"Goodfellas" is based on the nonfiction book "Wiseguy" by Nicholas Pileggi, who collaborated with Scorsese on the screenplay. The book title refers to Henry Hill, who claims the mobsters in his world called themselves wiseguys or, apparently less frequently, goodfellas. But by the time Scorsese's movie was released in 1990, there had already been an unrelated television show titled "Wiseguy" that ran from 1987 to 1989. To differentiate Scorsese's film from the TV series, the rather faithful screen adaptation of Pileggi's book ended up being titled "Goodfellas."

Dark, intense, gritty, these are just a few of the adjectives I'd used to describe this little-known, 1965 classic, The Hill. The film - shot in black and white - depicts the corruption and sadistic abuse of prisoners who are treated as barbaric animals held captive inside a slaughterhouse/British Military prison, in the region of northern Africa. Sean Connory plays the protagonist in perhaps the finest acting effort of his entire career - his opinion as well! The title of the film refers to a huge, steep mound of compacted dirt on which the subjects are forced to tread up and down continuously, carrying heavy sandbags beneath the hot, blistering desert sun.