The Irishman (Scorsese, De Niro, Pesci and Pacino)

tedbrennan

Not as good as Marriage Story, according to Hot Press magazine.

Mr Regal

Has anybody here actually read the book the movie is based on, "I heard you paint houses" , and if so what's the opinions on it, or are the majority of people drawn in by the hype and advertisement of it.
I've spoken to numerous people who have thought this is a fictional movie.

Ardillaun

Haven’t seen the film yet. I knew a businessman who was vaguely familiar with some of these guys and he said by far the scariest of them was Teamsters official Rolland ‘Big Mac’ McMaster. Whereas the Italians were polite and predictable, McMaster was terrifying and you never knew what would happen if you had to meet him. I don’t think he figures in the movie at all which is kinda odd given the cinematic possibilities his life story presented. In some accounts, he has been mentioned ‘in connection with’ Hoffa’s disappearance:

In 1975-1976, I revealed—in what was my biggest contribution to this case—that a vicious Hoffa rival, Rolland McMaster, was the mystery man behind a series of acts of violence—bombings, beatings, shootings, and general sabotage—directed primarily against Hoffa’s allies in Detroit’s Local 299, the last of which was a car bombing just twenty days before Hoffa vanished.

On the day of Hoffa’s murder, McMaster was with his brother-in-law, Stanton Barr, who was the head of Gateway Transportation’s steel division in Detroit. Also, one of McMaster’s top goons was Jim Shaw, a long-haul driver for Gateway, who, directed by McMaster, had participated in the earlier anti-Hoffa violence in Local 299. In addition, on the night before Hoffa’s murder, McMaster and Barr had met with Provenzano at a restaurant in Detroit, according to another federal witness, Donovan Wells, a long-time business associate of McMaster.

http://www.deadlinedetroit.com/articles/22898/author_jimmy_hoffa_vanished_44_years_ago_here_s_what_i_think_happened

fin12

Went to see the film yesterday. Thought it was really good. Great to see De Niro, Al Pacino and Pesci in a film together again.

Didn’t notice the 3 and a half hours in the cinema, felt shorter than that which I think is a sign of a good film, could have happily stayed watching for another hour or two.

Definitely worth going to see in the cinema.

El Duda

The Irishman – 7.9/10

Scorsese returns to his gangster roots and offers musings over the glamorisation of mob violence. Where films like Goodfellas and Casino focus on the seductive side of the criminal underworld, The Irishman holds nothing back in letting you know exactly how little there is to aspire to. Minor characters are introduced with annotations that mark their grisly demise.

If you compare this directly with the films mentioned above, it ticks a lot of the same boxes but seems to be lacking a certain zip and fizz that his earlier films had in abundance. Perhaps Marty has lost a bit of his spark? Then you realise that he made Wolf of Wall Street in the intervening years, which is very much in the same mould as this. A film that was full of energy and excess. One can only conclude that there must be a missing ingredient somewhere.

Scorsese and Tarantino have unintentionally had a competition with one another this year; Who can hire the more prestigious actress for the smallest role? “I see your Oscar nominee, I raise you an Oscar winner!”
People bemoaned Margot Robbie’s lack of lines in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, but Anna Paquin somehow gets even less to do here. This isn’t the sort of thing that would usually bother me. If the story doesn’t call for female roles, why shoehorn them in? The thing here is that Scorsese has a history of writing memorable and vibrant female characters. Goodfellas & Casino had Lorraine Bracco and Sharon Stone’s Oscar nominated performances. Wolf of Wall Street had Margot Robbie’s breakthrough role. Here we have almost nothing. The characters are there but their potential is never realised. Perhaps a lot of it met the cutting room floor.

When it bangs, it bangs very loudly. It’s the best De Niro has been in years. Seeing Pacino directed by Scorsese is as satisfying as you would imagine but Pesci is electric and a shoo-in for the best supporting Oscar. I’d have been happy for the academy to award it him for just being Joe Pesci, but his comeback is the real deal.

pixelburp

New trailer popped up, with the Netflix release not that far away:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS3aHkkfuEI

Slydice

Didn't realise Anna Paquin is in it until that trailer.

