Women Are Not Capable Of Understanding 'Goodfellas'

New York Post ^ | June 10, 2015 | Kyle Smith

[OddLane]

The first time I saw “GoodFellas,” on a rented Blockbuster videotape in 1991, I was in a daze as the final credits rolled. If I had been a cartoon character, I would have had stars dancing around my head like Wile E. Coyote. I turned to my girlfriend and said, “What’d you think?” “Boy movie,” she declared — and I knew our relationship was doomed. Just kidding. (We split up because I was a jerk.) But women don’t get “GoodFellas.” It’s not really a crime drama, like “The Godfather.” It’s more of a male fantasy picture — “Entourage” with guns instead of swimming pools, the Rat Pack minus tuxedos.

“GoodFellas,” which starting next week will have a 25th anniversary showing at the Film Forum on Houston Street, and whose 25th anniversary Blu-ray DVD just hit the streets, takes place in a world guys dream about. Way down deep in the reptile brain, Henry Hill (Ray Liotta), Jimmy the Gent (Robert De Niro) and Tommy (Joe Pesci) are exactly what guys want to be: lazy but powerful, deadly but funny, tough, unsentimental and devoted above all to their brothers — a small group of guys who will always have your back. Women sense that they are irrelevant to this fantasy, and it bothers them.

[CatherineofAragon]

Oh, please. Hey, Kyle, I read your article, and you're full of it.

All of those points you made? I got them the first time I watched the movie and every time since, which has been often. I never get tired of it. Sorry to break it to you, but women love "Goodfellas."

So go home and get your (censored) shine box.

[CatherineofAragon]

My favorite scene (or one of them, at least) was when he stalked across the street and pistol-whipped the preppie guy who was messing with his girlfriend.

[CatherineofAragon]

"Anybody else get a cold chill when the boss told Karen he had some designer swag in that creepy dark warehouse?"

Oh, yes. I still do, every time I watch it.

[boop]

"My favorite scene (or one of them, at least) was when he stalked across the street and pistol-whipped the preppie guy who was messing with his girlfriend"

I have NO idea how they got that shot. It's one continuous scene with no edits.

Looks pretty realistic.

[lowbridge]

“Women Are Not Capable Of Understanding ‘Goodfellas’”

They dont get the 3 stooges either.

[lowbridge]

“I grew up mere blocks from where many of them hung out and lived.”

Small world. I lived across the street from the famed bamboo lounge (illustrated in the movie) back in the early 70s, years before henry turned witness. I was just a kid though and didnt live in the neighborhood for long.

[SevenofNine]

Are you kidding me NY Post critic

I love that movie I got anniversary edition pre order LOL! that came out recently

[lowbridge]

“I’m not a big Goodfella’s fan. I think it’s alright but I like Casino better.”

Casino is very good, granted. But Goodfellas is far better in my opinion. The thing I dont like about Casino is how Scorcese aped his own filmmaking style that was done to better effect in Goodfellas.

Also, both are based on true stories, but Goodfellas is far more easier to identify with as it deals with the low level street hoods in neighborhoods and streets one is familiar with. Casino deals with the high level muckety mucks of the las vegas crowds and casinos. Who can identify with that crowd?

[ETL]

Goodfellas film locations:

http://www.movie-locations.com/movies/g/goodfellas.html#.VXoRLVIYGSp

[ETL]

[Fledermaus]

I could never get into it. Seemed like it was being phoned in.

[lowbridge]

Thanks for the link.

To clarify, I didnt live across the street from the “movie location” bamboo lounge that stood in for the real bamboo lounge, which was located in the canarsie section of brooklyn on the corner of Rockaway parkway and Avenue N.

My family and I lived on Rockaway Parkway between avenues M and N. (Also my mothers uncle lived on our block just a few doors down from us. He owned the apartment house he lived in)

[ETL]

Ok, I understand. Of course NYC is littered with sites where mobsters lived and played, and ‘prematurely’ died.

[a fool in paradise]

I don’t need to “identify” with the crowd. They are all thugish lowlifes, no matter how much is in their bank account or how many public figures they own.

Scorcese apes his style in all of his films.

[x]

It’s not really a crime drama, like “The Godfather.” It’s more of a male fantasy picture — “Entourage” with guns instead of swimming pools, the Rat Pack minus tuxedos.

All this time, I thought it was a comedy.

I get that the Goodfellas, like the guys in Entourage, are doing wild things and having adventures, but I can't say I ever wanted to be any of them.

[1217Chic]

Love it!!!!!!!

[Califreak]

I forgot about that one.

Yeah that was a good one.

[Irish Eyes]

All the trainers I worked for were based at Belmont (JP Conway, PG Johnson, J Russell (Ogden Phipps), but they would run horses at Aqueduct during Aqueduct season. I would ride over in the van with the horses.

Sounds as if you had some great experience. Most of my experience has has been in CA and some in AZ. It is definitely the "sport of kings".

Irish :)

[OddLane]

Honestly, I didn't get them either, until I started watching episodes run on the IFC Channel.

So utterly sophomoric, yet the funniest thing I had ever watched on television.

[lowbridge]

“I don’t need to “identify” with the crowd. They are all thugish lowlifes, no matter how much is in their bank account or how many public figures they own.”

Yes, they are/were thuggish lowlifes, and true, you dont “need” to identify with them. Its just that coming from the same neighborhoods they did and/or operated in, having known people like that, thats why one can “identify” with them. Not because theyre seen as heroes or big shots with big bank accounts.