The Irishman

When Frank Sheeran, aka The Irishman, died in 2003, it marked the end of an era. Gone were the labor union gangsters and enforcers, the hit men, the mafia. Well, not really, but the modern world would like us to believe that the organized crime that used to be rampant in Chicago, New York, and Vegas is a thing of the past, and the Mafia is nothing more than stories people tell in the pictures. Frank Sheeran was one of just a few men involved in the mafia that lived out his life and died of old age. So many died violently at the end of a gun. And then there was Jimmy Hoffa, the man who disappeared off the face of the earth and has never been found. Speculation of his death and where his remains ended up has fueled theorists and the police for decades. 

In 2004, American investigator, lawyer, and author Charles Brandt published the narrative non-fiction memoir I Heard You Paint Houses, the in-depth story of Frank Sheeran, truck driver, American labor union official, and enforcer for Jimmy Hoffa and Russell Bufalino. This novel came out less than a year after Frank’s passing, and well after anyone else involved had long since died out. This novel was tagged as “The inside story of the Mafia, the Teamsters, and the last ride of Jimmy Hoffa.” Allegedly, this title refers to the mob slang “paint houses,” which means to kill someone, painting the walls with their blood. The details contained within the pages of this book have come under scrutiny, with the most condemning responses accusing Sheeran of falsifying his admission of involvement in Hoffa’s death. Even with additional pages added to later editions of the book providing corroborating evidence, there is much dispute over the facts therein. 

Whether the story is factual or not, there is no denying that it is an intriguing one and it fills in many of the gaps that had previously been missing. These gaps made such earlier films like Danny DeVito’s Hoffa feel disappointing despite having a top-notch leading performance by the great Jack Nicholson. Martin Scorsese’s film, based off the Charles Brandt novel, eclipses Hoffa in virtually every way, including a surprisingly nuanced performance by Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa. This is the best Pacino has been in a long time, and it is refreshing to see that he can still act after years of seeing him almost become a caricature of himself. But Hoffa is only one part of this much larger story, and Scorsese takes full advantage of the streaming format, allowing him to tell a sprawling, nearly four-hour epic that spans a lot of years. The only thing he leaves out are his main character, Frank Sheeren’s (Robert De Niro), formative years growing up in the city. He went that route in Goodfellas and has wisely elected to ignore those years this time around. 

And for good reason, too. We don’t care about Frank’s background. When we first meet him, he is a truck driver, delivering loads of meat. His truck breaks down, and he manages to get it into a gas station where he unsuccessfully tries to get it running again. Here, he is approached by Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci), who sees him struggling with the truck engine and shows him what is wrong and how to fix it. Later, when Frank is accused of selling the meat out of the back of his truck, union lawyer Bill Bufalino (Ray Romano) gets the case dismissed when Frank refuses to name his customers to the judge. Bill also reintroduces Frank to Russell, who is his cousin and the head of the Bufalino crime family in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Soon, Sheeran begins carrying out jobs for him, as well as other members of the South Philadelphia underworld; some of these jobs include contract killings (i.e. painting houses). 

Through Russell, Sheeran is introduced to Jimmy Hoffa, head of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, who has ties to the Northeastern Pennsylvania crime family. Hoffa is having struggles with a fellow teamster, Anthony “Tony Pro” Provenzano (Stephen Graham), as well as mounting pressure from the government. Sheeran becomes his chief bodyguard, and their two families become close, especially Sheeran’s daughter, Peggy. 

Things go from bad to worse for Hoffa after John F. Kennedy wins the election, and his brother Bobby forms a “Get Hoffa” squad that eventually nails him for jury tampering. With him out of the way, his replacement begins misusing the union’s pension fund to give interest-free loans to the Mafia. On top of that, his relationship with Tony Pro deteriorates beyond repair when the two, both serving jail sentences at the same time, argue over Tony’s forfeited pension. From that time forward, there is no respect between the two men.

By the early 1970s, Richard Nixon, now President of the United States, commutes his sentence on conditions that Hoffa be forbidden from any Teamsters activities until 1980. Despite this, he is determined to reclaim all of his former power with them despite several warnings from Russell Bufalino and others about him attempting to separate the union from the Mafia. Sheeran also attempts to persuade Hoffa to back down and gracefully retire, but these pleas fall on deaf ears. Eventually, it becomes obvious that they are at an impasse, and something must be done about Jimmy Hoffa. 

