now and then but was a long long process it was extremely nerve-wracking and then maybe eight or nine months later I finally landed it Henriques character somebody who is very grown up with these guys and it was very much a part of them that he's slightly outside of it and that was part of the quality the array has always had that's why I think he was so perfectly cast you would never have bought the Bob De Niro character or the Joe Pesci character doing it but you did buy Ray's character doing it you need Henry you don't need me right he asked me to come and meet him and then he asked me to come up and read with ray just right from the beginning you know I trusted her she trusted me and we were kind of like you know the new kids on the block and Marty he always called us the kids ray and I bring the kids out and I was always very cute I'll think about it question a lot so we had a commitment towards each other and and something that we were both going through at the same time a newness to this situation why do you see what justice to you little prick Frank Johnson is like part of the team you know he's been in other movies and he's been in movies since and when I came in to meet with him for this he said what do you want to play I said I want to play Paul said don't play ball play Billy batts you don't argue at money saying no I want to play this he says two places listen to me play Billy Betts I said okay money whatever you want to do and that's how I was kissed at that moment I did not know what Billy batts was going to be so it actually was really a gift because everybody I know that I ever see or meet knows about it and I did 40 movies so that's got to be stand out so you know he was perfect Paul I wasn't that I didn't think I could do it because it was not the kind of role that I felt I really had an affinity for the externals were easy middle-aged Italian man the difficulty was in the lethality that I felt I didn't possess and so even though I wanted to do it I was sort of faking when I went to the meeting and giving Martin the impression that I knew exactly what to do with it when I had no idea what to do it but I wanted so much to be in a Scorsese movie I guess he just figured I was capable of it I had done so much homework I was just obsessed with it I knew what front were you knows what I remember I was at home in Jersey Nick pledgie had tapes of Henry I remember putting it the cassettes in my mother's car and as I would drive to New York be listening to him tell his story as he chomped on potato chips and my dad would see stop studying get out and do something I was just it was I knew it was it was a great opportunity and I did not want to be a week or so into it and you know Marty says you know I'll come to the trailer I don't know if this is where I just really wanted to play make-believe with these guys and you know again I'd what mess up I believed I could be Karen and and do Karen justice you want nothing but all mr. superintendent I knew the motivation of jealousy and wanting to hold on to her man and I understood those things see Jimmy was one of the most feared guys in the city the author Nick Pelosi was had a lot of information research material that he had discarded from the book and I also would talk to people who I thought would have some connection or some relevance to this particular character well he wanted to talk to me about Jimmy Conway character so uh you know I mean there was some some mornings that we talked four or five times he'd be in his trailer before he'd go in front of the camera you know get man I've fallen into who call you four or five times a day good you know in the mornings before tea well you know how does do he hold a cigarette how do you think he reacted you know when he's Johnny roast beef you know pull up with the Cadillac and how we have a Sharples kind of a facing hip but I mean all of these crazy you know I mean I thought they were crazy questions at the time but you know I start to get the hang of it you know I knew what he was requesting and you know and I was able to you know participate you know everything and it and was rewarding him I got paper and it went it was about two months in preparation to try to get this quality that I knew it called for that was kind of agonizing over it for a couple of months I was thinking I'm gonna ruin this movie I was looking for something to get out of it until two days before we started production by virtue of constantly searching to find where that kind of quality that killers have I was preparing to go out one night uh passed by the mirror to check for spinach in the teeth and I jumped back I literally frightened myself I saw look in my eyes that frightened me who is that I said that's Paulie and once I found it the role became just a duck and mortar it just was so easy to do and what Paulie and the organization does is offer protection for people who can't go to the cops that's it that's all it is are like the police department for wiseguys so much of what Scorsese does is in the way he directs and so you see something entirely different up on the screen often than is in that script if I felt the scene could be opened up I usually did that with the actors in rehearsal so we would rehearse 3540 minutes of scene and there were all improvisation there very loosely around the script just sort of what would what was happening not improvising