One of the first things Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas (which is a part of Warner Bros.’ Holiday Gift Guide) tells us about Jimmy Conway (Robert De Niro, in one of his best-loved performances) is that he was the kind of guy “who rooted for the bad guys in movies.” Better known as Jimmy “The Gent,” Conway was a remorseless killer and a stone-cold thief who was both a father figure to Tommy (Joe Pesci) and Henry (Ray Liotta). He was also the mastermind behind some of the movie mob’s biggest scores — before systematically killing off his accomplices to avoid leaving any “loose ends” and becoming someone Henry needed to be nervous about. So, to celebrate Jimmy and his enormous criminal appetite, we decided to go back through Goodfellas to reminisce about the moments and repeatable quotes that you can use when you’re planning a big (legal) score.
“It’s gonna be a good summer.”
When Henry, then a young up-and-comer, brings in a score so big it even impresses the neighborhood boss Paulie (Paul Sorvino), it’s easy to see that Jimmy’s love of stealing is only matched by his love of the money that comes with it. After Henry counts out his $60,000 tribute upstairs, Jimmy beams with delight, having only the highest hopes for the future.
“You might know who we are, but we know who you are. You understand?”
Jimmy makes his ‘steal as much as possible all the time’ approach work with one key factor – cash. When they send cops after him, he simply puts them on his payroll, and when he takes a truck driver’s ID, he replaces it with (you guessed it) cash. It’s a pretty reliable way to keep everyone looking the other way though he does change his outlook on this as the film goes on.
“Don’t take no sh*t off nobody!”
When Spider (Michael Imperioli), a put-upon bartender shows the guts to tell Tommy off, even after having been shot in the foot by him just days prior, Jimmy is proud to see that kind of gumption in someone so young, and offers his praise along with a handsome tip, and those words of advice. Tommy, on the other hand, just shoots the kid.
“You got money for that f*ckin’ commercial. F*ckin’ commercial, you don’t got my money, you don’t got my f*ckin’ money, huh?”
It’s an ironclad rule of mob business, if someone owes you money, you stop at nothing to get it (see also: “F*ck you, pay me“), and nothing is gonna make matters worse than for Jimmy to see all the money someone like Morrie (Chuck Low) has been spending on wig commercials instead of settling his debt with him.
“What about the security?”
Planning something like the Lufthansa heist isn’t going to come easy, and Jimmy needs to make sure he has all the bases covered. When he asks Frenchy (Mike Starr) the security situation, he tells Jimmy he is security. That’s the kind of thing you want to know before pulling off one of the biggest scores in history.
“Didn’t I tell you not to buy anything?”
With a crew that size for a heist that big, keeping everyone in line was going to be next to impossible. As Jimmy grew more paranoid, he makes it clear he doesn’t want anyone buying anything to help keep a low profile. While everyone is guilty of splurging a little, Johnny Roast Beef (Johnny Williams) was the first to make the mistake of showing off his new all-pink Cadillac Coup De Ville. Even though everyone else seems to find it unreasonable, Jimmy sees it as a quick way to get busted, and he’s willing to ruin Christmas to keep it that way.
“Don’t be immoral with the money.”
A pristine example of where Jimmy’s priorities are. People he can take or leave (…in the back of a dumpster), but he goes out of his way to make sure Henry isn’t being “immoral with the money.” Which, to Jimmy, means not spending a nickel to attract any unwanted attention. Henry, like everyone else, failed to take his advice.
“Stop with those f*cking drugs. They’re making your mind into mush. You hear me?”
This was the beginning of the end for Henry’s lifetime in the mob, one that brought down Jimmy and Paulie along with him. As Henry let loose on a wild bender of cocaine, he got increasingly careless, and when you’re in Jimmy’s crew, you just can’t be careless. When he brought Jimmy the wrong guns it just made him look like a strung-out slob, and he sounded like he was done with him. A suspicion that’s later confirmed when he hands Henry his death warrant wrapped in a matchbook disguised as a business trip down to Florida. As it turns out, the one loose end Jimmy left was the guy telling us the story.
Hope you enjoyed our look back at Goodfellas. Our friends at Warner Bros. asked us to remind readers that the Goodfellas 25th Anniversary Blu-ray is available for purchase here.
