Favorite Movies: The Irishman
SPOILER ALERT: This film came out in 2019, so you might have missed it. In that spirit, I’ll try to steer clear of overt spoilers (though its plot centers around one of the more famous missing person cases in modern history). The film is on Netflix and is well worth your time, though it is over three hours long. Still don’t let that keep you from watching it!
Listen, if I actually met Martin Scorsese…I’d be a blubbering mass of incoherent jibber-jabber. I doubt I’d be able to engage in meaningful conversation with the man for at least a few minutes. I go back and forth between Marty and Ingmar Bergman as my favorite director of all time. If you ask me today, I’d say Marty. One reason for that is the way his most recent film, The Irishman, has quickly become a favorite of mine. I’d even say that, if I could have a meaningful conversation with Mr. Scorsese, this is the film I’d want to discuss.
That’s not to say it’s my favorite of Scorsese’s films. I prefer Taxi Driver, but that may just be one of the most-discussed films in movie history. You could say the same about Raging Bull and Goodfellas, both of which I prefer to The Irishman. My favorite Scorsese film is Silence, but that film is so personal and emotional for me that I feel like it’d be a little more difficult to talk about. I’d choose to discuss The Irishman because it really encapsulates Scorsese’s entire career in one film.
It’s a gangster film. Even though Scorsese has worked in many different genres and gangster films take up a comparatively smaller part of his filmography, that’s the genre with which he’s associated. It contains some of his familiar players, including Robert De Niro. It has the music, the attention to detail, and the artistry that Scorsese brings with every film.
At the same time, this is also a comment from Mr. Scorsese on his career - a culmination of sorts. This is not a movie made by a young man. It’s an older man’s story, yet it still resonates with someone like me who’s 27. As always with Mr. Scorsese, my personal favorite aspect is the way it includes spiritual themes in a story you may not think would have any.
This is the story of Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran (De Niro) - a man who fought in the War and learned how to kill. When he came back, he fell in with the mob - and the rest is history. In fact, there’s so much history here that the film stretches over three hours. I bring that up here at the beginning because that fact alone should not keep you from viewing this movie. The film is long, yes, but that’s just an opportunity for legendary Scorsese collaborator Thelma Schoonmaker to show why she is the greatest editor in the business. The movie flies by.
We meet Frank in the film’s opening shot - one that screams Scorsesian flair. The camera roams through a nursing home like Scorsese’s camera roamed through a nightclub in the famous sequence from Goodfellas. There, it evoked how the mob world opened up for the young Henry Hill. Here it evokes the creeping feeling of death that hovers over Sheeran. He begins to tell us his story, which merges into the film’s narration. It will cut from flashback to Sheeran’s wheelchair-bound narration multiple times during the film, but we never lose our place. Again - this is a testament to the greatness of Scorsese and Schoonmaker.
Sheeran tells us of the time he drove up to Detroit with his wife, Irene (Stephanie Kurtzuba), and their friends, Carrie (Kathrine Narducci) and Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci). Russell is doing some “business” along the way. We come to find out that Russell runs about all the business there is to run. He doesn’t look particularly imposing, but he is ruthless.
This might be my favorite Joe Pesci performance of all time, and that’s saying something. Again, this entire film could certainly be considered a comment by this legendary artists on their careers prior to this film. With Pesci, you understand the boisterous and volatile characters he’s played before. This makes his quiet, measured performance here all the more meaningful. He absolutely nails every beat.
Fifty minutes into the film, we meet the other major character played by one of the most acclaimed stars in movie history. Russell tells Frank that a friend of theirs needs some help - “a friend at the top.” That friend is famed union boss Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). The rest of the film will basically revolve around these three men - Russell, Frank, and Jimmy.
I’d want to discuss this film with Mr. Scorsese because it really has it all. So many of the elements that have made us come to love Scorsese’s artistry are present here. There’s the stylistic direction, period-specific costumes and music, powerfully-directed acting performances, religious imagery and themes and the ability to mix humor with stylized violence.
For me, it’s the religious imagery that keeps me coming back to Scorsese, and this film has loads of it. Scorsese himself originally studied to become a priest before his life took a turn towards the art of cinema. We can all thank God for that. Here we see a telephone pole filmed at an angle to make it look like a cross just before a pivotal betrayal. There are scenes that evoke The Godfather as we watch the baptism of a child. But it’s the end of the film - when Frank visits with a priest at the nursing home - when the themes that the film sets up over its long runtime really begin to sink in.
