The movie "Goodfellas" is a dramatization of life in the New York Mafia. It is based on the accounts of real life ex-gangster turned state evidence. He tells his story from when he was hired by a wiseguy as a teenager in the fifties to the time he is put in the witness protection program in the seventies. The movie portrays the spirit of the Mafia subculture and demonstrates their distinctive values, customs, norms, and …showed first 75 words of 904 total…

…showed last 75 words of 904 total…blood ritual that brought you totally into the Mafia family and allowed for the possible advancement to the position of being a boss. As portrayed in the movie, members of the Mafia see themselves as normal people. They justified their deviant and criminal behavior as nothing more than carrying out every day business transactions. That is how they got the name of this movie, the men all believed they were just a bunch of goodfellas.