The Irishman

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.