The movie that I have chosen is Goodfellas, and I chose this movie because I thought it was one of the greatest acted and directed films ever made. The plot correlates with one of the `time periods of New York that is most diverse in its evolution spanning three decades. Goodfellas was set in the East New York section of Brooklyn, New York. The changes that occurred economically, politically, and socially during the time period the film depicts are vast. I will explore the actual evolution of the characteristics of the population in comparison to the film.
Social Demographic
According to the 1950 New York Census the urban areas of New York comprised 85.5% of the total population of the state. In the beginning of the film where you first get introduced to Ray Liotta’s character, you see him coming out of what looked like a very low-budget family house and you also hear him speak about how he couldn’t see himself being poor and working hard like everyone else and riding the train like a regular person. The realities of East New York hit home in the movie.
In his book How East New York Became a Ghetto, Walter Thabit wrote about the change in the demographic make-up of East New York, Brooklyn. Thabit wrote about how in the 1950s East New York was primarily made up of working class people of Italian and Jewish decent. In the film Scorsese depicted this real life scenario through the relationships of Italian men and Jewish girls. He showed how Italian men who were interested in Jewish women in the neighborhood had to hide their crucifixes when they went to pick them up on dates.
Scorsese also went further in demonstrating the actual ethnic change of East New York that Thabit wrote about in his book. When the Henry Hill character returns home from jail after seven years in the seventies he commented on the change of ethnic make-up within the community. He used derogatory language to describe the Puerto Rican insurgence in the community. Thabit wrote about the rise of the Puerto Rican and African American population in East New York and how it changed the previous ethnic landscape.
According to 1950’s website, the average income of the population was approximately $3,126, also the average price of owning of a home was $14,500, and the price of owning a Ford vehicle was approximately $1,339-$2,262. Goodfellas makes those statistics look like a joke especially depicting Robert de Niro’s character buying two homes and also owning a vehicle. The extravagant lifestyles of the characters’ exemplify how powerful and lucrative organized crime was during that time. Also the real life people in whom the character’s were portraying out-lived the average life expectancy of 69.7, and in reality Henry Hill is still living and the other members of the gang died in prison or were murdered. ("Internet Movie Database")
Most people in the City at this period were hard blue-collar workers noted Thabit. Many people also started to work for the MTA, which was really starting to flourish at that time due to more people not living within the city area. A lot of workers were coming from the Brooklyn and Bronx area of New York due to the income per family household.
Political Demographics
Under the topic of politics I considered the realities of the lifestyle of a mobster that Martin Scorsese tried to portray. The main issue for the mobster was being detected by the police. Part of the change in the political landscape of the time affected the way mobsters operated. In the movie there was police presence, but nothing to the extent of what was really going on in the actual world. According to US History.com in 1970 Congress passed the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO). Also According to US History.com the President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice identified that organized crime's income was twice that of the combined income of all other kinds of criminal behavior.
As in the film the murder rate in New York escalated toward the late seventies into the eighties as shown in the chart below.
Another politically charged event that occurred during the time in which the movie was depicted added to the realism of the film’s content as it relates to New York. In the movie there is one important scene that really stuck out to me due to the realism of the film, and the actual events in which it was portraying. December 11, 1978 at the Lufthansa Air Cargo terminal in New York City, 72 fifteen-pound cartons filled with money were removed from a vault within the terminal station. According to reports the men were considered to be mobsters.
The Movie Goodfellas
Goodfellas follows three Italian mobsters who are friends through a twenty-year span from the fifties through the seventies. The movie elaborated on the life of one mobster in particular named Henry Hill and some of the realities of that lifestyle for him and his associates. During that period of time in New York there were many people making money off the drugs and arms race that was taking place after the Vietnam War.
For example in Harlem, New York there were many people making their living off the demise and destruction of others. During that time mob presence in the city was highly prevalent due to the fact that most of the mobsters were coming from New Jersey. The city provided a very busy environment that was an excellent cover in the daily business grinds of a gangster. At that time in the city the cost of living was relatively low compared to the inflated prices we see now, and that aspect of living was a tad better than what we have now in my opinion.
