“Goodfellas” actor Frank Sivero isn’t a household name, but this week he shamed his famous peers.
The veteran actor came to the defense of the 1990 mob classic starring Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci and the late Ray Liotta. Director Martin Scorsese’s film is considered one of his film canon’s highlights, on par with the greatest mobster stories ever told.
AMC added a trigger warning to the film and several others in 2020 during the rise of Black Lives Matter. News of the “Goodfellas” warning went viral earlier this month.
“This film includes language and/or cultural stereotypes that are inconsistent with today’s standards of inclusion and tolerance and may offend some viewers.”
Sivero, who plays mob enforcer Frankie Carbone in the drama, lashed out at AMC during an interview with TMZ.
“I’m kind of a little bit perturbed in a way, that AMC that even, AMC even cuts the movie completely, you don’t hear the language, they delete the language, so why are they so upset?”
“I’m a little perturbed because thank God I was able to do my job by improvisation. I created that, I made those moments real, to take the tension away from those gruesome moments.”
He’s right, of course, as Andrew Klavan recently noted in a blistering satire on the subject.
So where are De Niro and Scorsese?
We know where the “Raging Bull” actor is these days. He’s on the streets of New York City ranting about a second Donald Trump presidency. It’s embarrassing on many levels, including why an A-list actor’s views on the presidential race warrant outsized attention.
De Niro has gone full Travis Bickle. However, now 80, it came across as De Niro screaming at the courthouse for Trump to get off his lawn. https://t.co/O9CDQPwUPw
— Jonathan Turley (@JonathanTurley) May 29, 2024
Why won’t De Niro spare a syllable about “Goodfellas” and an artist’s right to offend? It’s not for a lack of microphones around him.
The same is true for Scorsese.
He’s weighed in on more trivial subjects in the past, including his alleged disdain for Marvel movies. He’s 81 and still a feisty, formidable talent. Shouldn’t he be rising up to defend his film? If not him, who else?
Doesn’t he realize the chilling effect trigger warnings have on the arts? Apparently not. Or, even a film legend knows defying the woke bylaws that control modern Hollywood isn’t good for business.
His in particular.