The movie “Goodfellas” is a dramatization of life in the New York Mafia. It is based on the accounts of real life ex-gangster turned state evidence. He tells his story from when he was hired by a wiseguy as a teenager in the fifties to the time he is put in the witness protection program in the seventies.
The movie portrays the spirit of the Mafia subculture and demonstrates their distinctive values, customs, norms, and deviant lifestyle.
The Mafia is a subculture of localized groups of criminals that developed for the purpose of protecting those who can not go to the police for protection. Its roots can be traced back to Sicily, where the Mafia was based on the premise that any member suffering an alleged injustice was obliged to take personal vengeance while avoiding all contact with legal authorities. Even in the modern day American Mafia, each family ruled it’s own territory and when others from outside the territory interfered they were dealt with through violent methods.
The wiseguys (or local gangsters) paid for their protection by paying the head of their local family. This payoff was also known as paying tribute to the boss.
Many of the Mafia’s folkways and mores’ were identified throughout the movie. Some of the informal rules held by the Mafia were the codes of trust and silence. In other words, never rat on a friend and keep your mouth shut. These rules were highlighted when the narrator, Henry Hill, had his first arrest. He was brought to court; defended by a Mafia paid lawyer and after his release he received praise and money from the family for honoring the code. This was considered his Mafia graduation and as important as losing his virginity.
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It was also sanctioned behavior to buy your way in and out of the mainstream culture with bribes to local authorities and officials. Because of fear and respect of family members in the community, it was very easy to persuade the authorities to look the other way when crimes were committed.
An important Mafia folkway was to conduct business transactions were usually done face to face as a one to one communication. No one but the two parties talking knew what was said. Business was rarely discussed around a board table or in a group meeting. When an action needed to be taken to correct a problem with a family member or to settle a dispute with a different family’s member, the bosses communicated directly. They were private conversation between the boss and the person involved.
The Lufthansa heist clearly illustrates this folkway. Every one involved had their own job to do, but that is all they knew, their own job. If they knew what other people’s jobs were to be it was considered too much information. If they got caught they only knew what they had to do and couldn’t “rat” on anyone else. Only the boss knew what everyone’s job was. The theory was the less you know the safer you were.
Some of the important values depicted in this movie had to do with family and family position.
The Mafia placed great emphasis on family. They demanded that their members respect their wives and provide for their children as well as honor the Mafia family. This was best shown when Henry Hill moved in with his girlfriend and Pauly and Jimmy met with him to tell him he must go back and make peace with his wife. Divorce in the family was portrayed as a social taboo.
The symbols of the family values were the huge lavish children’s birthday parties, the expensive gifts given to the wives and the homes. To promote this social value your family were your friends and your friends were the family, no outsiders were allowed.
A member’s position or family status was one of the most important Mafia values. There was no social value placed on earning a legitimate week to week paycheck for hard work. Great social value was given to the wiseguy who had the position and status to take whatever he wanted whenever he wanted.
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This value was symbolized by the celebrity status that the neighborhood and local businessmen gave them. Other symbols were the flashy jewelry worn the expensive clothes and big cars.
The socialization process started very early. Usually a member took a liking to a neighborhood kid and offered him a job. As the kid built trust the boss would slowly work the kid into more criminal type jobs, like running numbers money or selling stolen goods. If the recruit could conform to the ways of the organization, he was rewarded with the respect and pay of an adult. This provides deeper trust and allegiance to the subculture. However, the Mafia had a castes system, so no matter how much trust and respect you got, you could not become a made man in the family unless you were 100% Sicilian. Being a made man was a blood ritual that brought you totally into the Mafia family and allowed for the possible advancement to the position of being a boss.
As portrayed in the movie, members of the Mafia see themselves as normal people. They justified their deviant and criminal behavior as nothing more than carrying out every day business transactions. That is how they got the name of this movie, the men all believed they were just a bunch of goodfellas.
