The Irishman (2019)

Directed by Martin Scorsese

Written by Steven Zaillian

Based on the book by Charles Brandt

Starring Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci and Stephen Graham

Marred by controversy (for some reason) and buried by old theater execs (and strangely, Box Office Mojo), “The Irishman” was quietly released in a limited number of theaters this past weekend with cries that Netflix is ruining the movie theater experience.

The amount of disrespect this Scorsese picture is getting is saddening. Not due to the quality. Anyone that has gotten over their idiotic idea of what constitutes a good film release strategy has seen it and followed it up with mostly praise (96% on Rotten Tomatoes). But it has been the loud, obnoxious smearing of Old Movie Theater owners who refuse to evolve with the times and Marvel fans who think the MCU being compared to an Amusement Park is a bad thing. Who doesn’t love amusement parks?

But I digress. Scorsese’s latest film tells the potentially true story of one of the most famous disappearances in United States History, that of Teamsters Union Boss, Jimmy Hoffa (played by Al Pacino). It follows one of his friends and confidants, the titular Irishman played by a noticeably not Irish Robert De Niro as the two become close friends and navigate through the ever-growing complexities of the mafia-union relationship.

There are only two note worthy negatives to this film. The first being the fact that all of the main characters are played by men of Italian heritage. This in itself is not an issue, but when Pacino as an Irish/German Hoffa begins yelling at Stephen Graham (who is English/Swedish/Jamaican) as an Italian Provenzano and calling him racial slurs, it becomes distracting. It wouldn’t have been an issue if their heritage wasn’t detrimental to the plot at points, but this is the first domino to fall and steer the film towards the end.

The second issue is the length. At 219 Minutes (3 hours 29 minutes), it is a long film, even by Scorsese’s standards. The run-time does go by quickly until the last half of the final act. While the subject matter of this segment of the film is necessary and detrimental to the overall tone and message, I’d be lying if I said it didn’t drag on a little. But that is mostly forgivable.

I really enjoyed this film. It had great acting and felt like a Scorsese picture from the 90s. I know many will most likely call that out as the reason they don’t care for it, but I thought it was one of the highlights of the year.

The performances from the entire cast were wonderful and really helped build the world of the mafia in the mid-1900s. Notably, Joe Pesci, who hasn’t starred in a live-action film in almost ten years, was impressive as a caring, yet brutal Russell Bufalino.

It’s a shame that the big theater chains refused to show this. And all over 30-days. They wanted Netflix to wait 75-days after the theatrical release to make it available on their platform. Netflix wanted to release it after a couple weeks (their normal strategy) but met over half-way with a final offer of 45-days. Regal and AMC refused.

They were worried (and are always worried) that no one would pay to see a film that would be released online in 45-days anyway. I saw this yesterday (Wednesday, November 13th) in a 250 seat auditorium that was 2/3rds full. For anyone who doesn’t pay attention to how theaters operate, every mega-plex has at least one auditorium that seats under 100 people. Not only that, but they micro-manage which films go into which auditoriums.

They could have easily put this film in the smallest screen in half of their buildings and it would have been mutually advantageous for everyone. But instead, they are left dying on their hill, refusing the help of what’s new and will continue to decline in business. Because let’s face it. Many movie theater patrons are casual movie goers who will see one film every few months, if that. But there are so many more that are tired of seeing the same action movie with a different look every week. There are people who want to see a variety of different films, but aren’t given the opportunity to. Scorsese fans will always pay to see his films on the big screen. Why not cater to them?

My Rating: A-

What did you think of this film and its release controversies? What did you think of Scorsese’s comments about Marvel? Comment below!