Women Are Not Capable of Understanding Goodfellas
Kyle Smith, NY Post
June 10, 2015


"GoodFellas" is the ultimate male fantasy film, according to movie critic Kyle Smith.

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.

The wiseguys never have to work (the three friends never exert themselves except occasionally to do something fun, like steal a tractor-trailer truck), which frees them up to spend the days and nights doing what guys love above all else: sitting around with the gang, busting each other’s balls.

Ball-busting means cheerfully insulting one another, preferably in the presence of lots of drinks and cigars and card games. (The “GoodFellas” guys are always at the card table, just as the Rat Pack were, while the “Entourage” guys love video games.) Women (except silent floozies) cannot be present for ball-busting because women are the sensitivity police: They get offended, protest that someone’s not being fair, refuse to laugh at vicious put-downs. In the male fantasy, all of this is unforgivable — too serious, too boring. Deal another hand, pour another drink.

To a woman, the “GoodFellas” are lowlifes. To guys, they’re hilarious, they’re heroes. They rule the roost. From a young age, Henry finds his family’s parking space is always kept free, even though they don’t have a car. He has more money than his dad. As he puts it, “To us, those goody-goody people who worked s---ty jobs for bum paychecks, who took the subway to work every day and worried about their bills, were dead. They were suckers. They had no balls. If we wanted something, we just took it.” The fact that guns are involved — that, at any moment, anyone could get shot for any reason — just makes the stakes higher, the fantasy more exciting.

When the “Sex and the City” girls sit around at brunch, they’re a tightly knit clique — but their rule is to always be sympathetic and supportive as each describes her problems, usually revolving around the men in her life.

As “GoodFellas” shows us, guys hanging out together don’t really like to talk about the women in their lives because that’s too real. What we’d much rather do than discuss problems and “be supportive” is to keep the laughs coming — to endlessly bust each other’s balls.

At its core, “GoodFellas” is a story of ball-busting etiquette, which we first learn about in the improvised early scene based on a real experience of Pesci. Tommy turns his attention to a laughing Henry after telling a funny story and threateningly says, “Am I a comedian? Do I amuse you?” Tommy appears to be dangerously angry. Henry saves the day by returning the ball-busting: “Get the f--k outta here.”

The rule is, be a man, be tough, and always keep the party going. Billy Batts (the unfortunate fellow in the trunk, and surprisingly not dead, when the movie begins) breaks ball-busting etiquette in two ways. One, he’s not really one of the guys (he belongs to another crime family), and two, in the guise of breaking Tommy’s balls, he brings up something serious, something that truly bothers Tommy: that he once worked as a shoeshine boy. Billy must die. Later, Morrie, the wig merchant, must also die for improper ball-busting.

Even Karen’s (Lorraine Bracco) relationship with, and eventual marriage to, Henry is based on ball-busting. He’s bored with her on their double dates with Tommy and his girl, but after he stands her up, she comes down to the taxi stand where he’s hanging out with other wiseguys and yells at him. The guys love this and roar with laughter. Karen doesn’t realize it, but she has successfully broken Henry’s balls — hence she’s funny, lively and interesting. She promises to keep the party going.

What would “GoodFellas” be like if it were told by a woman?

Meet an at-risk youth called Henry Hill. Victimized by horrific physical abuse from an early age, and traumatized by the responsibilities of caring for a handicapped brother, he fell prey to criminal elements in his rough East New York neighborhood in a time when social-services agencies were sadly lacking. At an impressionable age, he became desensitized to violence when a gunshot victim bled to death in front of a restaurant where he was working. His turn to the mafia was a cry for help — a need to find a family structure to replace the one he had never really known.

And who would want to watch that movie?

http://nypost.com/2015/06/10/sorry-ladies-youll-never-understand-why-guys-love-goodfellas/

I love Goodfellas it was after the Godfather the best mafia movie that I ever seen.

For women the model is sex and the city: 4 girls,rich and man-eaters, work is glamorous but not manual and all their care over to fuck as many men they can is to make up the wardrobe.

For us men goodfellas is: never work but have a lot of money, Never stand home but always with friends to eat, smoke, play cards etc. without a woman who breaks the balls.

This is the difference so we can say that women will never understand goodfellas and we men will never understand sex and the city, and not even want to try.