Technocentral

Best film of the last 10 years, for any Scorcese fan this NEEDS to be seen in the cinema!!!

py2006

In the image below (before pressing play) isn't De Niro supposed to be in his 50s there? He didn't look like that back then, he looked younger in Meet the Fockers and that was about 15 years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RS3aHkkfuEI

[/QUOTE]

Goodshape

py2006 wrote: »

In the image below (before pressing play) isn't De Niro supposed to be in his 50s there? He didn't look like that back then, he looked younger in Meet the Fockers and that was about 15 years ago.

Not sure what age he's supposed to be there exactly but it helped throughout the film not to think of or expect these actors to be "themselves X years ago", but rather just a character throughout the years.

In the sense that the guy he's playing here was a less healthy, less good looking, less cared for person than De Niro was at a similar age.

p to the e

Slydice wrote: »

Didn't realise Anna Paquin is in it until that trailer.

I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say she doesn't say more than 10 words.

Goodshape

Jesus, does she even have 10?

I barely realised she was in the film until I saw that trailer, and I've seen the film!

py2006

Anyone else notice the Don Rickles bit in the club?

p to the e

py2006 wrote: »

Anyone else notice the Don Rickles bit in the club?

And Steve Van Zandt as the lounge singer.

The more I read up on Sheeran he is reminding me of another self professed hitman. Richard "The Ice man" Kuklinski also potentially embellishes the truth when it comes to his mob life and coincidentally he also claims to have killed Hoffa. Both were bad people but certainly bigged up their reputations.

One thing I found interesting about the film was there was no prologue or info before the credits. For example Sheeran was in prison until his 70's when he was released with the help of a medical malpractice lawyer. That lawyer was Charles Brandt who got to know Sheeran and subsequently wrote "I heard you paint houses"

Good Reading:
http://www.historyvshollywood.com/reelfaces/irishman/

flangemeistro

Just noticed tonight is the last night it's in my local omniplex!

Slydice

p to the e wrote: »

I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say she doesn't say more than 10 words.

Ah right, back on the long finger so

py2006

Off early tomorrow, might go see it in the Lighthouse at 2.45.

Sure hope the volume is up compared to the old screen 6 I saw it in at the Savoy.


Edit, or I could be a lazy ****e and wait till Netflix

branie2

Will it come out on DVD and Blu-Ray later on, or will it just be on Netflix?

Dots1982

SPOILERS if you read on







What the hell was with Hoffa’s son being 10 yards away when Hoffa got clipped. Why didn’t he do something when he heard the bullets or confront Frank later onif he was slightly out of hearing range.

py2006

p to the e wrote: »

I don't think I'm exaggerating when I say she doesn't say more than 10 words.

7 actually, I counted

"Why?......why?.......why didn't you call her?"

py2006

Saw it again today. Definitely needs to be seen more than once.

Much better sound/picture in Lighthouse compared to Savoy.

Really enjoyed it.

Relikk

Dots1982 wrote: »

SPOILERS if you read on







What the hell was with Hoffa’s son being 10 yards away when Hoffa got clipped. Why didn’t he do something when he heard the bullets or confront Frank later onif he was slightly out of hearing range.

He had already driven away.

Dots1982

Relikk wrote: »

He had already driven away.

If you say so, the narrative didn’t make any sense in any case. How come Chucky didn’t come looking for Frank as the last man Chucky has seen his disappeared father with

I thought it was a decent movie; Not bad. Not in the same league as the other Scorsese classics. Not even in the same league as the likes of Donnie Brasco. I enjoyed it far more than Tarantino’s latest at least.

fin12

Dots1982 wrote: »

If you say so, the narrative didn’t make any sense in any case. How come Chucky didn’t come looking for Frank as the last man Chucky has seen his disappeared father with

I thought it was a decent movie; Not bad. Not in the same league as the other Scorsese classics. Not even in the same league as the likes of Donnie Brasco. I enjoyed it far more than Tarantino’s latest at least.

I found that part really strange aswell. The fact he had driven off makes it a bit more believable but surely the son would have lots of questions and he would be one of the main suspects having been one of the last people with him.

Dots1982

fin12 wrote: »

I found that part really strange aswell. The fact he had driven off makes it a bit more believable but surely the son would have lots of questions and he would be one of the main suspects having been one of the last people with him.

