Screenwriters and directors Brian Koppelman and David Levien are long-time collaborators in film and television. The duo has worked on various successful projects, including co-writing the screenplay for the1998 film Rounders. They served as co-creators and executive producers on the Showtime series Billions, which ended its seven season run last fall.
More: Billions showrunners Brian Koppelman and David Levien on Showtime hit’s finale
Levien and Koppleman discuss the first time they saw the Martin Scorsese-directed 1990 mob classic Goodfellas and how it profoundly influenced their early creative perspectives. Seeing the film as two young, hungry filmmakers changed the way they watched movies forever.
More: David Levien and Brian Koppelman (The Treatment, 2010)
This segment has been edited for length and clarity.
David Levien: So 1990, we're out in Los Angeles. I was living there; Brian was sort of splitting his time between Los Angeles and New York. And it happened to be Yom Kippur. And I believe we fasted.
Brian Koppelman: That might be the last time I fasted.I was 23 and Dave was 22.
Levien: And we went to the theater to see Goodfellas for the first time and sat through the movie.
Goodfellas - Trailer - (1990)
Koppelman: The smell of popcorn wafting around us and Frankie cutting the garlic on the screen.
Levien: I was experiencing the ribald moments, and laughs, and boisterousness… But then sinking into this deep sense of gloom as the characters’ futures rolled out in front of them.
Koppelman: I mean, a couple of young, very hungry guys in Los Angeles, watching a movie about a kind of alienation within society. And I remember walking around California (when nobody walks). And I remember the two of us walking around, and trying to understand why the movie made us feel so bad.
Wiseguy by Nicholas Pileggi serves as the source material for the movie Goodfellas. It captured the same gritty realism and character depth that made Pileggi's work a compelling basis for Martin Scorsese's iconic film adaptation. Photo by Wikimedia/Creative Commons
Levien: We were so confused and disoriented by the power of it. We were like, 'was that not even a good movie?' Like, 'why do we feel so bad?' And then we were like, 'oh, it was a really incredible movie.'
Koppelman: Yeah.
Levien: That's marked our entire state of mind.
Koppelman: Because you grow up on the Godfather and you think you're going to see a movie that has this myth, right? [Goodfellas] strips all the myths away. And yes, people watch it 10 times and they find moments that are funny in it. But that's a movie about so much ugliness, about the worst actions we might take out of self interest, about the lies that we tell to ourselves as people. About thinking we're good, about groupthink, [and] about behavioral economics before anyone ever talked about behavioral economics. We didn't know any of that shit. But all we knew walking around, by the end of the night of walking, was that [Goodfellas] might be the best piece of art we've seen as adults to understand, to apprehend. And I can say it sent the two of us back into movies, like back into watching movies differently.