by writing lines I mean improvising behaviorally he always says don't act like these people behave like them you know me I would like to help you out Oh Sonny tell him what we talked about he gave me a fabulous direction for Karen he said she's the movie star she's the star you know Henry's life he knows so well what actors need and how to help them and then he'll see something you like and come over and say you know um you know what you said in that other improvisation why don't you say that them again or or let him have it I'll go home and get you [ __ ] shine box uses the power of the verb acting is doing something I threatened I charm I beg and what Martin does in the improvisation is encourage the doing of things well that merely means stay with the other fellow and deal with what he's given you what are you stupid s'matter with you I apologize what's the matter with you sorry the [ __ ] is the matter with you you feel like you're a real collaborator you makes you feel that way in a certain sense you are because you're giving all the good things that you have and you see anybody [ __ ] around this [ __ ] you want to tell me right yeah that means anybody he knows what he wants to do but you really feel like you're creating and he's letting you go to do what what you've come up with it's just the way he is he's very open to a lot of ideas from anybody that was for an actor it was like the jackpot so even during the improv once we had the improv then then we had to lock it you don't improvise on camera when we're shooting they all think that Marty just doesn't do anything and he lets the actors say okay go ahead and he sits there like this you know and enjoys it you know it's not true I mean it's so crazy to think that you can go in there and make a movie like that it has to be structured you're still saying a script I said all right I'll tell you something go [ __ ] your mother probably the most memorable improvisation I've ever seen was the Joe Pesci Ray Liotta improvisation at the nightclub how funny how I mean funny like I'm a clown may amuse you which is something that actually happened to Joe years ago in reality and so Marty said oh we must put that in the film I make you laugh I'm here to [ __ ] amuse you and that was very carefully worked on within our rehearsal period I was able as a co-writer to record several takes maybe four to five takes between ray and Joe of this dialogue I then took then rewrote that which was then insert into the script funny how I mean what's funny but it was interesting how he shot that sequence he's shooting it in a medium shot not in a close-up and the reason I always tell film students is that it's very important is that first of all he knew the scene was powerful enough that he did not need close-ups and secondly what he really wanted to show was how the people around Joe Pesci and Ray Liotta were gradually changing the looks on their faces as the sense of dread began to creep into what was supposed to be a casual conversation and suddenly it is wonderful how you see their faces change and he was very adamant that that's how he wanted to shoot it oh Anthony he's a big boy he knows what he said what'd you say funny how he just watched his body language and you know it's dead serious and it could turn on a split second but hard to cut Marty and I spent a long time figuring out how long to wait until Ray Liotta actually says come on Tommy funny what the [ __ ] is so funny about me tell me tell me what's funny get the [ __ ] outta Tommy all that lefty here on the track is me and them and there we go right because we had to create atmosphere of that kind of a moment on the set I want something accidental happens delightful that an actor does he'll burst out laughing as an audience and it's it's a wonderful thing to see very refreshing ha ha ha good good we joke sorry ha ha ha you can thrill him by giving him a good performance and to watch watch someone and be thrilled while you're doing something is the best thing for an actor he has an amazing sensitivity to body language and how an actor is conveying a certain idea with just a slight flicker of of an eye or something very subtle and he's reacting to it all the time because like this don't look mean walk anymore girl Oh Oh easy easy easy you did it and then when you do it after the taking said good that was good that was good out loud hear his voice good that was good I think marty is probably one of the most prepared directors I've worked with passive good fellows he was working with Michael ball house who's also incredibly prepared the good thing about Marty's that really has this movie in his head already so the way we work together is that I looked at his Shawn list then we look at the locations together and we figure out if his shots would work on a location like this on that so there is no discussion actually on the set anymore I mean we talked about shots but it's not like we're trying to figure out what it's gonna be so we know what's gonna be there are many times that we didn't do any coverage at all thank you sir see you later Thanks what are you doing you leaving your car while I never even knew it when we were making it what that scene was I never knew I had I was clueless I'd never even seen a Steadicam that doesn't exist in the book but it does in just a couple of lines except a couple lines in the book in the hands of the director