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Goodfellas

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As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster.

Goodfellas is a 1990 film about the rise and fall of three gangsters, spanning three decades.

Directed by Martin Scorsese. Written by Nicholas Pileggi and Martin Scorsese, based on Pileggi's book, Wiseguy: Life in a Mafia Family.
Three Decades of Life in the Mafia.taglines

Henry Hill

[edit]
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.
Today, everything is different. There's no action. I have to wait around like everyone else. Can't even get decent food. Right after I got here, I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce and I got egg noodles and ketchup. I'm an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.
  • As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. To me, being a gangster was better than being President of the United States. Even before I first wandered into the cabstand for an after-school job, I knew I wanted to be a part of them. It was there that I knew that I belonged. To me, it meant being somebody in a neighborhood that was full of nobodies. They weren't like anybody else. I mean, they did whatever they wanted. They double-parked in front of a hydrant and nobody ever gave them a ticket. In the summer when they played cards all night, nobody ever called the cops.
  • Paulie might've moved slow, but it was only because Paulie didn't have to move for anybody.
  • My father was always pissed off. He was pissed that he made such lousy money, he was pissed that my kid brother Michael was in a wheelchair, he was pissed that there were seven of us living in such a tiny house. After awhile he was mostly pissed because I hung around the cab stand. He knew what went on at that cab stand, and every once in a while I'd have to take a beating. But by then I didn't care. The way I saw it everybody takes a beating sometime.
  • Hundreds of guys depended on Paulie and he got a piece of everything they made. And it was tribute, just like in the old country, except they were doing it here in America. And all they got from Paulie was protection from other guys looking to rip them off. And that's what it's all about. That's what the FBI could never understand. That what Paulie and the organization does is offer protection for people who can't go to the cops. That's it. That's all. They're like the police department for wiseguys.
  • One day some of the kids from the neighborhood carried my mother's groceries all the way home. You know why? It was outta respect.
  • For us to live any other way was nuts. Uh, to us, those goody-good people who worked shitty jobs for bum paychecks and took the subway to work every day and worried about their bills were dead. I mean they were suckers. They had no balls. If we wanted something, we just took it. If anyone complained twice they got hit so bad, believe me, they never complained again.
  • Now the guy's got Paulie as a partner. Any problems, he goes to Paulie. Trouble with the bill? He can go to Paulie. Trouble with the cops, deliveries, Tommy, he can call Paulie. But now the guy's gotta come up with Paulie's money every week, no matter what. Business bad? "Fuck you, pay me." Oh, you had a fire? "Fuck you, pay me." Place got hit by lightning, huh? "Fuck you, pay me." Also, Paulie could do anything. Especially run up bills on the joint's credit. And why not? Nobody's gonna pay for it anyway. And as soon as the deliveries are made in the front door, you move the stuff out the back and sell it at a discount. You take a two hundred dollar case of booze and you sell it for a hundred. It doesn't matter. It's all profit. And then finally, when there's nothing left, when you can't borrow another buck from the bank or buy another case of booze, you bust the joint out. You light a match.
  • For most of the guys, killings got to be accepted. Murder was the only way that everybody 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, hits just became 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. We had a serious problem with Billy Batts. This was really a touchy thing. Tommy'd killed a made guy. Batts was part of the Gambino crew and was considered untouchable. Before you could touch a made guy, you had to have a good reason. You had to have a sitdown, and you better get an okay, or you'd be the one who got whacked.
