Episode 294: GOODFELLAS (1990) with Dan Nagan

Trylove

With Danny “Bagadonuts” Nagan, a real-life good fella and cohost of the Everything We Learned podcast!

I mean, it’s GOODFELLAS. If you haven’t seen it, you kinda already have. But you should absolutely still see it (take it from Jason).

Despite his status as an Irish-Italian-American, Henry Hill (Ray Liotta) is a fish IN water among the most powerful mafia family of Brooklyn. From middle school, Henry fast ingratiates himself with aspiring made man Tommy (Joe Pesci), fellow mixed-blood gangster Jimmy (Robert De Niro), and local capo Paulie (Paul Sorvino), eventually earning enough clout to bring Karen (Lorraine Bracco), a Jewish woman with a thing for bad goys, into the “family” as his wife. As he ascends the linguine ladder, though, Henry finds himself increasingly exposed: to the diminishing returns of mafia life; to the self-serving ambitions of his brothers in crime; and before the waning influence of Italian organized crime with the decline of labor power in the 1980s.

Inside the “pit of vipers mob movie” structure is a tale of self-preservation at the expense of decency, bonds broken as quickly and as explosively as they were forged, and the ever-churning machine of capital that has robbed, will rob, is robbing the modern American of their basic dignity. My dignity. Your dignity.

**References: **

• “Isolation and Family, Arthouse and Hollywood, The Mafia and Jesus: The Impossible Marriages in Martin Scorsese’s Filmography” by Ryan Sanderson for Perisphere, the Trylon blog
• Check the calendar, preview upcoming series, and buy tickets at https://www.trylon.org/
• Contribute to Perisphere, the Trylon blog: https://www.perisphere.org/perisphere-blog-post-guidelines/

Find Dan…

• On Twitter at @aDapperDanMan
• On Letterboxd at @aDapperDanMan
• On his podcast about movies, Everything We Learned, on Apple Podcasts
• As “Hulk Smashworth” in Final Fantasy XIV on the Diablo server
• On Trylove episodes about RONIN (1981), FACE/OFF (1997), MANDY (2018), EDGE OF TOMORROW (2013)
• On Stoop Kidz! A Hey Arnold! Podcast

#TheLongTake #DCP

Follow us on Twitter at @trylovepodcast and email us at [e-mail] to get in touch!

Theme: "Raindrops" by Huma-Huma/"No Smoking" PSA by John Waters. Outro music: “Sincerely” by The Moonglows from the GOODFELLAS soundtrack.

Timestamps

0:00 - Episode 294: GOODFELLAS (1990) with Dan Nagan

3:36 - The Patented Aaron Grossman Summary

5:14 - Dan’s incomplete, anti-filmbro first viewing

17:27 - Scorsese’s 1980s spent juggling pop appeal and experimental ambition

27:41 - Schoonmaker, editing, the long take, and what’s just under the surface

36:38 - Glorifying violence and adopting an outsider perspective

1:04:13 - Karen and the 1980s

1:24:21 - The final shot

1:34:12 - To All the Loves We’ve Tried Before: 1990

1:36:36 - The Junk Drawer

1:47:33 - Cody’s Noteys: Woodfellas (wood figurine pricing estimates)

1:50:10 - First woodfella

1:54:04 - Second woodfella

1:58:10 - Third woodfella

2:01:59 - Fourth woodfella

2:06:17 - Dan’s Detour: Tryfellas (GOODFELLAS trivia)