In the Irishman Martin Scorsese returns to his signature style in movies.. The director did not make a gangster film since his award winning The Departed! Scorsese also returns to his roots by collaborating with Robert De Niro. The two did not work together in a movie since Casino in 1995. So The Irishman brings memories for movies that we all loved by Scorsese and De Niro such as Taxi Driver, Good Fellas, Raging Bull, and The King of Comedy. Scorsese also managed to convince Joe Pesci to get out of his retirement and work on this film. Some sources say that Pesci refused 50 times before he accepted to take the role in The Irishman. If that is not enough.. The film also stars Al Pacino to be the first film that stars the two acting legends (Pacino and De Niro).
Story
The Irishman is a gangster film. The movie starts with old Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) telling his story that we see through flashbacks. Before becoming a mafia hitman, Frank was a truck driver that delivers meat, events lead him to meet Russel (Joe Pesci) who is the head of a crime family and who has great power and connections in the city. The two men become friends after Frank starts doing some jobs for Russel including murder. Then, Russel introduces Frank to Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), a politician that has mafia ties. Hoffa and Frank become friends, their families become close and Frank becomes Hoffa’s body guard and helps him with his business and to take down his political rivals.
The 3 hours 30 mins movie is full with events and character development. Unlike many recent long films, I did not think that the movie could have been any shorter. I can guarantee that if you like gangster and political dramas you will never find a dull moment in the film.
Acting
As one would expect, the acting in the movie was just perfect. And I am referring to all the cast. But Joe Pesci steals the light in the first half of the movie. His presence on the screen was so captivating and his performance was very dominant and natural at the same time. If the actor decided to continue his retirement after this movie, it would be the perfect performance for us to remember his career. Al Pacino, as always was excellent, although Deniro and Pesci had a bigger margin to show off their acting and bigger screen time. But still Al Pacino delivered some great scenes in the movie.
As for De Niro, I see that this movie is a tribute for the actor. He appeared as young as 24 year old and as old as 80! That was done with stunning and seamless de-aging effects. De Niro’s appearance as his younger self added a lot of nostalgia to the movie. I couldn’t but think of the actor’s older movies. And this is why i am saying that The Irishman is a tribute to De Niro’s career. I think that is only fair that he wins an Oscar for his role in this film. Not only for his performance, but also to complete this tribute for an actor that delivered many of the most memorable characters of cinema’s recent history.
Directing
The Irishman is a proof that Martin Scorsese still can bring us interesting gang story and tell them in new inventive ways. The 76 year old director did not remake “The Good Fellas” with a new script. He tried to add new directing techniques and aesthetics that in some moments you feel that the forces of Scorsese and Quentin tarantino were merged in directing the movie.
First, the confusing way of telling the story, or what film scholars call non-linear storytelling. This style of mixing up the time and place of events and presenting them in a different order and out of chronology is a Tarantino trademark. Think of Pulp Fiction!
Scorsese used this confusing technique but made it easier to watch and understand:
The film opens with a tracking shot in a nursing home, where an older Frank is telling his life story, this takes us to a flashback where Frank and Russell and their wives are taking a road trip heading to a wedding. From that scene we go to another flashback (within the flashback) to the first time the two men met, and even to another flashback where Frank was 24 years old in World War I. Occasionally, the film returns to the nursing home and reminds us that old frank is still telling his story.
But it is not very hard for the audience to keep track of the story. In every time jump there are some guiding objects to make us understand where we are at. Most importantly, the faces of the actors and their de-aging helped us understand when the actions are taking place.
Tarantino style (or the post-modern style: for the cinephiles here) is also vivid through having text on the screen telling us the name of the character and how and when the character dies. And of course I will not forget the obvious blood splatter of the wall when Frank “paints the wall” with his victim’s blood.
The Irishman is a must see movie, and a 209 minutes worth spending! Its the longest film that scorsese ever directed, and took 106 days to film! With a budget of 159$ million!
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