  • [Henry and Jimmy are dangling a man who owes Paulie money over the lion enclosure at the Tampa Zoo] They must really feed each other to the lions down there because the guy gave the money right up and we got to spend the rest of the weekend at the track. Then I couldn’t believe what happened, when we got home, we were all over the newspaper. At first I didn’t even know why we got picked up but then I found out that the guy we roughed up turned out to have a sister working as a typist for the FBI. I couldn’t believe it. Of all the fucking people. She gave up everybody; Jimmy, me, even her brother. Took the jury six hours to bring us in guilty. The judge gave Jimmy and me ten years like he was giving away candy.
  • Saturday night was for wives, but Friday night at the Copa was always for the girlfriends.
  • See, you know when you think of prison, you get pictures in your mind of all those old movies with rows and rows of guys behind bars...But it wasn't like that for wiseguys. It really wasn't that bad. Excepting that I missed Jimmy. He was doing his time in Atlanta...I mean, everybody else in the joint was doing real time, all mixed together, living like pigs. But we lived alone. And we owned the joint.
  • [after the Lufthansa heist] It made him sick to have to turn money over to the guys who stole it. He'd rather whack 'em. Anyway, what did I care? I wasn't asking for anything and besides, Jimmy was making nice money with me through my Pittsburgh connections. [showing a montage of dead gangsters] But still, months after the robbery they were finding bodies all over. [police surround a truck, open it to see a dead man hanging on a hook like a meat husk] When they found Carbone in the meat truck, he was frozen so stiff it took them two days to thaw him out for the autopsy.
  • You know, we always called each other goodfellas. Like you said to, uh, somebody, "You're gonna like this guy. He's all right. He's a good fella. He's one of us." You understand? We were goodfellas. Wiseguys. But Jimmy and I could never be made because we had Irish blood. It didn't even matter that my mother was Sicilian. To become a member of a crew you've got to be one hundred per cent Italian so they can trace all your relatives back to the old country. See, it's the highest honor they can give you. It means you belong to a family and crew. It means that nobody can fuck around with you. It also means you could fuck around with anybody just as long as they aren't also a member. It's like a license to steal. It's a license to do anything. As far as Jimmy was concerned with Tommy being made, it was like we were all being made. We would now have one of our own as a member.
  • [about Tommy's murder] It was revenge for Billy Batts, and a lot of other things. And there was nothing that we could do about it. Batts was a made man and Tommy wasn't. And we had to sit still and take it. It was among the Italians. It was real greaseball shit. They even shot Tommy in the face so his mother couldn't give him an open coffin at the funeral.
  • For a second, I thought I was dead, but when I heard all the noise I knew they were cops. Only cops talk that way. If they had been wiseguys, I wouldn't have heard a thing. I would've been dead.
  • If you're part of a crew, nobody ever tells you that they're going to kill you. It doesn't happen that way. There weren't any arguments or curses like in the movies. So your murderers come with smiles. They come as your friends, the people who have cared for you all of your life, and they always seem to come at a time when you're at your weakest and most in need of their help.
  • It was easy for all of us to disappear. My house and cars were either registered in the name of my wife or my mother-in-law. My driver's license and social security number were phony. I never voted; never paid taxes. My birth certificate, arrest sheet, and my service record from the Army were all that existed to prove to the government I was ever alive.
  • See, the hardest thing for me was leaving the life. I still love the life. And we were treated like movie stars with muscle. We had it all, just for the asking. Our wives, mothers, kids, everybody rode along. I had paper bags filled with jewelry stashed in the kitchen. I had a sugar bowl full of coke next to the bed. Anything I wanted was a phone call away. Free cars. The keys to a dozen hideout flats all over the city. I'd bet twenty, thirty grand over a weekend and then I'd either blow the winnings in a week or go to the sharks to pay back the bookies. Didn't matter. It didn't mean anything. When I was broke I would go out and rob some more. We ran everything. We paid off cops. We paid off lawyers. We paid off judges. Everybody had their hands out. Everything was for the taking. And now it's all over. And that's the hardest part. Today, everything is different. There's no action. I have to wait around like everyone else. Can't even get decent food. Right after I got here, I ordered some spaghetti with marinara sauce and I got egg noodles and ketchup. I'm an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my life like a schnook.

