Differences Between The Goodfellas Book And Movie

The movie I chose, “The Goodfellas”, was adapted from a novel. The novel in which it’s adopted from is called “Wiseguy”. The author is Nicholas Pileggi and the book was published in 1986, four years before the movie “The Goodfellas” was created (MET). However; the book and novel have some differences throughout one another. I found it interesting as I watched the movie before I read the book “Wiseguy” and I did not know the differences until after I read them. It turns out there are quite a few differences in the movie in comparison to the book.
When comparing length to length the book contains 256 pages. From my opinion that is the average amount of pages in a book. Referring to the book in which the class had to read Fight Club, when reading

that I noticed it was in the low 200s. As for the movie the time length was two hours and thirty two minutes. For a movie this is long, it covers everything from the start of his gangster legacy until the end. However; length to length I think the movie is longer than the book.
When comparing the cutting of scenes I noticed there was some scenes cut during this film. During the book, Henry joins the army. However; in the movie he never ended up joining the army. Another scene that doesn’t happen is when Henry and his family are harassed and he goes and beats the guy up. Overall, I think the reason some scenes of the film were cut was because they added some scenes and if they added the deleted scene it might not correlate properly with the film.
The next comparison is visualizing, double-taking and voicing exposition. The visualization was easier in the film when comparing the two although the book gave a good sense of what the setting was like. During the film it’s narrated by Henry (Ray Liotta) and his experiences throughout the film. The narration is done in first person by Henry Hill. He explains from the beginning his love and interest to be a gangster. It also shows the rise and fall of the gangster. What I thought was fascinating was how they showed them joining and why they would consider joining the mob.
The comparison between the cuttings of characters isn’t really common in this movie. The movie mainly revolved around one guy and the characters names stayed the same. The movie revolves around the character Henry Hill. His wife is Karen, and his main crew members names are; Tommy, Jimmy, and Paulie.
There are some changes in certain scenes such as; the adding, and changing of scenes from the book to the movie.

A scene added in the movie that wasn’t in the book was; the honorable “How I am funny” scene. The scene was added due to a recommendation by the actor Joe Pesci. A changed scene that is in the book is when Henry goes on a double date with Paulie’s son rather than in the movie, where Henry went on a double date with Tommy.
Another thing I noticed was there were some rearrangements from the book to the movie. A reason why this would occur was to follow from the changes of scenes. The rearrangement during this film was when Henry had his first court date while in the movie it showed Paulie being there however; in the novel he wasn’t due to serving a prison sentence.
Lastly both these stories involve first person accounts. The experiences were from the gangster Henry Hill. Throughout both explanations, the movie and book, he explains his life and hardship of being a gangster. The difference between these two first-person experiences was one was visualization while the other was trying to adapt an understanding. The movie really touched up on the understanding after reading the book and rewatching the movie. It let the viewers understand the setting, along with the personality in a visual

aspect.
In all, I noticed there was many comparisons between these two. Noticing the movie was made only four years after the book was published was surprising. After reading the book and watching the movie I thought the movie explained it in very similar aspects. Since they are personal experiences from the gangster, Henry Hill, it was best to say they didn’t change anything no matter how brutal the content may have been. After reading the book and watching the film it gave a better understanding of what a gangster’s life was like back then. In all, it set a greater understanding of what a gangsters life was like and it is known to be one of the best gangster films adapted from the book itself “Wiseguy!”