Goodfellas commentary

October 27, 2007 12:09 PM

The "cop and crook" commentary on the Goodfellas DVD - why is the real name of the Maury character bleeped out? And what is that guy's real name?
posted by Meatbomb to media & arts (6 comments total)

Never seen the commentary, so I couldn't tell you why it's bleeped out, but assuming you mean Morrie Kessler, the character is based on Marty Krugman.
posted by Partial Law at 12:14 PM on October 27, 2007

Ah, I just read that Wikipedia article more closely and it says "Martin Krugman's name is covered by a bleep on the Goodfellas commentary without explanation." Now I'm curious too; I wonder if anyone has any insight.
posted by Partial Law at 12:16 PM on October 27, 2007

Perfect, Partial Law, thank you. Now anyone know, if it is public kowledge, why his name is bleeped on the commentary track?
posted by Meatbomb at 12:19 PM on October 27, 2007

Is it possible that the makers of the film were prohibited from using any real names or that when the commentary was made his name wasn't public? I read Wiseguy but I can't remember if it had his real name in it.
posted by sneakin at 1:03 PM on October 27, 2007

The film changes all of the names and the commentary doesn't reintroduce the names that were changed in the first place.

Changing names served a combined narrative-legal purpose. Versus his base material ("Wiseguys") Scorcese changed a lot of things around -- composited people and events, changed sequences, etc. -- and not using the real names made it easier to do that, both practically and legally (in terms of defamation or invasion of privacy concerns.) And then there's the issue of the reliability of "Wiseguys" -- Pileggi had his own narrative ends and legal liabilities to be concerned with, and, of course, Henry Hill wasn't someone who'd demonstrated a sterling regard for truth and justice.
posted by MattD at 1:14 PM on October 27, 2007

I've always felt that Scorcese didn't really derive the max benefit from the unreliable narrator in Goodfellas. Bleeping Krugman's name, or otherwise censoring the commentary tracks, would have a certain diegetic fun value, I suppose.
posted by rokusan at 1:32 PM on October 27, 2007