Karen Hill

[edit]
I know there are women, like my best friends, who would have gotten out of there the minute their boyfriend gave them a gun to hide. But I didn't. I gotta admit the truth. It turned me on.
  • One night, Bobby Vinton sent us champagne. There was nothing like it. I didn't think there was anything strange in any of this. You know, a twenty-one-year-old kid with such connections. He was an exciting guy. He was really nice. He introduced me to everybody. Everybody wanted to be nice to him. And he knew how to handle it.
  • I know there are women, like my best friends, who would have gotten out of there the minute their boyfriend gave them a gun to hide. But I didn't. I gotta admit the truth. It turned me on.
  • It was like he had two families. The first time I was introduced to all of them at once, it was crazy. Paulie and his brothers had lots of sons and nephews and almost all of them were named Peter or Paul. It was unbelievable. There must have been two dozen Peter’s and Paul’s at the wedding. Plus they were all married to girls named Marie. And they named all their daughter’s Marie. By the time I finished meeting everybody, I thought I was drunk!
  • Well, we weren't married to nine-to-five guys, but the first time I realized how different was when Mickey had a hostess party. They had bad skin and wore too much make-up. I mean, they didn't look very good. They looked beat-up. And the stuff they wore was thrown together and cheap. A lot of pant suits and double knits. And they talked about how rotten their kids were and about beating them with broom handles and leather belts. But that the kids still didn't pay any attention...After a while, it got to be all normal. None of it seemed like crimes. It was more like Henry was enterprising and that he and the guys were making a few bucks hustling, while the other guys were sitting on their asses waiting for hand-outs. Our husbands weren't brain surgeons. They were blue-collar guys. The only way they could make extra money, real extra money, was to go out and cut a few corners...We were all so very close. I mean, there were never any outsiders around. Absolutely never. And being together all the time made everything seem all the more normal.
  • We always did everything together and we always were in the same crowd. Anniversaries, christenings. We only went to each other's houses. The women played cards, and when the kids were born, Mickey and Jimmy were always the first at the hospital. And when we went to the Islands or Vegas to vacation, we always went together. No outsiders, ever. It got to be normal. It got to where I was even proud that I had the kind of husband who was willing to go out and risk his neck just to get us the little extras.
  • But still I couldn't hurt him. How could I hurt him? I couldn't even bring myself to leave him. The truth was that no matter how bad I felt I was still very attracted to him. Why should I give him to someone else? Why should she win?

Dialogue

[edit]
You took your first pinch like a man, and you learned the two most important things in life. You listenin'? Never rat on your friends, and ALWAYS keep your mouth shut.
I'm funny how? I mean funny like I'm a clown? I amuse you?
Jimmy: [To young Henry, after he gets cleared in court] Congratulations, here's your graduation present [Puts money in Henry's pocket]
Henry: For what? I got pinched.
Jimmy: Hey, everybody gets pinched, but you did it right. You told 'em nothing and they got nothing.
Henry: I thought you'd be mad.
Jimmy: I'm not mad, I'm proud of ya. You took your first pinch like a man, and you learned the two most important things in life. You listenin'? Never rat on your friends, and ALWAYS keep your mouth shut. [Gives Henry an affectionate light slap on the cheek and leads him out of the courtroom. Outside, Paulie and many of the other gangsters are waiting for him.]
Paulie: Hey, you broke yer cherry! [The other gangsters cheer and congratulate Henry]
Henry: You're a pistol! You're really funny. You're really funny!
Tommy: What do you mean I'm funny?
Henry: It's funny, you know. It's a good story, it's funny, you're a funny guy!
Tommy: [dangerously] What do you mean? You mean the way I talk? What?
[Everyone becomes quiet]
Henry: It's just, you know, you're just funny. It's funny, the way you tell the story and everything.
Tommy: Funny how? I mean, what's funny about it?
Anthony: Tommy, no, you got it all wrong —
Tommy: Oh, oh, Anthony. He's a big boy, he knows what he said. [to Henry] What did ya say? Funny how?
Anthony: You're right.
Henry: Just —
Tommy: What?
Henry: Just, ya know, you're funny.
Tommy: You mean, let me understand this, 'cause, ya know maybe it's me, I'm a little fucked up maybe, but I'm funny how? I mean funny like I'm a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh, I'm here to fuckin' amuse you? What do you mean funny? Funny how? How am I funny?
Henry: Just... you know, how you tell the story — what?
Tommy: No, no, I don't know. You said it! How do I know? You said I'm funny. How the fuck am I funny? What the fuck is so funny about me?! Tell me, tell me what's funny!
[Long pause]
Henry: Get the fuck out of here, Tommy!
[Everyone laughs]
Tommy: Ya motherfucker! I almost had him, I almost had him! You stuttering prick, you! Frankie, was he shaking? I wonder about you sometimes, Henry. You may fold under questioning!


