Forget the horse's head. Forget “I know it was you, Fredo”. The most gangster moment in gangster film history came from Paul Sorvino in Goodfellas.
There is a great contrast to the scene in Goodfella's final act when Hill unravels over the course of a manic, paranoid day in which he tries to not just offload stolen silencers, pick up his brother and cut some drugs but timing the preparation of an intricate family meal. And just like the code of omertà that – in theory at least – helps keep them out of jail, food preparation is ritualistic and follows strict rules. That’s why the razor blade is so memorable: it represents discipline, care and the correct way of doing things. “Paulie did the prep-work," Hill tells us, "and he had this wonderful system for doing the garlic. Forget mob bosses getting whacked to "House of the Rising Sun" in Casino, or Robert De Niro’s Al Capone delivering an ode to baseball in The Untouchables. Forget, even, the FBI agents discussing the meaning of ‘fuggedaboutit in Donny Brasco. If you're looking for an iconic mafia movie scene, one that encapsulates everything that is great about the genre and why we love it, none holds a candle – or, for that matter, a razor blade – to Goodfella’s prison dinner scene. Red and white wine.
Join us as we revisit one of the greatest celebrations of food in cinema, the famous dinner scene in Martin Scorsese's 1990 gangster film 'Goodfellas'.
Directed by Martin Scorsese, Goodfellas tells the story of a young man who has been born and raised in the mob. From Pixar’s Ratatouille to Stanley Tucci’s mouth-watering Big Night, directors have depicted the ritual of cooking and eating together time and time again. This scene from the 1990 gangster film Goodfellas, in which mobster Henry Hill recalls how he and his gang made dinner in prison, is perhaps one of the most strangely heartwarming cooking scenes of all time.