'The Irishman': Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci revisit the tyranny of the mob

Last edited Fri Nov 29, 2019, 04:54 PM - Edit history (1)

In “The Irishman,” Martin Scorsese’s grand, droll, ruminative valediction to the gangster genre he has done so much to expand since “Mean Streets” (1973).

The story of Teamsters lifer and murder-for-hire hitman Frank Sheeran rests on a 1975 road trip two couples, the Sheerans and the Bufalinos of the Bufalino Pennsylvania crime family, once took together, driving west to Detroit for a politically obligatory wedding, with some business to be conducted along the way.

The movie is about that business, and how it haunts a man to the end of his days.

Scorsese’s production budget, estimated at somewhere between $150 and $200 million, represents his largest ever, and “The Irishman” is his longest running time to date.

The movie’s not trying to compete in sheer “GoodFellas” exuberance with Scorsese’s earlier gangster forays. It moves forward and backward and sideways, getting more unpredictable and compelling as it goes. Then, in the long sequence depicting Sheeran’s testimonial dinner, “The Irishman” turns into a different sort of compelling.

Here, stretching out, setting the fates of the major characters into motion, Scorsese delivers something akin to the bleak grandeur of Coppola’s “The Godfather Part II.” It’s also a tribute to films such as Visconti’s “The Leopard,” in its intimation of doom for a finite ecosystem of blood-stained royalty.

At: https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/reviews/the-irishman-review-robert-de-niro-al-pacino-and-joe-pesci-revisit-the-tyranny-of-the-mob-%E2%80%A6-and-keep-getting-younger-and-younger/ar-BBXr1vY

Mob lawyer Bill Bufalino (Ray Romano), hitman Frank Sheeran (Robert de Niro), and his eventual victim Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino) react to news of the assassination of President Kennedy in Martin Scorsese's The Irishman.