Karen: [narrating, at a makeup party with other wives] Well we weren't married to 9 to 5 guys but the first time I realized how different was when Mickey had a hostess party. They had bad skin and wore too much makeup I mean, they didn't look very good. They looked beat up. And the stuff they wore was thrown together and cheap. A lot of pant suits and double-knits. And they talked about how rotten their kids were and about beating them with broom handles and leather belts, that the kids still didn't pay any attention. When Henry picked me up I was dizzy. [later in her bedroom] I don't know, I don't know if i could live like that. God forbid, what would happen if you had to go to prison?
Henry: Karen! [laughs]
Karen: Vicki said that Jeannie's husband-
Henry: You know why Jeannie's husband went to the can? Because of Jeannie! Because he wanted to get away from her that's why! Let me tell you something; nobody goes to jail unless they want to. Unless they make themselves get caught. They don't have things organized. I know what I'm doing, I got things organized with these guys. You know who goes to jail? Nigger stick-up men, that's who. You know why they get caught? Because they fall asleep in the get-away car, Karen. Come on, don't worry so much sweetie. Come here.
[Henry and Karen start kissing]
Karen: [narrating] After a while, it got to be all normal. None of it seemed like crime. It was more like Henry was enterprising, and that he and the guys were making a few bucks hustling, while all the other guys were sitting on their asses, waiting for handouts. Our husbands weren't brain surgeons, they were blue-collar guys. The only way they could make extra money, real extra money, was to go out and cut a few corners.
[Cuts to Henry and Tommy hijacking a truck]
Tommy: Where's the strongbox, you fuckin' varmint?!
Karen: [narrating] We were all so very close. I mean, there were never any outsiders around. Absolutely never. And being together all the time made everything seem all the more normal.
Tommy: Just don't go bustin' my balls, Billy, okay?
Billy: Hey, Tommy, if I was gonna break your balls, I'd tell you to go home and get your shine box. [To his friends] Now this kid, this kid was great. They, they used to call him Spitshine Tommy. I swear to God! Now he'd make your shoes look like fuckin' mirrors. 'Scuse my language. He was terrific, he was the best. He made a lot of money, too. Salud, Tommy!
Tommy: No more shines, Billy.
Billy: What?
Tommy: I said no more shines. Maybe you didn't hear about it, you've been away a long time; they didn't go up there and tell you. I don't shine shoes anymore.
Billy: Relax, will ya? You flipped right out, what's got into you? I'm breakin' your balls a little bit, that's all. I'm only kiddin' with ya.
Tommy: Sometimes you don't sound like you're kidding, you know? There's a lotta people around...
Billy: Tommy, I'm only kiddin' with you. We're having a party and I just came home, and I haven't seen you in a long time, and I'm breakin' your balls, and right away you're getting fuckin' fresh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you.
Tommy: I'm sorry too. It's okay. No problem.
Billy: Okay, salud. [moment of silence as he takes a drink] Now go home and get ya fuckin' shinebox!
Tommy: [smashes his glass in anger] Motherfuckin' mutt! You, you fuckin' piece of shit...! [Henry and Jimmy restrain him]
Billy: [taunting] Yeah, yeah, yeah, come on, come on! Come on! Let him go!
Tommy: Henry, he bought his fucking button! That fake old tough guy! You bought your fucking button! Keep that motherfucker here, keep him here! [leaves]
[Henry, Jimmy, and Tommy are digging up Billy Batts' decaying corpse to move it]
Tommy: Hey Henry, Henry, hurry up, will ya? My mother's gonna make some fresh peppers and sausages for us.
Jimmy: Oh hey, Henry, Henry, here's an arm!
Henry: Very funny, guys.
Jimmy: Here's a leg.
Tommy: Here's a wing! [laughing] Whaddya like, the leg or the wing, Henry? Or do you still go for the ol' hearts and lungs?
Henry: [retching] Oh, that's so bad.
Tommy: Spider, that bandage on your foot is bigger than your fucking head. Next thing you know he'll have one of these fucking walkers. But you can still dance. Give us a couple of fucking steps, Spider. You fucking bullshitter, you. Tell the truth. You want sympathy, is that right, sweetie?
Spider: Why don't you go fuck yourself, Tommy?
[Everyone, but Tommy, laughs]