Ray Liotta’s character, Henry Hill, in the movie was the more laid back one in the group, which is a true account of his character in real life. Robert de Niro’s character was true to the real life gangster, James “Jimmy” Conway, in which he was portraying in the film. Joe Pesci’s character, Tommy DeVito, to the contrary, was a little off due to the fact that the real life character in which he was trying to personify, was not as violent as he was in the film. The real life mobster tried to keep his name out of most occurrences that happened throughout the city even though nine out of ten times he did have something to with it.
The difference between the movie and real life as far as logistics go would be people weren’t that easily killed and not spoken of after their disappearance. Another difference at the time would be that people weren’t all driving nice Cadillacs and able to give their parents lavish gifts and luxury automobiles. People also at that time were more concerned about the Vietnam War rather than what was actually happening on the streets of America. This led to more people being enveloped in worldly problems, which made it easier for backyard crime.
Prime example would be Henry Hill himself and his band of goons perpetrated in the movie Goodfellas. Henry Hill was a modern day John Dillinger (for his time period) and damn near got away with more crimes then he did. Henry Hill was very smart in realizing that he could make a hefty amount of money in the concept of organized crime and that it would actually work.
According to www.u-s-history.com the definition of organized crime is criminal activity on the part of an organized and extensive group of people. So this means that there was usually a large group, of mostly men, who have come together to engage in crime. In the movie the organized group of men were called a mafia. Throughout the city as in the 50’s and 60’s there were many different factions and cliques throughout the city searching for dominance. For example in the early 60’s there were two men named Nicky Barnes and Frank Lucas. These two men made millions of dollars in Harlem, New York selling cocaine and various other narcotics all throughout the city and some interstate moves as well. They were eventually arrested and Frank Lucas has recently relinquished his story for a recent film American Gangster.
At the time Goodfellas was made, the movie mold of the mob genre consisted of The Godfather, the Untouchables, a Better Tomorrow, and Scarface.
These movies were highly revered and reviewed.
But Martin Scorsese broke the mold with his vision and character development.
Based on the book Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi, which was based on a true story, Scorsese brought the pages and the real life characters to the screen in a way that has been talked about for decades. (
www.imdb.com) The protagonist of the film had such a neutral feeling towards the killings and assassinations that he sees taking place.
This and the artistic direction and film production can be the reason why the movie is very similar in some ways to its mob film contemporaries and respectively different in other ways.
According to IMDb.com, Goodfellas has domestically grossed a little fewer than fifty million dollars to this day. During the period in which the movie was based some of the popular films that were doing well in the box office were Swiss Family Robinson (1960), Bonnie and Clyde (1967), Ben Hur (1959), and also Lady and the Tramp (1955).
In conclusion, Goodfellas was a film that represented not only the life of the mafia and its inner workings, but used New York as its backdrop in a way that connected the times to the actual events in the city. While Scorsese did a great job at developing the characters of the film, he allowed the changing atmosphere of East New York speak through his characters. Understanding that this film is not a documentary, but based on a book that originated from a true story, I think Scorsese realized the importance of letting historical events pertaining to the location ring as close to true as necessary to tell the story.
Bibliography
"Biography for Henry Hill." The Internet Movie Database. IMDb.com, Inc., 2010. Web. 2 Dec 2010. <http://www.imdb.com/name/nm1453737/bio>.
Brunsman, Howard R. United States. Census of Population: 1950 New York. Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1952. Print.
Edge, Trader's. "1960's Flashback." 1960's Flashback. Internet Developing, 2001. Web. 17 Nov 2010. <http://www.1960sflashback.com/1960/economy.asp>.
Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives of the United States. Compiled by Robert B. Matchette et al. Washington, DC: National Archives and Records Administration, 1995.
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Jacobson, Marc. "Lords of Dopetown." New York Magazine. 81. (2007): Print.
Thabit, Walter. How East New York Became a Ghetto. 3rd Ed. New York: Library of Congress Cataloging, 2003. Print.