that's where you begin to see a nonfiction book in detail really blossom into a kind of art the whole ideas that have to be done on one take so you don't feel that it was a series of cuts or but there was a separation between him and the world that he was trying to get into it the camera flowed through them and just glided through this world just all the doors opened to him and everything just slipped away it was like heaven and then to emerge like a king and queen this was the highest he could aspire to it was kind of tricky also to get all the access right because Marti is so very accurate about every single timing you know what the people do in the kitchen the guy with the table comes at the right time and brings the table over all these things are very important but as far as I remember we shot the scene only eight times and it was not even a full day but we wanted to really in one shot got it in one shot take my wife me yeah and he really knows every second of what you're doing he said him Amy's you come to the set dressed I'll send you back could you'd like to tie he sees every detail ah the kid doesn't look like a gangster yet he has to look his shoes are gonna be shine got a pinky ring kid yeah that's better I would like that just a little bit we don't have any stays in the collar no stays first time stinking yeah every little nuance and it means something to heaven he made sure it was registering right well that gives that's that's the thing with Marty because his films have really had the sense of reality and he understands it so well he knows when something is real when it isn't Marty would say no that's a feel right if you're right to you but the only way you can really be truthful about it is to really not be inhibited by anything really don't be like I think it explains what the world is really like and part of what's so interesting is that it starts out as a lot of fun where as bad as they are we're happy to see the postman go in the oven and all of a sudden of course when spider gets shot at alternative changes now he's moving we should set poor kid in the foot you should know that these are not this is not the way to live you don't be sucked in by these guys cuz it's gonna gonna in one way before the witness protection program it only ended one way it was the most frightening thing when I was out of my body for a minute you know I had to put myself in a frame of mind to really kill someone I made them put full loads in the gun in the 45 because I wanted to hear the echo I wanted to feel the gun really kick like a real 45 the silence after the last shot rang out was more deafening than the gun now you're gonna take the [ __ ] thing up you're gonna dig the hole you're gonna do it I got no [ __ ] lime you gonna stop kids I'll take the funnel I don't give a [ __ ] you're very very intense individuals I mean this is what happened they lived a very violent life and it was just part of their lifestyle yeah just give us the [ __ ] money oh yeah Marty wants you to figure things out yourself he wants you to come to the film and you to look at it and decide how you feel about it he doesn't want to tell you what to think he wants you to experience it you want [ __ ] who you want so this is in my view the most violent scene I ever shot there were no cuts in it and it was no tricks nothing you felt the violence right there I think in Marty's movie there is an intensity which is very similar to Marty I don't know if it's necessarily violence but you never know what's gonna happen believe it or not some guys that really think you're the real deal I never forget one guy said to me ages how could you let that little guy beat you up like that no and he says well whatever is with with us with their language we're kind of talking to this definition after net you are this guy was to kill 25 that we know about that's how real people think it is pick up a shovel at my mother's house I had a woman say to me and it's a schoolteacher educated woman said to me what time when they were in a house eating how could you breathe in a truck she said to me this is actually what she asked me I said I almost drew and I could hold it I learned something about that it's very very close to phobic and drunks I'll get in trunks I love watching Marty directing and being with the actors and with the crew it's wonderful but first of all I don't have time to be there and secondly it does prejudice my eyes I like to experience the film as it's being born and watch it every day with Marty and then my job is to help him sort of make sure that that all ends up on the screen the way he wants it when he's in the editing room he can then relax and sit and just with complete and utter control finish making his movie and a great deal of Marty's movies are made in the editing room particularly the last day as a wise guy as we call it last day as a wise guy is a sequence that I think came together particularly in the editing room because we could um we found that we could express the state of mind that Ray Liotta was in at that time and coked up and completely out of control it was written in a lot of small montages but it was never really visualized on the script the way you see it on film for example when Ray Liotta plunks the guns a camera swish pans up to him I just always enjoy all the strange jump cutting that we did you know Ray Liotta making veal cutlets and and how