I’d also want to discuss the film’s visual effects, which are certainly groundbreaking. The film famously used digital de-aging techniques to allow De Niro, Pesci, and Pacino to play their roles for the entire film even though the story spans many years of their respective lives. At first, I wasn’t a fan of this, because it obviously limits the roles that younger actors can play. Just think if De Niro, himself, had been unable to play the younger version of Vito Corleone in Godfather II. Would it have been cool to see Marlon Brando stay in the role? Sure. But it would have taken away one of the prime roles that led to De Niro’s future success. What it does is allow the same actors to convey the characterization without having to transfer that information through different actors. I can see why that would be a better solution for Scorsese, and I can see why that has an added import in this film. Still, it’s hard not to lament the opportunities that are taken from younger actors.
As for the visual effects themselves, there are quibbles to be made - the eyes are a little too glassy at times, and the actors don’t exactly move like younger men. Still, the achievement is pretty astounding when you consider that nothing of this sort had ever been done before in movie history. To achieve this effect, Prieto needed to have three cameras mounted and pointed at the actors at all times. One is to get the master, while the other two get the perspective needed to render a strong digital image of the face. Despite my own misgivings, I must admit that the effect is quite impressive.
As with any Scorsese film, the music is another character. Here, the music helps set the era and place where our story occurs. We hear many 50’s standards early in the film, then we progress to the 60’s and, finally, to the 70’s. At three key points (ironically enough, beginning, middle, and end), the song In the Still of the Night by The Five Satins plays in the background. It helps set the mournful mood that really gets to the heart of this film.
Speaking of the heart of this film, another component that really lays the foundation for the film’s themes are the costumes from Sandy Powell. Again, every Scorsese film has a keen attention to detail, so the costume design in his films is always strong. Here - as the story moves from fancy restaurants, to prison, to a nursing home - the costume design tells its own story too.
For more backstory on the making of the film, I highly recommend the podcast that Netflix developed called Behind the Irishman. If you can get past Sebastian Maniscalco’s hammy narration, the stories from the making of the film are fantastic.
More than anything else, I’d come back to the film’s visual language. These actors are some of the greatest we’ve ever seen when it comes to close-ups and reaction shots. Scorsese uses each one of them to incredible effect. And the images of a cross made by intersecting telephone poles or an open door in a nursing home hallway will stick with me forever.
This is Scorsese’s attempt once-and-for-all to make an anti-mob movie. These men make money and achieve all the success they can, while leaving bodies in their wake. Yet, after all their betrayal and murder, what are they left with in their old age? What did it all mean? Sheeran is left to consider these questions alone.
You can certainly read it as a comment on Scorsese’s earlier mob films, and I think that’s an interesting way to read it. But, on a deeper level, I don’t think Scorsese’s earlier mob films romanticized the life they depicted. I think Goodfellas gives us more than enough reason to understand that this life is not a “good” life. What The Irishman does, however, is go even deeper. It gives us the betrayal and the violence of the earlier films, but then it shows us the aftermath. Frank outlasts everyone - and what does he get for it?
Regret, pain, sadness - his own family disowns him. He still has his ring. He was one of only three men to get one. But does that exclusivity cover over everything else?
I think the film takes us to a place where each one of us - yes, even those of us who aren’t connected to the mob - must consider what we will feel “in the still of the night.” When we are alone with only our thoughts and our memories, will they bring joy or pain? When death is at our doorstep, what kind of life will we have lived?
I will probably never have the chance to actually discuss this film with Mr. Scorsese. Still, I’ll always be thankful that he made this film. That he stayed true to his creative vision and went back to a genre that he had covered before. It shows his true artistry in that he was able to bring an absolutely new twist to the material, and he was even able to change filmmaking technology along the way.
Note on content: The film has zero sexual content to speak of. However, it has a great deal of violence and profanity. Given that it’s a mob film and given Scorsese’s history, this should come as no surprise. This film has less of those elements than some of Scorsese’s other films, but it still may not be a film for younger viewers. Also, younger viewers may have more difficulty with the movie’s long runtime.