For any of you unaware of the reference, the ending scene where Joe Pesci shoots the camera is from "The Great Train Robbery". Martin Scorsese is a HUGE fan of ancient cinema (by "ancient" I mean 1920 and prior) and his movies are littered with these sorts of references such as "Hugo" and "Shutter Island". I highly advise any Scorsese fans and fans of cinema in general to look up "The Great Train Robbery". Old western film, classic and innovative and only 6 minutes out of your life.
MythicMage Gaming In a sense it does but the backstory is important. In The Great Train Robbery the director stated that the ending scene (where the guy shoots at the camera) could have been placed at either the beginning or end. The Bond films were most influenced by Train Robbery. France's Francois Truffaut also influenced Goodfellas. The ending (NO SPOILERS) to his debut The 400 Blows. The final scene in Truffauts classic is a freeze frame of the main character, which inspired the freeze frames in Goodfellas, most notably when (SPOILERS) Henry Hill discovers Robert De Niro intends to have him killed.
I always imagined that Henry was thinking: "OK, Tommy was right, I was always an idiot" (tommy always accused him of being a fool)... I thought this would be the message of the scene... *forgive my baaad English
@@solidmage1720 it’s a metaphor that Henry will always be looking over his shoulder wondering if the day will ever come that somebody (his best friend) kills him for what he did
That line, "I get to live the rest of my life like a shnook", is lifted straight out of the book. The real Henry Hill actually said that. He had such a great turn of phrase.
I swear to god, if I had the means to timetravel. I would timetravel to 1990, on the first night this movie first showed in cinemas. Just to see this great film on the big screen. And then I would see other people's reactions, and wonder if they realized they were watching an american classic.
What neighborhood? I’m from Youngstown, Ohio and our newspaper is what he picks up as a tribute. This could narrow down the exact newspaper used if I can see when this neighborhood was developed.
Of course I know he wasn’t being literal. Henry was living in an Anytown, USA suburb where Chick-Fil-A and sandwiches with pimento cheese and white bread are fine delicacies. And all so-called Italian restaurants here in Anchorage, Alaska serve factory bread carved in half and slathered with butter and garlic powder and tomato paste-based pasta sauces loaded with salt with frozen processed meatballs or veal fritters.
More trivia: If you look closely, the newspaper he is picking up is "The Vindicator". It is the local newspaper from Youngstown, Ohio. Youngstown was a hub for mob activity and was once known as "Little Chicago".
***** By whom? By some blog on the internet? The thing is, if there is going to be a homage, the name of the paper should be at least fucking visible. It's bullshit without a single shred of evidence. Believe me, I have searched. People from Youngstown will truly believe anything.
When I see Ray Liotta on the Chantix commercial I wish at the end of it he would say "Now days I don't even get to have a cigarette. I'm an average nobody. I get to live the rest of my life like a shnook."
Check out the newspaper he picks up on the porch. It's "The Vindicator", the newspaper from Youngstown, Ohio. Oh, and by the way, we do have great Italian food in Youngstown. Italians used to rule Y-town back when it was great.
Little-known fact: the masthead of that newspaper says, "The Vindicator" -- also known as The Youngstown Vindicator. Henry wound up in my hometown: Youngstown, Ohio!! (In the movie, anyway. I'm not sure about real life.) PS. Our pasta is AMAZING. A lot of the people who live here are Italian. Including me! End of PS.
I love the ending. Henry will not be able to live "in his way" from there that subject that made sinatra so popular. As everyone knows the world of crooners is associated with a "very determined way of living" the world d ela vegas, etc. And also that in the mouth of sid vicious would acquire a deformed, distorted nature
It's actually an homage to a 1903 film called The Great Train Robbery, in which one of the characters (the villain, if I'm not mistaken) shoots "at the camera" in the last scene.
no Great Train Robbery, essa cena é pra explicitar que o cara vai voltar a cometer crimes. No goodfellas, como é o tommy que atira, sendo que ele está morto, pode significar tanto o medo de ser pego pela máfia quanto o Henry não podendo voltar ao crime, mesmo sendo o maior desejo dele.
Eu não acho que seja isso... pela risadinha no fim que o henry dá, imagino que ele pensou "realmente, eu sou apenas um idiota, como muitas vezes o tommy me acusava"... vai da interpretação de cada um mesmo rs
Henry is seeing a vision of Tommy shooting him because he knew in his heart and mind if Tommy was still alive when Henry ratted everyone out, Tommy would've eventually found him and clipped him.
he is thinking over what would happen to him if he returned to the mafia, he understands that they would have him killed so he has to accept his life as a "shnook".
![GoodFellas 1990 - ending scene [HD]](/img/logo.svg){kind=logo}
