The 1990 film directed by Martin Scorsese is "the violent flip-side of the American dream, set to a driving pop beat and populated by low-lifes at the wheel," write Kinn and Piazza. "The movie is so packed with color, grisly humor, and the childish, spontaneous joy of mob life, there's an underlying message that crime, however briefly, pays."
Writer Nicholas Pileggi, who wrote the nonfiction book "Wiseguy" about protagonist Henry Hill that was the basis of the film, told the New York Times, "When you see violence, it should be shocking. What has happened, I think, is the banality of violence. Some books and movies have made violence an acceptable form of behavior. It is not – in my book or in this movie."
In the scene where main character Henry Hill and his wife Karen are discussing going into the Witness Protection Program, U.S. Attorney Edward McDonald plays himself – he talked it over with the real-life Hills when they asked to enter the program.