But is just my opinion.

i ain't capable of understanding the fascination with a coked out snitch

goodfellas is overrated

The women who are capable of understanding are the women who they let into the clubs. In between hands at the card games their giving the players blow jobs.

Girls they let in and are at the bars know exactly why they let them in.

They like to be around the so called bad guys.

I told this story before I owned a small bar in Brooklyn. Right near warm beer and lousy food.

We had a bar in the front. Back room card games girls were all over the play. I go into the back I notice there is Cum all over the floor.

I go out and start going crazy on our bartender. I don't care what the fuck you do in here but make sure these [BadWord] swallow your fucking cum and not spit it on my floors.

What the fuck? That is the dumbest article I've ever read.

My wife always liked the movie. As far as women not into this movie that is understandable. I don't write articles how men aren't included in my best friends wedding or whatever hogwash they watch.
Just another dumb article written for liberal cum dumpsters.

You're not capable of a lot of things, cook. Not appreciating Goodfellas is no surprise.

Cook go watch paid in full. Probably more up your alley. Or maybe blackula lol.

Fwiw
That picture you posted of when those guys were playing cards was probably the most accurate depiction of what wise guys did and how they acted. Very realistic scene.
those late night card games in basements/ italian kitchens were ubiquitous back in the day; 60's and 70's.

Someone asked where my Bar was 61 street 7 ave on the corner.

good movies cross racial boundaries you simple minded cheerleader

paid in full is good but i prefer new jack city, boys n da hood, and menace 2 soceity

How about amastad? Lol

^^^^

it's amistad and i've never seen it but django unchained is pretty good

Lemme guess your favorite character was Steven? I can totally see that being you.

And THOSE movies cross racial boundaries?

And just when we were geting along, Cook .

As far as women not understanding "Goodfellas." Women are from Venus, Men are from Mulberry Street.

See? I'm sensitive AND well read .

@pizzaboy

go watch those movies, they're good movies and true representations of their times


@longislandguy

one minute you insinuate that i'm a lowlife, now u call me an uncle tom

that's a contradion and stephen was the funniest mothafucka in the movie

u probably like billy cash for threatened to cut off somebody penis

I thought you were an Uncle Tom? With all the Chicago/anything not northeast defending etc. whoops my bad brochacho.

I've seen "New Jack City" twenty times. It's in my top twenty New York movie list. Chris Rock should have gotten an Academy Award nomination for his crackhead portrayal.

When Nino gets it in the courthouse from the old man is one of the most satisfying comeuppances ever portrayed on film. Because that old man was hurting, and he wasn't letting Nino get away with anything.

As an aside, I think Nino's fascination with "Scarface" helped fuel the hip hop fascination with that movie. But that's just the opinion of a middle aged White guy.

I've never seen "Boys n the Hood" or "Menace II Society." But for the sake of our recent "truce," I'll watch them with an open mind and get back to you.

That is actually pretty interesting the connection with scarface and new jack city. Scarface was a box office bomb in 83 when it came out.

Now to this day you still got hip hop heads rapping about Tony.

It was universally mocked. I hardly remember a decent review.

It really isn't a great movie... too long... Pacino as a Cuban, he just sounds silly.

The SJW's are kicking up rough in the comments section of that article. Of course in their world gender is a social construct and the male and female mind are exactly the same. lol.

@pizzaboy

i'd start with boys n da hood because it has a message

menace 2 soceity has a message but it's pretty much nonstop violence

both movies are good depictions of early 90s thugdom

Good enough. One more thing about "New Jack City," though. My favorite scene is the one I mentioned where the old man shoots Nino. But that's not what makes it my favorite scene.

It's subtle, and if you blink you'll miss it. But it's Judd Nelson's smile. It showed you that, even though he was a cop, he believed that justice and the courtroom have nothing to do with each other. And he's right. It's the same thing as legality and morality. They have nothing to fucking do with each other, either. But try telling that to a Law Enforcement fanboy.

"Am I my brother's keeper?!"

^^^^

my favorite scene is when he held the little girl for a body shield

plus when he killed g-money on the roof

^^^
My heart breaks for G-Money in that scene. Allen Payne's a great actor. He had that Tyler Perry show for years, but he should be MUCH busier as an actor.


One of the most inhumane scenes in movie history. Right up there with Richard Widmark throwing the wheelchair bound woman down the stairs in "Kiss of Death."