GOODFELLAS - Tommy's mysterious Mother - Film analysis by Rob Ager

they go to Tommy's mother's house to get a shovel  and she wakes up and insists they eat with her and   she won't let them leave apparently that really  happened though the book gives no details of   their conversation lots of stuff is implied by  these mother scenes firstly the fact that she   woke up and got downstairs so quickly just from  hearing a car pull up suggests she's a bit lonely   and desperate for company this is furthered by  her statements that Tommy Hartley ever visits   so tell me tell me where have you been  and I haven't seen you I haven't even the clock here shows what could be 12 15 or 3 A.M  but the book says that they actually had breakfast   with Tommy's mother very early breakfast so so  it must have been pretty late in real life in   the real event and in this interview Score says he  says that they arrive at the mother's house at 3am   so yeah let's let's take it as 3 A.M another  major factor here is Mother's gullibility her   unwillingness or perhaps inability to see her son  for the psychopath that he is he sneaks in during   the night with blood prominently on his shirt and  she believes without question a ridiculous story   about him working nights going for a nighttime  random drive in the country and hitting it there right on the out to the country and we  hit one of those deers a touch full of   blood came from I told you and then she  believes him about having to borrow a   butcher knife to cut a deer's hoofer  out of the fruit Grill on the car it's okay okay we hit the deer in his paw what do you  call it bigger the hoof got caught in   that Grill I got it I gotta hack it  off she doesn't ask to come out and   have a look at the hoof in the car  grill or or ask him why he needs to   retain the knife at some other time and  he even plays into her religious beliefs this easy to deceive mother framing of Tommy's  personal background is crucial if you want a kid   to turn out as a selfish manipulative psycho you  don't always have to abuse them or neglect them to   achieve that allowing your child to consistently  go undisciplined and to go unchallenged when they   lie or manipulate that will do the trick if  it's carried on through childhood and puberty   and into the late teens and it's even worse  if the child has given heaps of unconditional   adoration regardless of how badly they behave  it teaches the child that they are the center   of the universe that only their feelings matter  and it teaches them to have total confidence in   their ability to lie manipulate and commit  crimes not the utter absence of any Father   Figure in this home as well and if there's  a dead father figure he never gets a mention   fathers if they're involved typically bring a much  needed dose of discipline to young boys and being   males themselves can typically see through a young  man's lies more easily than a mother usually would   just as there are aspects of a daughter's behavior  that a mother can more easily understand and yet   another factor in that is that in a fatherless  household a teenage boy can quite easily become   physically dominant over his mother using threats  or actual violence to put his mother in her place   the overall result is that they go out into the  world with the belief that they can get away with   whatever they want in the same way in the Source  book some of the wives and girlfriends describe   that Henry Jimmy Tommy and other gangsters like  them were like big school kids always laughing   and joking and pulling pranks on each other  remember also these three were only in their 20s   when much of the story of this film occurred the  large nighttime Feast here I think also suggests   that Tommy may have been spoiled by his mother as  a kid and while he makes a joke about not wanting   a girlfriend because he prefers his mother there  may well be an unconscious truth to the statement   and she'll get yourself a nice girl I get a nice  one almost every night yeah but get yourself a   girl so you could settle down that's why I shuttle  down almost every night but then in the morning   I'm free I love you I want to be with you I don't  mean he wants his mother's actually I mean that he   wouldn't want a girlfriend unless her Devotion to  him and her gullibility were akin to his mother's   it does make me wonder what the  real Tommy's wife was actually like   and other than that his statements here  are an example of how Tommy can switch on   the false charm as circumstances require  if he loves his mother and wants to be   with her then why does he hardly ever  visit but the flattery wins her over   note the false sexual prowess element too  and she'll get yourself a nice girl okay man I doubt that and also a common motive  of mothers desperately wanting their sons   to settle down with the girls because they  desperately want grandkids so that they can   have the mothering experience all over again  the enthusiastic eating is important here too   Henry is the one who's emotionally shook up from  the murder of Billy Batson has trouble eating to talk a little bit you don't  eat much you don't talk much   while the other two enjoyed the murder and  are comfortable enough in the aftermath to   just pig out as one commenter on the  previous video of mine about the film   pointed out Jimmy loads has plate here  with ketchup which is the color of blood shows her painting and the script says that  she just shows a couple of oil paintings   but it doesn't specify anything about the  details and there's no dialogue about it   she instead says she's going to paint the Mona  Lisa next in the film that line is omitted but   in her final scene we can see that she is  in the process of painting the Mona Lisa   this particular picture is based upon a photo of  an artist named John weaving the painting version   seen here was apparently painted by the mother  of Nicholas palagi who co-wrote the Goodfellas   book with Henry Hill and then he co-wrote the  screenplay with Scorsese I've seen online sources   offering interpretations of the actual contents  of the painting but as far as I can tell it was   picked simply so that Jimmy and Tommy could crack  