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Starring: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin, Bobby Cannavale, Ray Romano, Sebastian Maniscalco, Stephen Graham, Domenick Lombardozzi, Jeremy Luke, Joseph Russo, Stephanie Kurtzuba, Kathrine Narducci, Aleksa Palladino, Jack Huston
OUR RATING: ★★★½
Story:
Bio-crime drama directed by Martin Scorsese. The Irishman (2019) centers on Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), a labor union official with mob connections, who recalls his involvement in the slaying of Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino), an American labor union leader.
Our Favorite Quotes:
'Whenever anybody says they're a little concerned, they're very concerned.' - Frank Sheeran (The Irishman) Click To Tweet 'Three people can keep a secret only when two of them are dead.' - Frank Sheeran: (The Irishman) Click To Tweet
Best Quotes
Frank Sheeran: When I was young, I thought house painters painted houses. What did I know? I was a working guy, a business agent for Teamster Local 107 out of South Philly. One of a thousand working stiffs, until I wasn’t no more. And then I started painting houses myself.
Frank Sheeran: In this particular matter, the whole thing was built around the wedding. Bill Bufalino’s daughter was getting married in Detroit. Bill was a Teamster lawyer, but more important, he was Russell Bufalino’s cousin.
Frank Sheeran: [referring to Russell] I mean, I thought maybe he owned the gas station. Because he owned something, you could tell. Yeah, it turns out he owned the whole road.
Bill Bufalino: [after getting accused by his company of theft] Okay, Frank Sheeran. Am I saying that right?
Frank Sheeran: Yeah, you said it right.
Bill Bufalino: Under the contract, thanks to Jimmy Hoffa, management can only fire a driver on very specific charges. So, you ever show up late?
Frank Sheeran: No.
Bill Bufalino: Do you have any moving violations?
Frank Sheeran: No.
Bill Bufalino: Do you drink on the job?
Frank Sheeran: No.
Bill Bufalino: Do you ever hit anybody?
Frank Sheeran: On a job?
Bill Bufalino: Yeah.
Frank Sheeran: No.
Bill Bufalino: Okay.
Frank Sheeran: What about stealing, that ain’t grounds?
Bill Bufalino: Well, can they prove it?
Frank Sheeran: I don’t think so.
Bill Bufalino: Alright then, we don’t have nothing to worry about. If they can prove it, they’re just going to want names from you. Accomplices. That’s all. You give them a couple of names, you go home. Keep your job. What do you think about that? Would you do that?
Frank Sheeran: No.
Bill Bufalino: Would you give them names?
Frank Sheeran: No. No names.
Bill Bufalino: You know, I don’t care whether you did it or not. That makes no difference to me.
Frank Sheeran: Yeah, I know.
Bill Bufalino: I’m here to defend you. Right?
Frank Sheeran: Right. What do you want to know? Do you want to know if I did it or not?
Bill Bufalino: Well, I’m going to defend you either way.
Frank Sheeran: Yeah, alright. But I work hard for them when I ain’t stealing from them.
Frank Sheeran: I don’t know how he did it, and I ain’t going to ask. All I know is that Bill Bufalino got me out of a case where I should never have gotten away with it. I should’ve been down for the count. Instead, we went out celebrating, and I met what was going to turn out to be the rest of my life.
Bill Bufalino: Frank, I want you to meet my cousin Russell Bufalino.
Frank Sheeran: How are you?
Russell Bufalino: Hi. Nice to meet you.
Frank Sheeran: You helped me with my truck a couple of months ago.
Russell Bufalino: Oh, yeah, yeah. That’s right. The timing chain.
Frank Sheeran: Yeah.
Russell Bufalino: Did you get it fixed?
Frank Sheeran: I fixed it the next day, yeah.
Russell Bufalino: Attaboy.
Russell Bufalino: [referring to Bill] You better watch. There’s a lot of tough guys around here. Did he tell you? You’re not afraid of tough guys, are you?
Frank Sheeran: No.
Russell Bufalino: I didn’t think so. I’ll see you around.
Frank Sheeran: Maybe I didn’t know who Russell Bufalino was back then, but I’d seen enough pictures and stories in the newspapers to know he was eating with Angelo Bruno. I mean, Bruno, he was just made the new boss of Philadelphia. He took care of everything from Philadelphia to Atlantic City. That, I knew.
[then it’s quoted that in 1980 Angelo was shot in the head sitting in his car outside his house]
Frank Sheeran: And that was all I had to know to know that Russell Bufalino was no truck mechanic from Canada Dry.
Russell Bufalino: [in Italian, referring to fighting in the Second World War]] Were you afraid of dying?