This is a complicated story that spans a lot of years. Martin Scorsese never lets us forget where we are at during it, though, thanks to a clever use of known historical events as well as a generous use of digital trickery. This film goes heavy on digital de-aging software, showing us our main characters at various ages over the course of several decades. While the visuals are effective, the actors, especially De Niro, cannot quite sell it. When we are seeing him moving around, looking like a man forty years younger, he still moves like he’s much older, betraying the effect. He’s simply not as spry as he once was. Other filmmakers get around this limitation by casting a body double much like James Mangold did for Harrison Ford in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. By not going that route, it becomes obvious that De Niro is not the younger man we are supposed to be seeing during those scenes. Other characters, such as Russell, come off better because there is much less physicality to their performances. 

Martin Scorsese is right up there with Francis Ford Coppola as one of the great directors of Mafia films. They both have a style, very different from each other, that works for this genre. With films like The Godfather, that is depicting the family with a degree of reverence at first that descends into coldness. Goodfellas and The Irishman, on the other hand, show just how reckless this lifestyle actually is. The main players often end up in jail or on the wrong end of a gun. On several occasions, while introducing characters, Scorsese puts up words on the screen explaining the gruesome deaths some of these characters will meet at some point in the future. These are likable characters, to a degree, but we are not supposed to forget what kind of business they are in, and when one of them gets himself killed, there is no mourning them. 

Scorsese is painting a broad picture with this one, and that translates into a very long film, so long, in fact, that it probably would have worked better as a mini-series than a single picture. It had a theatrical run but mainly so that it would qualify for the Academy Awards. It was always meant to be a film made for Netflix, and with that in mind, it would have been better as a two- or three-episode limited-run series. The same could be said, though, for his follow-up film, Killers of the Flower Moon, which also ran nearly four hours. Scorsese has gotten used to the freedoms streaming platforms offer by allowing exorbitant runtimes, and I’d like to see him go back to the days when he would produce something a bit more taught. 

This is a solid, well-made gangster epic film that doesn’t shy away from depicting the consequences of being a gangster, and not just the legal consequences, either. Sheeran ends up divorced and estranged from his daughters, especially Peggy, who had a special bond with Jimmy Hoffa and blames her father for his disappearance. Even as his body is betraying him and he is deteriorated to nearly nothing, she refuses to see him or speak with him. His actions as a young father scared his daughters to the point that they wouldn’t confide any problems they were having with anyone with him lest he bring violence down on the offending party. Frank claims he doesn’t feel anything for any of the people he’s killed over the years, but that has crept into his family and alienated him from them.

At its heart, this is a tragedy of a life poorly led. Even the characters that don’t meet violent ends don’t end happily, either. Russell and Frank both die in their old age but they do waste away in prison. Frank is eventually released but is so worn down by then that he has to go straight into a nursing home. While there, no one in his family visits him, and the only one he has to talk to anymore is a priest who is there to offer him absolution for his sins. This is not a glamorous existence, but then none of what we are seeing in this film is particularly glamorous. It’s sad and tragic, which is exactly the way Scorsese is painting this lifestyle. It’s a tremendous achievement that deserves the accolades it received, even if it is just a bit too long for a single picture. 

Academy Award Nominations:

Best Picture: Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Jane Rosenthal, and Emma Tillinger Koskoff

Best Director: Martin Scorsese

Best Supporting Actor: Al Pacino

Best Supporting Actor: Joe Pesci

Best Adapted Screenplay: Steven Zaillian

Best Cinematography: Rodrigo Prieto

Best Costume Design: Sandy Powell and Christopher Peterson

Best Film Editing: Thelma Schoonmaker

Best Production Design: Bob Shaw and Regina Graves

Best Visual Effects: Pablo Helman, Leandro Estebecorena, Nelson Sepulveda-Fauser, and Stephane Grabli

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Release Date: November 1, 2019

Running Time: 209 Minutes

Rated R

Starring: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel, Anna Paquin, Ray Romano, Stephen Graham, and Bobby Cannavale

Directed by: Martin Scorsese