2019 | Dir. Martin Scorsese | 209 Minutes
"You got a good friend here. You don't know how good a friend you got."
Adapted from I Heard You Paint Houses, former investigator Charles Brandt's non-fiction chronicle of Frank Sheeran's life, Martin Scorsese's The Irishman is an intimate examination of a career criminal's life unfolding on an epic scale. Despite its considerable length, every minute of the picture is thoroughly engaging, delving into five decades of American history through the eyes of a killer for hire who allegedly played a part in the Bay of Pigs Invasion and pulled the trigger on Jimmy Hoffa. The picture spends as much time as needed to meticulously explore and demystify Sheeran's vicious work for the mob, to give layers of genuine nuance and texture to his respective friendships with Bufalino and Hoffa, and to unpack his thought process and his eventual existential anguish.
Scorsese presents the cold narrative of The Irishman with a resonant bluntness that is often darkly humorous. The film illustrates in a myriad of ways the relatively simple notion that crime ultimately does not pay, that no matter how powerful or organized they may be, criminals only ever meet violent or unceremonious ends. This is depicted most directly and hilariously in the freeze-frame captions describing the respective bloody deaths of various mobsters. The central principal of the picture plays out in long form for Hoffa, Bufalino, and Sheeran. Hoffa's mob connections pave the way for him to become the most powerful Teamster ever, but the same connections lead to his downfall when he runs afoul of their plans and adamantly refuses to back down. Bufalino runs his criminal operations with carefully measured intimidation and violence, but his illicit activities eventually land him in prison stripping him of all dignity in his twilight years. Though Sheeran consistently does as he is told and remains ever loyal to his mob allies, despite his best efforts to defuse the situation he has no choice but to murder one of his closest friends and forever destroy his relationship with his perceptive daughter Peggy - fully aware of his terrible actions, willfully distant, and eventually completely estranged from her father - leaving Sheeran with no one to care for him in the end.
While the digital de-aging implemented on Hollywood legends Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino isn't always perfect, it's never distracting. All three turn in some of the best work of their celebrated careers. De Niro's Sheeran is amusing and convincingly melancholic, skillfully portraying the extremely difficult role of a deeply conflicted, emotionally repressed man of violence. As Bufalino, Pesci is masterfully subtle and understated, in stark contrast to his standard acting style, believably portraying a man who knows the inevitability of the business but is driven by duty nevertheless. Conversely, Pacino as the prideful and ambitious Hoffa is full of restless energy but manages to stop just short of over-the-top, delivering his greatest and most controlled performance in years. The supporting cast notably features Bobby Cannavale as Felix "Skinny Razor" Ditullio, Ray Romano as Bill Bufalino, Harvey Keitel as mob boss Angelo Bruno, Stephen Graham as Tony Provenzano, Sebastian Maniscalco as "Crazy" Joe Gallo, Jesse Plemons as Chuckie O'Brien, and Anna Paquin and Peggy Sheeran.
The Irishman is an extensive meditation on loyalty, ego, regret, and mortality that is captivating all the way through. Alternately grim and funny, sentimental but unflatteringly candid, it is arguably the most complete mob picture in Martin Scorsese's accomplished filmography, simultaneously honoring and deconstructing the genre.
FRAGMENTS
- The factual nature of narrative of the film as it is adapted from Charles Brandt's book I Heard You Paint Houses has been widely disputed
- Robert De Niro also appears in 2020 Best Picture Nominee Joker
- Al Pacino also appears in 2020 Best Picture Nominee Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
SUPPLEMENTAL STUFF
- Podcast: Behind The Irishman
MCU CONNECTIONS
- Bobby Cannavale (Jim Paxton in Ant-Man and Ant-Man and the Wasp)