Jimmy: I didn't hear right. I can't believe what I heard. [giving Spider cash] This is for you. I got respect for this kid, he's got a lot of fucking balls. Good for you! Don't take no shit off nobody! A guy shoots him in the foot, he tells him to go fuck himself. Tommy, you gonna let this fucking punk get away with that? What's this world coming to?
Tommy: [standing and shooting Spider] That's what the fucking world's coming to, how do ya like that? How's that?
Henry: What is wrong with you?!
Jimmy: What is the fucking matter with you?! What, are you stupid or what?! I was kidding with you. Are you a sick maniac?
Tommy: How do I know you're kidding? You breaking my fucking balls?!
Jimmy: I'm fucking kidding with you, you fucking shoot the guy?!
Henry: [inspecting Spider on the floor] He's dead.
Tommy: [after a brief silence] I'm a good shot, what do you want from me?
Anthony: How could you miss at this distance?
Tommy: You got a problem with what I did, Anthony? Fucking rat, anyway. His family's all rats, he'd have grown up to be a rat.
Jimmy: Stupid bastard, I can't fucking believe you. Now, you're gonna dig the fucking thing now. You're gonna dig the hole. I got no fucking lime, you're gonna do it.
Tommy: Fine! I'll dig the fucking hole, I don't give a fuck. What is it, the first hole I ever dug? I'll fucking dig the hole. Where are the shovels?
Paulie: [about Henry's cheating] Karen came to the house. She's very upset. This is no good; you gotta straighten this out.
Jimmy: We gotta have calm now, ya understand? We don't know what the hell she's gonna do. She's getting all hysterical, she gets very excited.
Paulie: She's wild. And you, you gotta take it easy, you got children. I'm not saying go back to her this minute, but you got to go back. It's the only way. You got to keep up appearances.
Jimmy: I got the two of them come to my house every day commiserating, the two of them. I can't have it. I can't have it. I can't do it, Henry. I can't do it.
Paulie: Nobody says you can't do what you want to do.
Jimmy: Do what you wanna do, we all know that. I mean, this is what it is. Ok? You know what it is. You have to do the right thing, you have to go home to the family. Understand? You gotta go home. Ok? Look at me. You gotta go home. Smarten up. All right?
Paulie: All right. I'm gonna talk to Karen. I'll straighten this thing out. I know just what to say to her. I'm gonna tell her you're going back to her and everything's gonna be just the way it was when you were first married, it's gonna be romance, it's gonna be beautiful. I know how to talk to her, especially to her. In the meantime, Jimmy and Tommy are going to Tampa this weekend to pick up something for me. Instead you go with Jimmy.
Jimmy: Yeah, you come with me. We'll go down there. Ok?
Paulie: Have a good time, take some time for yourself, relax, sit in the sun, take a couple of days off. Enjoy yourselves. And when you come back, you'll go back to Karen. Please. There's no other way. You're not gonna get a divorce. We're not animale.
Jimmy: She'll never divorce him. She'll kill him, but not divorce him. [they laugh]
Henry: [narrating] In prison, dinner was always a big thing. We had a pasta course and then we had a meat or a fish. Paulie did the prep work, he was doing a year for contempt and he had this wonderful system for doing the garlic. He used a razor and used to slice it so thin that it used to liquify in the pan with just a little oil. It was a very good system. Vinny was in charge of the tomato sauce. I felt he used too many onions but it was still a very good sauce.
Paulie: Vinny? Don’t put too many onions in the sauce.
Vinny: I didn’t put too much onions, Paul. Three small onions that’s all I did, three onions.
Johnny: How many cans of tomatoes did you put in there?
Vinny: I put two cans! Two big cans.
Johnny: You don’t need three onions.
Henry: [narrating] Johnny Dio did the meat. We didn’t have a broiler so Johnny did everything in pans. And it used to smell up the joint something awful and the hacks used to die, but he still cooked a great steak.
Johnny: Vinny? How do you like yours?
Vinny: Rare. Medium rare.
Johnny: Medium rare, hmm, an aristocrat.
Henry: [narrating] See, you know, when you think of prison you get pictures in your mind of all those old movies with rows and rows of guys behind bars but it wasn’t like that for wise guys. It really wasn’t that bad. Except that I’d miss Jimmy. He was doing his time in Atlanta. I mean, everybody else in the joint was doing real time all mixed together living like pigs but we lived alone. I mean, we owned the joint. Even the hacks we couldn’t bribe would never rat on the guys that we did. [Enters the room with a sack of contraband] Sorry it took so long, that skinny guard’s getting to be a real pain in the ass
