Why Was Only Tommy Killed in Goodfellas, and Not Jimmy & Henry ?

spoiler alert Tommy gets killed in Goodfellas why was he killed and why weren't Jimmy and Henry killed along with him you could blame it on Bad Blood and bad attitude as for Jimmy and Henry you could say that it was the Luck of the Irish that saved them from getting killed or was it something else whatever the reason everything in the mob ultimately boils down to business I have talked about Goodfellas as one of the most well-loved mob movies ever made but for now let's get down to business and revisit Martin scorsese's 1990 classic mob film Goodfellas to get the answers in a recent TCM interview director Martin Scorsese said he didn't want to make another mob film but when he read the book wise guy by Nicholas Pileggi Scorsese was inspired to share what he himself saw every day as a kid growing up in New York City what makes Goodfellas so remarkable is that it gives a street-level view of life in the MOB the movie is narrated for the most part by the late Ray Liotta as Henry Hill and Irish Italian teenager in 1955 Brooklyn Henry has always wanted to be part of the local mob his first job is parking cars for the neighborhood boss Paul Cesaro played by Paul cervino Henry is soon partnered with another boy a young Italian-American by the name of Tommy DeVito who looks a bit comical in the suits he wears which are two sizes too big for him almost like he's trying too hard to be one of the big boys Tommy and Henry are told to work under one of Paulie's Associates an Irish American by the name of Jimmy Conway already the relationship among the three is laid out in front of us with Jimmy as the brains Henry is the go-to guy and Tommy as the third member of the group the characters are based on real-life mobster turned FBI informant Henry Hill along with hot-headed Tommy two guns DeSimone and MOB Money Maker Jimmy the Gent Burke with Burke being The Mastermind behind one of the most daring cash heists in U.S history and the take a whopping 6 million dollars in cash stolen from the Lufthansa cargo bay at JFK Airport in 1978 among the three only Tommy was pure Italian this is important for everyone who wants to be made and because of his bloodline along with his earning performance as part of Jimmy's crew Tommy would get news soon after the heist that the family was opening its books although Jimmy and Henry could never get made on account of their Irish blood they brought in so much money that they were one of Paulie's most valued Associates it seems that being good earners and having Irish blood saved the two from getting whacked when they eventually got out of line it takes more than luck to dodge a bullet of course for Henry it was getting caught by the FBI after the Lufthansa Heist Jimmy starts getting jumpy he's worried he would get pinned for the heist meanwhile having nothing to do with the heist Henry has other things to worry about mainly his side hustle you see Henry and Jimmy went against Paulie's explicit orders to stay out of this dirty business of dealing drugs Polly warned Henry that getting caught even for the smallest thing would lead to a very long prison sentence something Paulie wanted nothing to do with at his age but Henry and Jimmy were earning so much from running drugs out of Pittsburgh they didn't want to let it go and kept it a secret from the boss when things started to get out of control Henry was sure he was going to get whacked and perhaps Jimmy too but what they got instead was a warning in the form of Tommy's death but why Tommy like all movies about organized crime murder is the inevitable end for some characters and Goodfellas you might ask what did Tommy do to get himself killed what Tommy did earned him a sanctioned hit to understand this we must first get it straight that all organizations have rules and the mafia is no different Henry explains for most of the guys killing gotta be accepted murder was the only way that everyone stayed in line you got out of line you got whacked everybody knew the rules but sometimes even if people didn't get out of line they got whacked I mean it's just become a habit for some of the guys guys would get into arguments over nothing and before you knew it one of them was dead and they were shooting each other all the time shooting people was a normal thing it was no big deal one of these laws is that you cannot kill a member of the mafia without authorization from his boss Tommy was murdered because he broke Mafia law but that was only the beginning of his end Midway through Goodfellas Tommy murders Billy Batts a member of the the gambino crime family recently released from prison bats is celebrating at Henry's Bar when Tommy arrives bats and Tommy have an awkward exchange that hints at Bad Blood between the two soon enough an insult is thrown about Tommy's shine box and all hell is about to break loose when Henry intervenes knowing full well that you can't kill a maid guy he was Untouchable this doesn't stop Tommy from pistol whipping bats to death with Jimmy helping him out by kicking the crap out of bats this is the first of two murders Tommy commits and Goodfellas the unsanctioned murder of a Gambino member certainly puts everyone in trouble but the second murder is of an inconsequential employee at Henry's Club a young man who goes by the name of spider although killing a nobody means nothing to the Mob it is Tommy's temperament that is put into the spotlight here Tommy accidentally shoots spider in the foot for failing to take his drink order spider is taken to the doctor and the next time we see him he's got a cast on his foot Tommy starts pick taking on them but this is too much for spider he tells Tommy to go [ __ ] himself and the room goes dead silent everyone's in shock Jimmy is amused at spider for having the guts to stand up for himself but you can clearly see how the only one in the room who hasn't recovered from this is Tommy now Tommy is known for being excessively violent he's a good earner and a tough guy sure but he is also a source of aggravation for him to be humiliated in front of the boys is something he can't let slide it's exactly this attitude that gets Tommy into trouble with the family and it certainly didn't help when the decision came for Retribution why was Tommy killed mainly because of the unsanctioned murder of Billy Batts but also because he was just difficult to be around as for Jimmy he did help kill Billy but he was also Paulie's top earner and in the mob there's something a bit more important than anything else and that is business if you're a top earner you just might get away with a lot more Henry however Gets Busted by the feds it seems at this point that the witness protection program is the only reason he doesn't get whacked this isn't the first time that Henry gets pinched for selling drugs in fact he has served time for doing trafficking before when he gets out he's so broke that he sees no choice but to beg Paulie for help unfortunately Henry's luck seems to run out because to Paulie what Henry did was the one thing he asked him not to do Paulie hands him a few thousand dollars and turns his back on Henry for good in the mob as in real life your earning power isn't everything your behavior counts for just as much if you think of yourself as some kind of wise guy who can do whatever he likes with little to no consequence then you might just end up cutting to pieces and left to rot in some Florida swamp or you might find yourself floating face down in a shallow pool like this guy who had it all but didn't know when to call it quits

Channel: Movies Consigliere

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Id: iLtAZM-rUj0

Length: 7min 42sec (462 seconds)

Published: Sat Nov 26 2022