The Irishman November 29,
2019
This movie is a masterwork. Of all his accolades this film
will be at the top of Scorsese’s oeuvre. The performances were brilliant and the
script was rich and complex. The film is multi layered: it is a mob movie, a
docudrama and a Shakespearean tragedy. The
movie shows the rise of the main protagonist Frank Sheeran from a truck driver
to union boss and entanglements with the mod and teamster’s union boss Jimmy
Hoffa. This was a time when unions and the mob had a symbiotic relationship.
The three main actors are Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe
Pesci, all brilliant. If the Academy could give three Oscars in 2019 for best
actor that would solve of the dilemma of choosing. What separates great
performances is nuance. With De Niro and Pacino, we have seen shades of their characters
in other films. Pesci is almost Zen like. In contract to his role in Casino
as the hyperbolic Nicky Santora, Pesci plays Russell Bufalino as a sublime but a ruthless
mob boss. Pesci’s dramatic silences frame his character and vale the banality
of his evil.
Di Nero plays the Irishman as a man without a soul. He does
what he has to do no matter the affect on friends, family or himself. He is
stoic and remorseless; killing friends and wrecking family. Pacino is manic and
neurotic as Jimmy Hoffa. He is so consumed by his image as a power broker he cannot negotiate
with other mob chieftains. Two other
roles of note are Ray Romano as Bill Rufalino, teamster lawyer, and Bobby
Cannavale as a local mobster Skinny Razor. Romano with his halting distinctive
voice and Cannavale’s sleepy eyes, both hit their marks. Harvey Keitel has a
walk on role; looking good.
This movie is cut like a diamond. The editing was intelligent
and effective. Flash backs were selectively
done to narrate the movie and historical footage was used to jog the memory.
There is fact and fiction regarding the Kennedy’s. One thing for sure, the mod and
Jimmy Hoffa hated Bobby Kennedy.
If you look up Jimmy Hoffa, instead of deceased it will stay
“disappeared”. Hoffa’s body was never found and where he was buried became like
a parlor game. He was declared legally dead in 1982.
Yeah, the movie is three and a half hours long. Get over it.
