Martin Scorsese crafted a clever callback to The Wolf of Wall Street with Jordan and Naomi Belfort’s cheating confrontation scene. The Wolf of Wall Street (2013) was Scorsese’s deep-dive into the chaotic, immoral, excess lifestyle of Wall Street through the character study of real-life conman Jordan Belfort (Leonardo DiCaprio). Similarly, Goodfellas (1990) was Scorsese’s analysis of the 60s and 70s New York mobster life through the eyes of real-life former gangster Henry Hill (Ray Liotta).
Scorsese attributes part of Hill’s downfall in Goodfellas and Belfort’s in The Wolf of Wall Street to their lack of loyalty to their wives and families, though he makes a point of the women’s complacency in the other aspects of their criminal lives. Karen and Noami both met their husbands when they were already heavily involved in either the mob or fraudulent practices of Wall Street, and tend to be scapegoats for some of the men’s misgivings. Scorsese arranges one marital confrontation scene in Wolf of Wall Street to almost directly mirror his scene in Goodfellas 23 years earlier, essentially indicating to the audience Belfort’s demise will occur in a tumultuous fashion similar to Hill’s.
The scene in Goodfellas when Henry Hill wakes up to Karen pointing a gun in his face after discovering he is cheating on her is aesthetically similar to the scene in The Wolf of Wall Street when Jordan Belfort wakes up to Naomi splashing water in his face as they argue about his infidelity. Both scenes occur at similar points in their films, with both Henry Hill and Jordan Belfort at the top of their game in their respective fields, having indulged in drugs, money, and excess to the point where their wives and children are ignored. The scenes are also structured similarly, where both the women react to their husbands’ affairs when the men are at their most vulnerable, sleeping, and involve the husbands trying to calmly bring them down before breaking out violently or aggressively.
The Wolf of Wall Street is essentially Goodfellas; the style and fast-paced nature of the first half being a “cocaine high” and the latter part being the crash after the high is extremely similar. Both films deal with men who came into their wealthy crime-ridden lives as they were corrupted by more senior of their respective factions and end up losing more than just themselves along the way. The men even escape severe jail time for their crimes as they betray their friends and give up the names of their associates in testimonies. It’s no wonder Scorsese found a way to make a direct connection between the inner life of Hill and Belfort, namely their infidelity and the short-lived complacency of their wives, and mirror them stylistically
One of Scorsese's faults with Wolf of Wall Street was not giving more agency in the story and point-of-view to Naomi and the women like he did for Karen and the wives in Goodfellas, considering they play similar roles in dealing with the repercussions of their husband’s crimes. The Wolf of Wall Street’s scene is more iconic for the dialogue and less physically violent nature, but Goodfellas’ was more significant as it was in Karen’s point of view and gave her more power when explaining why she stayed with Henry for so long. Naomi was essentially ignored for most of The Wolf of Wall Street considering she was Belfort’s former mistress and has a strong Bronx accent that is used comedically instead of serious and threatening in the scene.