Why did they drive off? Surely the son would stick around, why would he even bother being there if he was going to be head off once the meeting started.

It was completely unbelievable which is why a lot of people in the know maybe say Frank’s story is completely unbelievable

fin12

Dots1982 wrote: »

Why did they drive off? Surely the son would stick around, why would he even bother being there if he was going to be head off once the meeting started.

It was completely unbelievable which is why a lot of people in the know maybe say Frank’s story is completely unbelievable

Ya I agree with u, I was questioning the whole thing myself and that’s when I was told he drove off.

Frank obviously makes up a lot of sh*t, I think it’s pretty much confirmed he didn’t kill that Joey guy in the restaurant but I think he still could have killed Jimmy Hoffa.

Dots1982

I noted how in tone it resembled Black Mass instead of Goodfellas or Casino. It seemed in some ways that Scorsese was atoning for glamorizing the mafia in those movies. The music though seemed to be a nod to The Godfather and Goodfellas. But De Niro was too old for the scenes early in the movie when he was making his bones. He just didn’t carry the threat you need for that role.

I didn’t understand some scenes in the movie. The black guy assassinating some public figure at a rally of the Italian civil rights movement. Totally loss on me the meaning of it, though it was memorably shot.

metaoblivia

Great performances, interesting plot line, but the length and pacing just kills it. The film could easily stand to lose an hour. It becomes especially torturous

after Hoffa has been killed

. I walked out with about 15 minutes left as it was clear the movie was over, I was tired and didn't care.

Yamanoto

py2006 wrote: »

Very surprised on the hate for this movie here.
It's a sigh of relief compared to the trash we are served of late. Some absolutely quality acting.

It was never meant to be in the same vein as Goodfellas and Casino etc.

In comparing it to other densely plotted, atmospheric & often unevenly paced period pieces like LA Confidential, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or even The Road to Perdition, I don't think there's enough about The Irishman to merit the amount of hyperbole it's generating.

There's naturally a tonne of affection for those actor's and director, but I think there's more than an element of emperor's new clothes about the (over) reaction to this whole endeavour.

Good to see Pesci back for sure, but the understated nature of many of the performances stems from the fact the script doesn't demand much from the actors. It plods and meanders along, sparkling all too seldomly, before retreating back into the ordinary.

It all reminds me of music critics gushing over the latest release from icons like Bowie, Neil Young or Bob Dylan. There may be odd flashes of inspired brilliance, but it's a very long way off the quality of work produced at their creative peaks, many moons ago.

I wasn't expecting Raging Bull and I wasn't expecting Goodfellas. I was however expecting better than this.

Lirange

I felt that I wasn’t as emotionally connected to the characters as I should have been. Namely Sheeran. So I did find myself drifting during the later stages of the film. I can appreciate that this is not the prevailing opinion of most viewers. However the stock response often given that this must be down to short attention spans or action junkies not getting their fix isn’t necessarily true. I knew not to expect that, it wasn’t the cause of my growing apathy, and I’ve enjoyed plenty of methodically paced character driven films.

I wish I would have dragged the wife along even though these types of films aren’t her bag. Would have been straight home but instead I took a couple of friends and afterwards we went out. It made a big impression on them so I had to listen to them rattle on about it deep into the evening. I think that compounded my disappointment with the film and my indifference started to transform into irritation. I didn’t really fully express my relative dissatisfaction with the film as I didn’t want to spoil their buzz.

I knew very little about Jimmy Hoffa apart from a few fleeting mentions from films and American TV programmes over the years. So it did spur my curiosity to read up a bit on him and his dodgy affairs. I found this more interesting than the film itself.

Yamanoto wrote: »

In comparing it to other densely plotted, atmospheric & often unevenly paced period pieces like LA Confidential, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or even The Road to Perdition, I don't think there's enough about The Irishman to merit the amount of hyperbole it's generating.

Definitely concur with you on your comments re: The Irishman. But my grievance with Tinker, Tailor, Soldier Spy is that they gave away the resolution with the casting choices. You have three suspects and one of them was portrayed by an in demand A-lister next to a couple of bit players. It would have been better if I had read the book as I would have been less invested in the outcome and just appreciated the qualities of all the other aspects of the production.