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AMC slaps ‘Goodfellas’ with trigger warning for ‘offensive’ content that includes ‘cultural stereotypes’

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Social Links for Jon Levine
Published May 18, 2024, 2:12 p.m. ET

They’re whacking a classic.

AMC Networks added a trigger warning to the classic mob movie “Goodfellas” — rankling those who were in the film and wiseguys alike.

“This film includes language and/or cultural stereotypes that are inconsistent with today’s standards of inclusion and tolerance and may offend some viewers,” a message reads at the top of the film when screened on the network.

Actors Frank Adonis, Ray Liotta, and John Manca in a scene from the movie Goodfellas, all dressed in suits.
Actors Frank Adonis, Ray Liotta, and John Manca in a scene from the movie “Goodfellas,” all dressed in suits. ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection
A television screen displaying a message from AMC before the film Goodfellas
Viewers of Goodfellas on AMC are now treated to a warning at the films introduction. X @klnynews

The warning was first affixed to the movie during the height of Black Lives Matter riots when many businesses and cultural institutions made avoiding offense to various groups a core part of their missions.

Disney has made a cottage industry of affixing warnings to their century-long oeuvre of content.

“In 2020, we began adding advisories in front of certain films that include racial or cultural references that some viewers might find offensive,” an AMC rep told The Post.

But the warning for Goodfellas apparently doesn’t apply to other mob flicks. “The Godfather” — which also plays on AMC and features many of the same themes — is presented with a more standard “viewer discretion” warning covering “brief nudity, strong language and intense violence.”

“The f–king political correctness has f–king taken everything away,” Bo Ditel, a former NYPD cop who played a police officer in “Goodfellas,” told The Post. “This is how life was back then. It was not a clean beautiful thing. You can’t cleanse history. If you want to tell true history, you gotta tell it the way it is.”

Ray Liotta, Joe Pesci, Catherine Scorsese, and Robert De Niro in a scene from the 1990 film GOODFELLAS, sitting around a table
The 1990 film is widely considered a classic and has been selection for preservation by the National Film Registry. ©Warner Bros/Courtesy Everett Collection

Michael Franzese, a one-time captain of the Colombo crime family, said he was amused by the note

“We don’t need anyone protecting mob guys. It’s crazy,” he said.

The 1990 Martin Scorsese film is widely considered one of the best mob flicks ever made, and earned Joe Pesci an Academy Award for his memorable performance as the psychotic gangster Tommy DeVito. In 2000, the United States Library of Congress declared the film “culturally significant” and added it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

The film also stars Robert De Niro, Ray Liotta and Paul Sorvino.