Frank Sheeran: [in Italian and English] Always afraid. And don’t let anybody tell you that they weren’t afraid. That’s a lot of bulls**t. You know?
Russell Bufalino: Yeah.
Frank Sheeran: Everybody’s afraid. And you pray a lot. I prayed a lot. I prayed that I’d never sin again as long as I live, if I could just get out of here. But then the fighting starts, and then you forget about everything. You’re just trying to survive, stay alive. Once I saw that I was getting through the war, I looked around me, I said, “From now on, whatever happens, happens.”
Russell Bufalino: Che successe successe. F*** it.
Frank Sheeran: Russell, he took a shine to me right away. After a while, he started giving me little things to do. But then Angelo, himself, he started giving me little things to do too.
Frank Sheeran: Russell had a piece of everything. He had this store in Pittston called Penn Drape & Curtains. And he ran everything out of there. Who knew what it all was? I mean, I’m sure the man had partners. They always have partners. Nobody keeps all the money. But everybody listened to Russ, that I can tell you. You wanted to bribe a judge, you asked Russell. You didn’t know how much to bribe him, Russell was going to tell you.
Frank Sheeran: You want to promote one of your guys, Russ would tell you you could or you could not.
Frank Sheeran: You want to make somebody disappear, you got to get Russell’s permission. You know, no two ways about it.
Frank Sheeran: [voice over] And when you did something for Russ, you did it yourself. Like Russ used to say.
Russell Bufalino: When I ask somebody to take care of something for me, I expect them to take care of it themselves. I don’t need two roads coming back to me.
Frank Sheeran: You’d never know it by looking at this guy, but all roads led back to Russ.
Whispers DiTullio: [to Frank, referring to his laundry business] They’re trying to take our customers from us. To tell you the truth, I’m a little concerned.
Frank Sheeran: [voice over] Whenever anybody says they’re a little concerned, they’re very concerned.
Whispers DiTullio: [to Frank] As a matter of fact, I’m really more than a little concerned.
Frank Sheeran: [voice over] And when they say they’re more than a little concerned, they’re desperate.
Whispers DiTullio: [to Frank] I want this f***ing place bombed, burnt, torched, whatever the f*** you have to do.
Angelo Bruno: [referring to Russell] You got a good friend here. You don’t know how good a friend you got.
Frank Sheeran: Oh, I know.
Angelo Bruno: No, you don’t know.
Frank Sheeran: In a case like this, the best thing to do is you use something brand new. Right out of the box. Otherwise, you don’t know where it’s been. You don’t know who’s used it, what crime it was connected to. That’s suicide. So I recommend something new, straight out of the box. Stone cold. Clean.
[we see Frank walk up to meet Whispers, but he shoots him in the head and just continues walking on]
Frank Sheeran: [referring to the gun he used to kill Whispers] Naturally, the next thing you want to do is throw the thing away. You want to get rid of it. There’s a spot in the Schuylkill River everybody uses. If they ever send divers down there, they’d be able to arm a small country.
Frank Sheeran: For me, everything changed after Whispers. It was like the army. You followed orders. You did the right thing. You got rewarded. And when I handled things for Russell, it was never for money, but as a show of respect. When you ran a little errand, you did a little favor, you got a little favor back if you ever needed it. And you always hurried back.
Russell Bufalino: [referring to young Peggy] I get the feeling she don’t like me. Like she’s afraid of me.
Frank Sheeran: No, no. That’s the way she is. She’s afraid of me at times too. So, it’s just she’s a sensitive kid, but that’s all it is.
Russell Bufalino: I can understand her being afraid of me, but she shouldn’t be scared of you, Frank.
Frank Sheeran: No, well. And then she hears about me in the papers sometimes…
Russell Bufalino: Really?
Frank Sheeran: Yeah.
Russell Bufalino: You got to be close to your kids, Frank.
Frank Sheeran: I am. I am.
Russell Bufalino: You’re blessed to have them. I mean, Carrie and I can’t have kids. I told you. But you’re blessed. You’re blessed.
Russell Bufalino: [over phone] Hiya, my friend. How are you? Listen, I got that kid I was talking to you about here. I’m going to put him on the phone, and let you talk to him, okay? Alright.
Frank Sheeran: Hello?
Jimmy Hoffa: Is that Frank?
Frank Sheeran: Yes.
Jimmy Hoffa: Hiya, Frank. This is Jimmy Hoffa.
Frank Sheeran: Yeah, yeah. Glad to meet you.
Jimmy Hoffa: Well, glad to meet you too, even if it’s over the phone. I heard you paint houses.
Frank Sheeran: Yes. Yes, sir, I do. I do. And I also do my own carpentry.
