Film Review: The Irishman
Credit: Netflix
By Erik Nielsen
Martin Scorsese can now join what is a banner year for great directors confronting legacy and mortality. Tarantino’s Once Upon A Time, Almodovar’s Pain and Glory and now, The Irishman. The Irishman is more than a gangster movie, it’s also a historical epic about men who had great power over our unions, politicians, and Mafiosos. They acted as shadow hands, making things move behind closed doors but refused to accept that their time may be up. This film is not only fast, fun and melancholic but is a far more delicate, tender and elegiac tale than Goodfellas, Casino, and Wolf of Wall Street. Scorsese is approaching the age where death may be on his mind more than ever and it is evident in the opening scene.
There’s that famous tracking shot in Goodfellas when Marty takes us through the Copacabana (which also makes an appearance), showing us all the gangsters living the gangster life, high, rich and proud. The opening shot of The Irishman is similar in terms of movement but this time we’re in a retirement home, colors muted, things quiet, old people barely mobile and then there’s Bobby De Niro as Frank Sheeran, who begins to confess what led to the murder of Jimmy Hoffa. He’s at the end of his life, much like gangster movies themselves. Scorsese uses this material to not only tell a great story but to bookend what has been a storied career peering into the lives of the people everybody knew but nobody wanted a piece of.
Credit: Netflix
The first 40 minutes or so are dedicated to the friendship of Sheeran, a war veteran who drives trucks in Philly and mobster Russell Bufalino - played by a superb Joe Pesci who is a missed and beloved screen presence. He doesn’t have to go over the top like we’re used to seeing in Scorsese’s movies. This performance, much like De Niro’s, is subtle, slow and calm and it’s also one of his best. It’s not long before Bufalino asks Sheeran to “paint houses” (i.e. murder) which he does at a quick and efficient pace. He’s a solider and takes to following orders. The classic Scorsese queues are there as well with old rock and soul music accompanying men in smokey bars and De Niro throwing away murder weapons. But, word gets out quick to Chicago about Frank “Irish” Sheeran and this is where Hoffa comes in.
The scenes with Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa have to be some of the best of his career as he is in complete control, reminding us what an engaging and satisfying screen persona he is. This is Pacino at the peak of his bulgy-eyed madness. Jimmy Hoffa was such an irreverent personality that it could only work with someone who has a similar legacy. He tears up the screen when we are first introduced to him, rallying up the Teamsters, barking orders at mobsters (who he despises) and firing away at reporters. He’s illustrating a man who has fallen in love with his persona.
Credit: Netflix
The film really becomes a budding romance as the friendship between Sheeran and Hoffa strengthens as the doors get peeled back on the Teamster’s operations. They traverse the road together, fly between Miami, New York and Chicago and are never absent from one another when making a pivotal call or having to meet with someone important. This also includes the corruption of the Kennedy/Nixon election, as the film alleges that the mob helped get voter turnouts in swing states in Kennedy's favor but also, that they were the ones smuggling guns into Cuba in hopes they could start building casinos there. The film is not only a great story but a great cinematic history lesson in corruption and how power moves in what felt like a brisk 210 minutes. Scorsese’s a master of montage and he can move through a film quickly without missing a beat.
What we begin to see with Hoffa in the latter part of the film is a man afraid to let go of his legacy. Someone who is so headstrong, arrogant and full of himself that he can not accept the fact his time is up. After spending six years in jail for fraud until getting a presidential pardon from Nixon (yes), the mob decides they don't want him around anymore. His power was so engrossing he fears he will be nothing without it. It’s heartbreaking to watch because of how good he and Sheeran were together. You can feel the tension permeating the screen as you begin to realize Hoffa is reaching his end because he remains wholly unaware of the fact that the door to his life is closing, while others around him plot his downfall.
Credit: Netflix
When the film begins to reach its end, much like the life of the gangsters, it becomes an entirely different film. It's about the tragic loss of family, the seeds of distrust you sow between loved ones, how lonely our dying days can be and that the gangster life ultimately leads to a depressing one. And of course, this wouldn’t be a Scorsese film if the characters didn't begin to wane into Catholic guilt. But, Sheeran tries to understand what his life meant, what sins he should attest to and his attempt at coming to grips with this long, muddied life is, to tell this story. “Leave the door open a little, I don’t like it to be closed all the way.”, he says to a visiting priest in the final scene and there couldn’t be a more appropriate way to end it. A man, afraid to see, what a closed-door may look like.