a joke about the guy in the picture looking like   Billy bats who they had just beaten to a  pulp it looks it's like somebody we know what I've got beer no it's him the Source book describes that some of  the gangsters and especially Jimmy and   Tommy when they hung out together would  laugh and joke about mad as they committed   one guy named Remo was buried under a basement  that they would play cards in and whenever they   played cards there in the same location afterwards  they would jokingly say hello Remo to the floor   so the reality of their indifference to murder  was just as Sinister as it is in the movie   as far as I can tell everything else in this  painting even the two dogs looking in different   directions is incidental but Joe Pesci with  his incredible ad living in this role comes   up with some unscripted lines that have us  wondering about the significance of the dogs so what and this guy's saying what do you want  from me okay he's got a nice head of white hair   look how beautiful the dog it looks the same  brilliant stuff and something I like about   it as well as the tummy appears to be indifferent  to Art to him Artisan introverted and pretentious   thing to be marked personally I'd pay top dollar  to see Tommy the art critic leading guitar a tour   group in a National Gallery and giving his  comical interpretation of all the artwork   on display while swearing at and threatening  anyone in the tour group who got out of line   that would be amazing imagine him pulling  a gun on people for not listening as he   comments on the artwork or making jokes about  the pictures and then aggressively asking the   crowd if they think he's fully guy a clown and  so on please Joe Pesci if you ever watch this   video go out and make a spoof movie of Tommy  as an art critic I would pay top money for that   while I don't think there's much relevant meaning  in the content of this painting aside from   allowing for a joke about Billy Batts the context  of the painting in the filmmaking process is more   interesting we have an extraordinary coincidence  here the painting is by the mother of Nicholas   palagi who co-wrote the script and the Mother  character is played by scosazi's actual real-life   Mother Catherine like Joe Pesci Scorsese and  palegi are of Italian descent but unlike pashi   who is from New Jersey and palegi grew up in New  York where the events of Goodfellas take place   Scorsese particularly had personal experience of  Street crime in New York and has chosen as movies   I haven't read much on pelagi's background  but given his fascination with the Italian   mafia in the books he's written it could well be  that he had some experience with that aspect in   New York as well so something I suspect is going  on in this scene is that there's a little bit of   identification with Tommy going gone from palagi  and Scorsese hence the casting of scorsese's   mother in the role and her holding up a painting  that was done by pelagi's mother I especially   think this is happening with Scorsese because it  occurs again later in the film regarding another   piece of casting A girlfriend of Tommy's is played  by Ileana Douglas who was scorsese's partner when   they were making the film and further support  of this listen here to how Scorsese describes   the filming of the mother scene jokingly  casting himself in the deceptive role of Tommy   and it's so naturalistic she's the same character  yeah and Goodfellas as we see yeah well the thing   is yeah the thing is that I grew up I mean people  talk about the Italian-American neighbor you're   downtown you know what it is now it's kind of gone  but when I grew up there was still very much of a   small little village life in a way but you know  there was that element of organized crime there   was that element of of danger at times and  and some family members just not making it   just going off the wrong way and and not winding  up uh alive anymore and so she doesn't care what   her son does he's home it's three o'clock in the  morning let me give you some food Where Have You   Been for three nights that concerned that they  just beat some guys no I didn't I didn't I didn't   tell her I might didn't tell my mother there was  a body in the trunk I just said your son is home he's home cooked some food uh Bob as I playing  an Irish guy give him some potatoes and eggs   with ketchup this double casting of Tommy's mother  and girlfriend by scorsese's real life equivalent   suggests it's go says he viewed Tommy as a maybe  a dark Alter Ego of himself the kind of person   he could have turned into if he had followed  a different path in his New York Street Life   upbringing Scorsese has talked about there being  a psychological split in his early life where he   was torn between wanting to be a priest or a  filmmaker but also dealing with the influences   of local Street Life many of his films portray  elements of this especially his third film Mean   Streets which incorporates the kind of violence  he saw in his neighborhood and even in the lives   of his own family members I also wonder if that  partial identification with Tommy affected the   choice to cast Joe Pesci in the role Scorsese  and pashi are both quite short guys but the real   Tommy was six foot two and of course let's not  forget that the film essentially portrays Henry   being in the gangster life but not being totally  committed to it because he doesn't like committing   murders and we've had other suggestions of a dual  identity in which Tommy is the Dark Side of Henry   so maybe that stuff is kind of an expression  on scorsese's part about the The Duality that   being pulled between crime and you know the  the life of being a priest or a filmmaker   anyway so this mother scene has  brought up a lot of information   about Tommy and ways that we can  interpret him so let's move on

Channel: Collative Learning

Views: 58,643

Keywords: goodfellas scene, goodfellas mother, goodfellas tommy's mother, goodfellas painting, goodfellas billy batts, rob ager goodfellas, collative learning goodfellas, joe pesci goodfellas, goodfellas tommy

Id: tL5WiaEfOVI

Length: 12min 9sec (729 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 08 2023