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The Irishman (2019)
Rate:
9
Viewed:
7/26
7/26:
Martin Scorsese is back, Robert De Niro is back, and Al Pacino is back.
After 2000, it's been "what the hell happened to them?" Martin Scorsese sold himself out when he did
The Departed, so he could win a stupid Oscar. Robert De Niro was
doing uncharacteristically rubbish films such as 15 Minutes,
Showtime, and Godsend. And Al Pacino made a caricature of
himself while sleepwalking through roles in The Recruit,
88 Minutes, and Righteous Kill,
among others.
But they're back big time in The Irishman, making for the most satisfying Scorsese film since
Cape Fear. This is what the director excels in the most:
storytelling. It's like Goodfellas all over again by controlling
the flow and letting the characters develop without excess which explains why
Casino went off the rails.
Yeah, I'm constantly reminded of Hoffa many times along with a bit of
F.I.S.T., but the former was mostly made up while the latter was a
roman à clef. Rather, The Irishman is based on new information from a biography,
I Heard You Paint Houses: Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran and Closing the Case on Jimmy Hoffa,
supposedly to set the record straight about what happened to the Teamsters boss toward the end of his life.
However, there are some negatives. The movie is simply too long: three and half hours. I'm sure some of the
footage, most especially the inane back-and-forth dialogues to no end, can be cut out. As good as Al Pacino is
as Jimmy Hoffa although he channels a lot of Mayor John Pappas from
City Hall, Jack Nicholson's performance in
Hoffa was better. Yet I always thought the role belonged to Harvey Keitel since
he's a dead ringer for him with a relaxed personality. Finally, when it comes to Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters
stuff (these people and their families were absolutely corrupt), all I can say is "who cares?" It was a long
time ago; this stuff doesn't matter today.
All in all, The Irishman is an immense relief given how bad modern filmmaking has been in the past
two decades.