Goodfellas
Goodfellas has been hailed as one of Martin Scorsese's best works, ever. Based on the novel "Wiseguy," a biographical story about a mafia mobster who later becomes an informant, Scorsese knew he immediately had to turn the book into a film. He admired the book's ability to showcase the day-to-day life of a mobster, the tedium, the ownership of specific places and for what reasons. He changed the book as little as possible, only tweaking it when it was absolutely necessary in order to make for an easy page-to-screen translation. It was nominated for five Academy Awards.