Paulie: We’re gonna have to do something about that.
Henry: Naw, I took care of him.
Paulie: What did you bring?
Henry: Bread. [tosses a loaf of bread to Paulie]
Paulie: Good. Fresh.
Henry: Vinny, I got your peppers and onions. Salami, prosciutto, ‘lotta cheese.
Paulie: Come on, come on, what else?
Henry: Scotch. [holds up a bottle of Scotch]
Paulie: Nice.
Henry: Some red wine. [gives the bottle of red wine to Paulie]
Paulie: Ok, now we can eat.
Henry: I got some white too.
Paulie: Give me the white too. Beautiful. Ok, boys, let’s eat!
[Karen and her children are visiting Henry in jail]
Guard: Mrs. Hill, this way. Sign this book, please.
[Karen signs ledger but something catches her eye]
Name of Inmate: Henry Hill
Name of Visitor: Janice Rossi
Visitor's center
Henry: What are you talking about?
Karen: I saw her name in the register.
Henry: Jesus Christ.
Karen: You want her to visit you? Let her stay up all night, crying and writing letters to the parole board.
Henry: What am I doing here? Where am I? I'm in jail. I can't stop people from coming to see me.
Karen: Good. Let her sneak this stuff in for you every week. [Karen dangles a bag of illegal drugs in front him] Let her fight these bastards every week!
Henry: Look what you're doing! Stop it!
Karen: I'm sorry. Let her sneak this shit in for you.
Henry: Will you stop it, Karen? Will you stop it?
Karen: Let her do it! Let her do it!
Henry: STOP IT!!!
[Kids react to anger; Karen starts to sob]
Karen: Nobody is helping me. I am all alone. Belle and Morrie are broke. I asked your friend Remo for the money that he owes you, you know what he told me? He told me to take my kids down to the police station and get on welfare.
Henry: Karen, It's going to be okay.
Karen: Yeah? Even Paulie, since he got out, I never seen him. I never see anybody anymore.
Henry: It's only you and me. That's what happens when you go away. I told you that we're on our own. Forget everybody else. Forget Paulie. As long as he's on parole, he doesn't want anybody doing anything.
Karen: I can't do it.
Henry: Yes, you can. Karen, Listen to me. All I need is for you to bring me this stuff. I got a guy in here from Pittsburgh who's gonna help me move it. Believe me, in a month we're gonna be fine. We won't need anybody.
Karen: I'm afraid. I'm afraid if Paulie finds out...
Henry: What did I just say, Don't worry about him. He is not helping us out. Is he putting any food on the table? We've gotta help each other. We've just gotta-- Listen, We've gotta be really really careful while we do it.
Karen: I don't want to hear a word about her anymore, Henry.
Henry: Never.
[Henry returns home after being released from prison]
Henry's Children: Daddy! Oh, we missed you! Are you out here to stay? Did you see our pictures? I did the one with the house and the rainbow.
[Henry takes a look at the low-rent tenement his wife and kids are living in and reacts with disgust]
Henry: Karen, get packed, we're moving out of here.
Karen: With what?
Henry: Don't worry with what. You just start looking for a new house, ok? I gotta go to Pittsburgh in the morning. Those guys out there they owe me 15 grand. We'll be all right, I got things lined up.
Karen: Pittsburgh? You have to go see your parole officer tomorrow.
Henry: Karen, don't worry about it, everything's gonna be fine. Who wants to go to Uncle Paulie's?
[Children cheer. Cut to Paulie's house where the families are having a big dinner. Later Paulie speaks to Henry in private]
Paulie: I do not want any more of that shit.
Henry: What shit? What are you talking about?
Paulie: Just stay away from the garbage, you know what I mean.
Henry: What-- Paulie..
Paulie: I'm not talking about what you did inside, you did what you had to do. I'm talking about now. From now. Here and now.
Henry: Paulie why would I want to get into that?
Paulie: Don't make a jerk outta me, just don't do it. Just don't do it. Now I wanna talk to you about Jimmy, you gotta watch out for him. He's a good earner but he's wild, takes too many chances.
Henry: I know Jimmy. You think I'd take chances like Jimmy?
Paulie: And Tommy, he's a good kid too but he's crazy, he's a cowboy, he's got too much to prove. You gotta watch out for kids like this.
Henry: Yeah, I know what they are. I only use them for certain things.
