Made Men

Made Men: The Story of Goodfellas is the first book on the making of Martin Scorsese’s classic gangster film. Author Glenn Kenny covers the film’s casting (the studio “floated Tom Cruise and Madonna for the parts of Henry and Karen, a suggestion that was privately ridiculed by the filmkakers”), the soundtrack, and the editing, though the book is dominated by a descriptive scene-by-scene analysis in lieu of a full production history. A Scorsese interview (conducted just before the coronavirus lockdown) serves as an epilogue, and the director is characteristically voluble (his first answer is four pages long) and candid (“Goodfellas was a great experience but it was also terrible”).