The Irishman – 2019 – R
Full disclosure, when I spotted the 3 1/2 hour runtime, I elected to watch The Irishman on Netflix from the comfort of my reclining LazyBoy within ten paces of my personal snack bar known best as “the kitchen.” I couldn’t think of tucking into a theater seat for that long without needing help to get up. I envisioned pushing the concession order button and facing this humiliating exchange,“What may I get you?” “Up.” Plus I could refill my personal, perfect-for-this-movie beverage cup as often as I wished!
Martin Scorsese’s gangster epic stars Joe Pesci as mob boss Russell Bufalino, Robert De Niro as Mafia hit man Frank Sheeran and Al Pacino as Teamster Union leader Jimmy Hoffa. Three Hollywood Hall of Fame actors and one iconic director unite to craft an extraordinary saga that covers decades of true-to-life intersections between organized labor and organized crime, a legacy story of friendship and loyalty, brutality and reckoning. People power wielded by powerful people. Don’t expect any warm fuzzies though. No kumbaya moments from the Pesci/DeNiro/Pacino Trio. I held my breath during baptism scenes. Friendship falters at the foot of power. Always. Jimmy Hoffa should have seen Frank Sheeran coming. Et tu, Brute? Securing and defending power and position trumps any mobster code of conduct. Underscore, there is no honor among thieves. The carnage grinds along, but setting a decidedly unique tone from the typical gangster genre, violence was casual, matter-of-fact, ho hum. Sheeran strolls up behind some poor upstart schmuck, shoots him twice in the head, walks away, tosses his gun over a bridge (there is a very funny scene about the gun graveyard) and heads home for supper. The message is clear, “Nothing to get worked up over. {shrug} Just another day painting houses. Pass the spaghetti please.” To keep the same actors and shrug consistency—even as their stories bounce around through the decades—computerized de-aging digital technology was used. Oh, Santa, please leave a sample of that Fountain of Youth in my Christmas stocking.
Maybe because the film relied on its trio of septuagenarian stars, senior citizen gangstas prevailed. There is no youth movement or secession planning. In general, Mafia men share a similar fate as marine life where 95% of all sea creatures will be eaten by bigger, badder sea creatures. Could be where we get the well known gangland cliché, “Swimming with the fishes.” Death is simply an occupational hazard. By taking out their competitors ad infinitum and ad nauseam, the 5% claiming the top of the mobster food chain survive into their golden years. There is a downside though. As mobsters age, it gives the feds time to catch up, the “old” turn “elderly,” still competing for #1 to the bitter end, but now confined to wheelchairs or pushing walkers around federal prison yards playing bocce ball. The non-incarcerated alternative is even worse. The film opens with narrator Sheeran abandoned to a lonely nursing home vigil, wrapped in a warm shawl, waiting for family that never appear, a phone that never rings, a letter that never arrives. But at least aged Frank has the means to select the most magnificent coffin featured in the funeral home coffin showroom! Pitiless, brutal emptiness.
The Irishman is not The Godfather and La Cosa Nostra. Jimmy Hoffa is German-Irish, Frank Sheeran, Swedish-Irish and Russell Bufalino, the sole Sicilian. Organized crime embraces diversity and fans out from New York to Philly to Detroit to Vegas. It’s a grand tale. And it’s not over yet. Francesco “Franky Boy” Cali, leader of the Gambino crime family was gunned down last March outside his Staten Island home, the first murder of a mob boss since 1985. The FBI estimate 3,000 Italian-American mafia members continue operating gambling, loan-sharking, extortion, human trafficking, and drug-running (mostly heroin) enterprises. Meanwhile, Russia, Africa, Latin America, and Asia, studying the American model, flexed their international mob muscle and organized a global web of illicit and illegal productivity. Fodder for an endless stream of crime films. The Russian. The Colombian. While you wait for these spin-offs or a Godfather IV, watch The Irishman. You’re not afraid of tough guys, are you?
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