Paulie: Listen, I ain't gonna get fucked like Gribbs, ya understand? The fuckin' guy is 70 years old and he's gonna die in prison. I don't need that. So I’m warning everybody. Everybody. Could be my son, could be anybody. Gribbs got twenty years just for saying hello to some fuck who was going behind his back selling junk. I don't need that. Ain't happening to me. You understand?
Henry: Uh-huh.
Paulie: You know that you're only out early 'cause I got you a job, right? I don't need this heat, understand that? You see anybody fucking around with this shit you're gonna tell me, right?
Henry: Yeah.
Paulie: [smacks Henry on the cheek] That means anybody. All right?
Henry: Yeah, of course.
[Cut to Henry making cocaine]
Henry: [narrating] It took me about a week of sneaking around before I could unload the Pittsburgh stuff, but when I did, it was a real score. I started using Sandy's place to mix the stuff and even with Sandy snorting more than she mixed, I could see that this was a really big business. I made $12,000 in my second week, I had a down payment on my house and things were really rolling. All I had to do every once-in-a-while was tell Sandy that I loved her. But it was perfect, I'm telling you. As long as I kept getting the stuff from Pittsburgh, I knew Paulie would never find out. Within a couple of weeks it got to be so big I needed some help. So I got Jimmy and Tommy to come in with me.
Henry: [sniffling] Paulie, I am really sorry. I don't know what else to say. I know I fucked up.
Paulie: You fucked up.
Henry: You know but I'm all right know. I can be trusted now, Paulie. I'm clean. On my kids, I'm clean.
Paulie: You looked me in the eye and you lied to me. You treated me like a fuckin' jerk; like I was never nothing to you.
Henry: Paulie, after what you said, I couldn't come to you. You know, I--I was ashamed. I--I'm ashamed now. But I got nowhere else to go, Paulie. You're all I've got and I need really, really need you help. I really do.
Paulie: Take this.[pulls a wad of cash out of his pocket and hands it to Henry] Now I gotta turn my back on you.
Henry: [narrating] 3,200 bucks. That's what he gave me. 3,200 bucks for a lifetime. Wasn't even enough to pay for the coffin.
[Henry enters a diner]
Henry: [narrating] If you're part of a crew, nobody ever tells you that they're going to kill you. Doesn't happen that way. There aren’t any arguments or curses like in the movies. See, your murders come with smiles, they come as your friends, the people who've cared for you all of your life. And they always seem to come at a time that you're at your weakest and most in need of their help. So I met Jimmy in a crowded place we both knew. I got there 15 minutes early and I saw Jimmy was already there. We took the booth near the window so we could see everyone who drove up to the restaurant. He wanted to make sure I wasn't tailed. He was jumpy. he hadn't touched a thing. On the surface, of course, everything was supposed to be fine. We were supposed to be discussing my case. But I had the feeling Jimmy was trying to sense whether or not I'd rat him out to save my neck.
Jimmy: I been telling you your whole life, don’t talk on the fuckin' phone, right? Now you understand? Huh? But it's gonna be ok, I think you got a good chance of beating the case. You know that kid? You know the one from the city we're talking about? You know who I'm talkin' about?
Henry: Yeah.
Jimmy: The kid turned out to be a rat. Soon as he got pinched he ratted everybody out. He ratted youse all out. But I know where he is, he's hiding out. You know what I'm saying? Would you have a problem going with Anthony on vacation and take care of that?
Henry: [shakes his head] Mm-mmm. No, not at all.
Jimmy: That way they got nothin', huh?
[Jimmy slips a message with information. Screen freeze-frames]
Henry: [narrating] Jimmy had never asked me to whack somebody before. But now he's asking me to go down to Florida and do a hit with Anthony. [Screen resumes] That's when I knew I never would have come back from Florida alive.

Taglines

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  • Three Decades of Life in the Mafia.
  • "As far back as I can remember, I've always wanted to be a gangster."—Henry Hill, Brooklyn, N.Y. 1955.
  • Murderers come with smiles.
  • Shooting people was 'No big deal'.
  • In a world that's powered by violence, on the streets where the violent have power, a new generation carries on an old tradition.

Cast

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