we just jumped around and just experimented and just had a hell of a lot of fun uh violating every rule there is during the previous I got annoying audience got annoyed so I made even faster more relentless in a way we can make it even more jagged we can make it more fractured and so we started doing more jump cuts what I love about it is the annoyance at having to go bring the guns to Jimi knowing damn well Jimmy's not gonna bite not for those [ __ ] drugs I'm making the morning from lush that you put you in a position what am i doing my life no he's annoyed I know Jimmy's gonna make me bring this around he's not gonna want gonna put him back in the trunk go over here I've got to stir the sauce I swear this helicopters following me but that can't pay attention I think it is known as picking up his brother could drugs coke girlfriends they're hiding guns and garbage pails and it goes all like that everything seemed to be of the same importance all the same level he could not differentiate at that point total madness that's Henry's life you know I know he's stoned and this is his vision of it as that but that was Henry's life yeah we did our jobs and you know we had great makeup and they made us look all whacked out but talk about music and editing everything everything gonna be all right this morning sous-chef Marty had such great ideas about how to put music to do some of those images some of it he had already pre-planned some of it he just he put into the film in the editing room he has a deep sense of how music should go with the film and by that I don't mean that that that it should go easily sometimes it's a shocking choice but it works like crazy I kind of see everything with music especially the juxtaposition of the type of music you're listening to to the images that you see out the window and that sort of thing and I said that's the way music should be in a movie that was the first time I've ever seen anyone shot remember you ever heard first oh yeah usually piece of music I remember when I first heard it where your mother in a butcher shop yeah yeah and you carry those pieces of music around for years and then suddenly find exactly the right place for that piece each shot was designed to certain bars of Leila we had the music already played on the set to get the right rhythm for the movement or for the length of the scene and when I got in the editing room then I had to make sure that I was trying to get exactly what he wanted he was very specific about how he wanted the music to cat let's try this that's really on the way right here I started Goodfellas was one of those films that I felt we rode like a horse it was so beautifully scripted and shaped by a new legend and Marty that it had its own energy and had its own Drive and as Marty was laying it down it just had an incredible feeling to it so we were sort of writing it in trying to stay on top of it and stay ahead of it if we could but it was so strong it had such a rhythm the movie has such an effect on people that no one expected I mean it's just such a it's just such a grip what I found in my experience is that there are certain films that you don't preview and certainly this is one and that's when we got our head handed to us when we took this in front of audiences we got killed the audience got really in some cases almost violent we had maybe 40 walk outs in the first 10 or 15 minutes when they were giving their cards back they were like throwing their cards and and writing profanities on the people who saw it from the studio at first they think they could see how incredibly entertaining it was what an amazing film it was but they were nervous about the drugs we had a lot of problems worthwhile the cut they wanted to cut out the violence which was impossible because that's what the movie was about so um he did have to fight very hard for for that and it was remarkable to watch him his courage and his conviction and the fact that he just would never give up but was very good at explaining why it was important to retain the material and we were able to get the film that that mardian wanted on the screen you know you're working on something like this you just try to make it as good as you can and even in the end but neither is to be still not totally satisfied and I remember literally at the opening of the movie I think it was at the Ziegfeld is somewhere I'm sitting next to him they got his in tuxedos and we're sitting next to him thing goes up and then homeless I get this lboys I told you I told it we shouldn't I know I should and he started talking about editing and we think you think he was in the editing room I said Marty buddy forget it it's over it's too late he laughed but you know even watching it on opening night there's still things you can tweak and things you can deal with I don't think he's ever gonna say I finally done it this is perfect you'll never hear that from

Channel: Phil's Quick Capsule Review

Views: 1,558,166

Rating: 4.8817344 out of 5

Keywords: Films, All Things Film, Filmsploitation, Movies, Goodfellas (Film), Film (Invention), Film (Film), Behind The Scenes, Robert De Niro, Martin Scorsese, Mob, Mafia, Henry Hill

Id: _bbzUZuxEB8

Length: 29min 39sec (1779 seconds)

Published: Sun Jan 19 2014

Reddit Comments

[u/Jamilacus]

Plot twist: they were all associated with the mafia

[u/Grand_Moff_Porkins]

The reason why will blow your mind!