Made Men

The Story of Goodfellas

By: Glenn Kenny

Narrated by: Stephen Graybill

Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's Summary

For the 30th anniversary of its premiere comes the vivid and immersive history behind Martin Scorsese’s signature film Goodfellas, hailed by critics as the greatest mob movie ever made.

When Goodfellas first hit the theaters in 1990, a classic was born. Few could anticipate the unparalleled influence it would have on pop culture, one that would inspire future filmmakers and redefine the gangster picture as we know it today. From the rush of grotesque violence in the opening scene to the iconic hilarity of Joe Pesci’s endlessly quoted “Funny how?” shtick, it’s little wonder the film is widely regarded as a mainstay in contemporary cinema. 

In the first ever behind-the-scenes story of Goodfellas, film critic Glenn Kenny chronicles the making and afterlife of the film that introduced America to the real modern gangster - brutal, ruthless, yet darkly appealing, the villain we can’t get enough of. 

Featuring interviews with the film’s major players, including Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro, Made Men shines a light on the lives and stories wrapped up in the Goodfellas universe, and why its enduring legacy is still essential to charting the trajectory of American culture 30 years later. 

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Glenn Kenny (P)2020 Harlequin Enterprises, Limited

Mostly script-reading and pedantic film criticism

There are three main parts of this book. First, the scene-by-scene telling of Goodfellas (the chapters are actually titled "scene-by-scene". I suppose if you've never seen the film, it may be informative. But presumably, anyone buying the book has seen it and might consider such an exercise redundant and boring. And it is, as the author recounts the movie, line by precious line. That's 6 hours of the book, over half the running time. If anybody remembers the kid in school who insisted on reciting the entire Dead Parrot sketch of Monty Python, ad nauseam, you start to get the picture. Secondly, is the grand sweep of Scorsese's career. Mildly interesting, but not on point with why I bought the book, and seemed more than a little like filler to extend the length of the book (must have run out of dialogue to reprint). And lastly, is where the author feels most at home, bloviating about film, and comparing many with only the most tenuous of threads tying them together. I had thought the author's writing was merely amateurish, only to find his primary career was as a film critic, the wasteland for wannabe writers. These parts were excruciating in their cloying verbosity (<--he's fond of using that kind of language), making me long for the mundanity of the verbatim reading of the script. He lost me when he misidentified the 1955 version of We're No Angels, with Humphrey Bogart, Aldo Ray and Peter Ustinov as having escaped convicts posing as priests. No, that was the 1989 DeNiro/Penn version. Film critic, indeed. Scattered along the way are a few tidbits about extras, supporting actor's impressions of their roles, Scorsese's frantic rambling, and reactions of real life mobsters, which may have made decent material, but here was so scant as to be inconsequential.

wasn't what I thought it would be.

I wasn't looking for the Hollywood side of the story. The end. the end of my review again. the end. Thats 15 right?

Disregard the bad reviews - it’s a worthy read

…which clearly have an axe to grind. (Beware of someone calling out pedantry. It’s projection.)

This book is for any who cares about film, and film history. It features a methodical close reading of the film to place moments in their historical context (not “script reading” and what that implies). It’s less a documentary and more a book length, wide ranging essay on the film, by someone chosen by Scorcese himself to do just that.

The tale of a one film cinematic universe

A lot had been said about abt he film Goodfellas but never so much in one place.

You’ll get the stories you may know but you’ll also get the ones you surely don’t, including a mind bending look into how authentic the film really was to the point of it almost being part documentary.

If you are looking for a one-book films study course about a movie you would actually go and see, here it is.

Performance was satisfactory

very. very good and accurate stories.

great narration and excellent backstories which are all true. excellent production. now I'll watch the movie again.

I'm so lost

It's just a person reading the movie to you. One of the most pointless books I've ever heard of.

Very enjoyable.

It kept my attention. I love all of the gangster stories. This has one of my favorite readers. I’ve listened twice back to back.

A tedious tale, awful

Full disclosure I turned this off after 2-3 hours and didn't finish it. The reader does a fine enough job but the book is mildly interesting bits of Goodfellas trivia broken up by LONG stretches of complete boredom. Want to know the names of three child actors who appeared in a Michael Jackson music video? It's in here! Wow!

It's like having someone read user submitted IMDB trivia to you. I cannot emphasize enough what a waste of time this book is. Go watch the movie with a commentary track on, it'll scratch the itch.

Started Slow, But a Very Enjoyable Listen

Not sure why, but the introduction made me regret buying the book and the first chapter did little to change that. Then it all came together and this was a very entertaining book. If you liked the movie, you will like the book.

The book is as much about Martin Scorsese, as it is about Goodfellas.

Made for the Martin Scorsese fans

It was a bit hard to follow at times, the structure of the writing made it hard to follow in a linear fashion, that said it very informative and the speaker was fantastic.