#0086 Laserdisc : Goodfellas NJL-12039 FREE POST

In 1955, youngster Henry Hill  becomes enamored by the criminal life and Mafia  presence in his working class Italian American  neighborhood in Brooklyn . He begins working for local caporegime  Paulie Cicero and his associates: Jimmy "the Gent" Conway, an Irish American  truck hijacker and gangster, and Tommy DeVito, a fellow juvenile delinquent. Henry begins as a fence  for Jimmy, gradually working his way up to more serious crimes.

By the 1960s, Henry, Jimmy, and Tommy spend most of their nights at the Copacabana nightclub  carousing with women. Henry starts dating Karen Friedman , a Jewish woman from an upper middle class family, but she is initially angered by how distracted Henry is during their first date. After he shows her the glamorous side of his lifestyle, she falls in love with him. Sometime later, Karen calls Henry in tears, having been sexually accosted by the son of her parents' neighbor. Henry immediately finds the young man and beats him with a revolver, which he then tells Karen to hide. She admits to herself that it actually turned her on and they get married shortly thereafter despite her parents' disapproval. After the wedding, she slowly learns more and more about Henry's criminal enterprises, but she comes to rationalize the gangster lifestyle.

In 1970, Billy Batts , a made man  in the Gambino crime family  recently released from prison, demeans Tommy at a nightclub owned by Henry. Tommy and Jimmy kill Billy, but realize too late that the unsanctioned murder of a made man will invite retribution. Jimmy, Henry, and Tommy bury the body in upstate New York . Six months later, however, Jimmy learns that the burial site is slated for development, forcing them to exhume and relocate the decomposing corpse. Later, Henry witnesses Tommy murder Spider, an errand boy, after exchanging insults with him during a card game. Karen discovers Henry has a mistress and threatens him at gunpoint. Henry moves in with his mistress, but Paulie insists that he should return to Karen after collecting a debt from a gambler in Tampa  with Jimmy. The collection mission succeeds, but only after they have severely beaten and threatened the debtor. Upon returning, Jimmy and Henry are arrested after being turned in by the gambler's sister, an FBI  typist, and they receive ten-year prison sentences.

Prison life is initially depicted as idyllic, with Henry sharing a very large cell with Paulie and several other well-connected mobsters currently in prison for other crimes. They cook their own Italian gourmet dinners every evening with smuggled-in ingredients, wine and whisky, and the prison guards are bribed into compliance. To finance his prison life and support his family on the outside, Henry has Karen smuggle in food and drugs, which he sells in cooperation with a fellow inmate from Pittsburgh  and a bribed member of the prison staff. Karen discovers that Henry's mistress has been visiting him and almost publicly exposes the smuggled goods as revenge, but Henry quickly placates her by promising that he will be faithful from now on and that his drug deals will make them enough money to support the family without anyone finding out.

Four years later in 1978, Henry is paroled and secretly expands his cocaine business with Jimmy and Tommy against Paulie's orders. Jimmy organizes a crew to raid the Lufthansa vault  at John F. Kennedy International Airport , stealing over six million dollars in cash and jewelry. After some members purchase expensive items against Jimmy's orders and the getaway truck is found by police, he has most of the crew except for Tommy and Henry murdered. Tommy is later deceived by the Mafia leadership into believing he is to become a made man and is murdered as retribution for murdering Batts and other infractions against the organization. Jimmy grieves for Tommy, knowing he is incapable of avenging him.

By 1980, Henry develops a drug habit and becomes paranoid. Nonetheless, he continues operating his drug ring until he is suddenly arrested by narcotics agents and incarcerated. After bailing him out, Karen reveals that she flushed $60,000 worth of cocaine down the toilet to prevent FBI agents from finding it during their raid of their home, leaving them penniless. Paulie reproaches Henry for dealing drugs behind his back and severs their relationship with $3,200. Karen goes to Jimmy for help, but eventually flees upon suspecting he set up a trap to murder her. Henry later meets Jimmy at a diner and is asked to travel on a hit assignment, but the novelty of such a request makes Henry suspicious.

Realizing that Jimmy plans to also have him killed, Henry decides to become an informant  and enroll his family into the witness protection program . He gives sufficient testimony and evidence in court to have Paulie and Jimmy convicted and moves to a nondescript neighborhood in accordance with the program. Despite this, an unhappy Henry realizes he is condemned to live the rest of his life as a "schnook ".

• Condition: Very good
• Language: English
• Genre: Crime, Thrillers

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