Jimmy Hoffa: Oh, I’m glad to hear that.
Jimmy Hoffa: I understand you’re a brother of mine.
Frank Sheeran: Yes, sir. Local 107, since 1947.
Jimmy Hoffa: [referring to Russell] Yeah. You know, our friend speaks very highly of you.
Frank Sheeran: Well, thank you.
Jimmy Hoffa: He’s not an easy man to please.
Frank Sheeran: Well, I do my best.
Jimmy Hoffa: Well, you know, there’s a situation…
Frank Sheeran: [voice over] Nowadays, young people, they don’t know who Jimmy Hoffa was. They don’t have a clue. I mean, maybe they know that he disappeared, or something, but that’s about it. But back then, there wasn’t nobody in this country who didn’t know who Jimmy Hoffa was.
Frank Sheeran: In the ’50s, he was as big as Elvis. In the ’60s, he was like the Beatles. And next to the president, he was like the most powerful man in the country. Bar none.
Jimmy Hoffa: [over phone] Well, you know, there’s a situation going on now, Frank, that needs to be attended to. You know, they’re trying to tear the union apart. Big business and the government working together, trying to pull us down.
Jimmy Hoffa: [over phone] You want to be a part of this fight?
Frank Sheeran: Yes, I do, sir.
Jimmy Hoffa: Would you like to be a part of this history?
Frank Sheeran: Yes, I would. Whatever you need me to do, I’m available.
Jimmy Hoffa: Can you come to Chicago tomorrow?
Frank Sheeran: Yes, I can, sir.
Jimmy Hoffa: Alright, then. See you then.
Russell Bufalino: [referring to Jimmy] He likes to talk, don’t he?
Frank Sheeran: Yeah. Thought I was talking to General Patton.
'Sooner or later, everybody put here has a date when he's going to go. That's just the way it is.' - Frank Sheeran (The Irishman) Click To Tweet
Trailer:
‘The Irishman’: an alternative movie?
Perhaps it is inevitable that a movie that generates such ultra-high expectations as ‘The Irishman’ is almost certain to disappoint on some level. After all, you’ve got the dream cast Pacino, DeNiro, Keitel, and Pesci. On top of that, none other than Martin Scorsese, one of the greatest movie-makers of all time, is directing it. Paradoxically, when you have so many stars in a film, the outcome is likely to fall short of the unrealistic anticipation surrounding it. And, in this case, the movie does fall short – on several levels.
Specifically:
• The first thing that looks out of place is Robert DeNiro’s absurd Frank Sinatra, blue-eye contact lenses. They look silly, like part of an exaggerated Halloween costume, which make it nearly impossible to suspend disbelief. Interestingly, he was far more convincing as an Irishman in Scorsese’s classic ‘Goodfellas’ without any such optical contrivances
• Unlike ‘Goodfellas’ in which Scorsese provides us with a clear chronology that we can easily follow, ‘The Irishman’ jaunts back and forth in time, creating a kind of temporal disorientation throughout the picture. Also, some of the scenes seem to have anachronistic components that don’t jive correctly with the era depicted
• Notably, Al Pacino, who plays a starring role in ‘The Irishman’ also, played a starring role in ‘The Godfather Part III,’ – another film that fell short of sky-high expectations – but only a flicker of his many Oscar-worthy performances is evident in these films. In a word, his performance in ‘The Irishman’ is histrionic: it seems like he is trying way too hard to project Jimmy Hoffa’s persona in a way that defies credulity and rings disingenuous
• Although designed to create the foundation for the upcoming plot, the initial scenes with the Mary Sheeran, Russell Bufalino, and Jimmy Hoffa characters are downright creepy. Is the intent to:
o Demonstrate how men ‘flirted’ with young girls at the time?
o Reveal character flaws in Russell Bufalino and Jimmy Hoffa?
o Illustrate Frank Sheeran’s tacit approval to have his daughter objectified by his cronies?
o Serve as a commentary on how girls were treated in general during that period?
In any case, it seems implausible that a father would be unfazed by the quasi pedophilic overtures towards his daughter.
I tried to like this film, I wanted to like this film, but from its very beginning, I was overcome by a disturbing realization that only grew as the film went on: this is not a good movie. Actually, it’s pretty bad. In fact, ‘The Irishman’ is to Scorsese’s masterpieces such as ‘Raging Bull’ and ‘Goodfellas’ as ‘The Godfather Part III’ is to the monumental ‘Godfather Parts I & II.’ Yet, the top movie critics would have you believe this movie his best work yet! This response reminds me of Kelly Anne Conway’s famous ‘alternative facts’ theory: did these critics watch an ‘alternative movie’?
Rating: 2/5