The test screening was, by all accounts, a disaster.
Martin Scorseses revered 1990 mafia dramaGoodfellashad just screened in then-ultra conservative Orange County, California.
It was an angry reaction, Scorsese recalls.
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It became very difficult.
We noticed the moment Joe took out the knife people started laughing, they were outraged, Scorsese recalls.
And then he did it a third time and more people left.
And then I asked [editor Thelma Schoonmaker], How many more we got left?
And she says: Seven.
We didnt need them leavingthissoon, okay?
We see the knife, we get it.
The final cut is still plenty agonizing.
It shows Pesci delivering four stabs, with the rest being heard off-camera as Liotta reacts.
AnotherGoodfellasscene was actually rescued from potentially being cut entirely.
Then they read these [preview screening cards].
People hated the picture, but the thing everybody liked was the scene with my mother.
So we kept that!
Thats why I thank those screenings.
[A preview screening version] doesnt mean it was my cut,' Scorsese notes.
Im in the process of making the film.
Test screenings, for a while, were very helpful, he adds.
I dont know if it is anymore, at least for me.
The Irishmanis released in theaters Nov. 1 and comes to Netflix on Nov. 27.
