The Irishman
starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel
screenplay by Steven Zaillian
directed by Martin Scorsese
Rating: ♦♦♦♦♦
Also called “I Heard You Paint Houses” and based on the book by Charles Brandt (Steerforth Press, 2004). “I hear you paint houses” is a euphemism for someone who is a professional hitman. On first impression, you might think this is another Scorsese mafia movie. It’s got all the usual tough-guy actors. Instead, it is a movie about the disappearance of American labor leader Jimmy Hoffa - and, incidentally, the mafia plays into theories behind his unsolved disappearance in 1975.
This film is only the second time I’ve seen Robert De Niro and Al Pacino sharing screen time with each other in a film, after Heat (1995, directed by Michael Mann). Joe Pesci came out of semi-retirement in order to work with Scorsese one more time. Apparently, it was a monumental, almost nightmarish task to get all the principal actors lined up. So, the film was stuck in development for a very long time.
The story of the mob’s association with Jimmy Hoffa is told in retrospect by Frank Sheeran (De Niro), an Irish-American hitman for the mob. Sheeran began his mob work in the 1950s. While driving union delivery trucks he happens to meet Russsell Bufalino (Pesci), head of a Pennsylvania crime family. Because the story is told in a series of flashbacks, Scorsese had a decision to make about his cast: he could hire younger, look-alike actors; he could reverse-age his cast with computer graphics; or, he could use a hell of a lot of make-up. It looks like he went with curtain number three. It looked a little weird to me at first, but it was okay. I got used to it, and De Niro’s, Pesci’s and Pacino’s appearance was believable.
The main characters are all real historical figures. Frank begins selling shipments from his truck to a local Philadelphia mobster. Soon, he does special work for Bufalino, which included killing people. Through these crime connections, Frank is introduced to Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters Union.
It’s long been thought that Hoffa was killed by the mafia. The connection is explained in The Irishman like this: the mafia wanted to set up legitimate casinos in Las Vegas. Building hotels and casinos cost a lot of money, which banks would not lend them. So, the Mafia approached Jimmy Hoffa and the Teamsters’ Union, because the union had billions of dollars in its retirement fund. That’s billions of dollars controlled by Hoffa, who decided to lend the money. That created a financial link between organized crime and organized labor which ignited endless federal government investigations. By 1975, Hoffa wanted the money repaid. Naturally, the mafia didn’t want to repay it. But the alternative to repaying the money was to hand control of the Las Vegas hotels and casinos over to the Teamsters, which the mafia wouldn’t allow. So, Hoffa had to disappear.
Hoffa served time in prison for jury tampering in an early-1960s case. He was paroled and the conditions of his parole forbade him from union activities. Hoffa disagreed with those conditions, and although barred from his old position as head of the Teamsters, he began to reassert his influence, thereby threatening to split the union. He remained very popular among the rank-and-file.
So, there was a lot going on. It’s 209-minutes long, so be prepared for a long sit-down. Have drinks and snacks ready.