Billy Batts was right to humiliate Tommy in Goodfellas

Robbie3000

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I have a theory.

Back in the days Tommy grew up poor. His Dad was an honest man who worked a 9-5.... possibly as a janitor for the city. Tommy began shining shoes to help out with the rent and bills around the house. At the time, Billy Batts was on the come up. He used to make a lot of money and when he would visit Tommy's shoe stand with other wise guys, he would ridicule Tommy mercilessly in front of people and he especially loved to do it when girls and women were around. Billy would make fun of Tommy and his family... especially Tommy's dad who he hated because Tommy's dad won the affection and married Billy Batt's high school crush. He took it out on Tommy. At the time, Tommy was too small and powerless to stand up for himself. He swore to himself that one day he would establish a rep that was so feared no one would ever publicly ridicule him and if they did, there would be consequences. (Look what happened to poor Spider)

By the time Billy Batt's got out of jail, Tommy had risen in the ranks and when he saw Billy, all those childhood memories came back.
 

Methodical

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man tommy shot spider in the foot and then killed when he spoke up for himself. Seems like tommy couldn't take the heat

Sadly, Spider got killed for standing up for himself after he got shot in his foot. This is telling me that he's clearly know nothing about Tommy He would have shutted his mouth close if any mob guys warn him about Tommy like :whoa: "Don't say anything to Tommy cause he's nut, hot-head, etc" but clearly these guys don't give a fukk about nobody especially they had to hide and bury him in the ground.

I remmy when first time I watched and I was like :what: why this idiot go back to work with cast on after psychopath Tommy shots him in his foot. Then after I watched this movie over and over and I get it why he went back.

1. He wasn't an innocent cause he wanted to be in the mob, and saw his job as the first step into doing.

2. He probably thought he was worse than Tommy like :pacspit:
"fukk that motherfukker, I ain't afraid of him. What, I'm supposed to leave my job because he's a moron? fukk that guy." Obviously he's not as 'hard' as Tommy is, but it still took some courage to tell Tommy to go fukk himself after Tommy shot his foot off. Even if it was misplaced :mjlol:

3. What would they think if Spider stops showing up? These guys are gonna be paranoid about where he is and who he's with and they have to find him and murder him. Once you in and there's no way you get out.:mjcry:
 
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Ol’Otis

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if i'm not mistaken it was paulie who dropped a dime on tommy
but it wasn't for the billy batts thing
something else happen


and according to henry hill
Jimmy and tommy was gone kill him anyway
before he started muscling in on Jimmy's business
 

cheek100

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Yeah, but Goodfellas covers so much it just wasn't possible. Still his role fits perfectly in this flick. I love how the movie starts with the trunk scene, Tommy viciously stabbing Batts. So brutal, Scorsese was in the zone.
Man for real that opening with the quick "ach ach" :sadcam:
Batts made that movie so cold. Everytime I see buddy (the actor) I want him to be Batts. And when he's not Batts I usually turn off the show.
 
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Mr. Pink

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Because Jimmy made a lot of people money. They wasn't going to kill a money man while he was still a great earner. And Henry, well I guess he had Paulie looking out for him.
Exactly. The mob is all about politics.

People like Tommy, psychopaths who can't control themselves, get used and abused by the truly dangerous people, the bosses. Just like Henry, Tommy grew up around the mob. They obviously knew what he was("Tommy's a bad kid, he's a bad seed...", "You gotta watch out for kids like that"). So they use him as a lightning rod to do their killing and make whatever money they can and once they outlive their usefulness they make the expedient choice and kill them. There's always another young cowboy waiting to step up.

Paulie was no dummy. He knew Henry and Jimmy were involved in that mess, and so did Billy Batts' people. But why throw away 2 smart and capable moneymakers? So he plays stupid and throws Tommy to the wolves, the Gambinos can save face and say they got revenge for Batts, everyone is satisfied.

To truly understand how cunning Paulie is, consider the move he and Henry pull on the connected restaurant owner(Larry Boy in The Sopranos). They basically make good use of Tommy's natural psychopathy and use him as a bad cop to their good cop routine to take over his restaurant.

While Tommy was busy playing tough guy and waving guns around in crowded restaurants, Henry spotted the opportunity and suggested to Larry that Paulie will probably "help him out". Remember in that sitdown Henry is right there and gives Larry the go ahead to make his plea to Paulie. So Paulie cynically makes a big show of how his hands are tied and he can't control Tommy etc. and then he "reluctantly" accepts a piece of the restaurant... and then he fukks Larry in the ass by running up unpaid bills on the store's credit and then setting it on fire for the insurance money.

That's why Paulie is upper management, because he can be an apex predator while keeping his hands clean, while Tommy was a just another low level grunt in an army of low level grunts..
 

street heat

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tommy was on some BS as soon as he came in though. he had an attitude when dude just wanted to him to come and say hi and told him he looked great. he got all pissy and pushed him off talkin about watch the suit. i can see how that wouldve rubbed batts the wrong way and made him want to cut him down a bit.
 
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