The Irishman (2019) - A Guest Review by Chad Dixon

Directed & produced by iconic Director, Martin Scorsese, The Irishman (Cert. 15) (2019) is Frank Sheeran, (Robert De Niro). Starting in the late 1950's, this story closely follows his early associations, first with the Mob and his close friendship with Russell Bufalino, (Joe Pesci) and then with the President of the Teamsters, the biggest labour union in the USA, Jimmy Hoffa, (Al Pacino). Then how he grows within both organisations and is equally trusted by parties who are at direct loggerheads over the control of the billion dollar Teamsters pension fund.

With the backdrop of major domestic and world events pushing thorns in the sides of almost all of the major figures in these parties, Frank somehow manages to navigate seemlessly through all the turmoil and keeps his family away from the worst of the bad stuff he is involved in. However his eldest daughter of four, still under 10, grows close to Hoffa who has now become a generous uncle figure and as she gets older and has better understanding of the news, is beginning to suspect what her Dad is really involved in.

If you loved Goodfellas (1990), not just because it has the same director and three of the same cast, but because even though some of these real events are well known, the brilliant performances of the extensive ensemble cast will keep you totally gripped! There's too many to name here but I guarantee you'll be saying, "There's that guy from..." and "Look there's whatshisname." The adapted screenplay was written by Steven Zaillian and is based on Charles Brandt's true crime book "I Heard You Paint Houses". All the dialogue is authentically of the time and delivered well by everyone. The violence is not gory but a few scenes may be a bit shocking to some.

One of the other big selling points of this film is the de-aging technology used on all the major characters for the scenes at the beginning of the three decade story. I definitely couldn't see the joins and after the first ten minutes, had totally forgotten that we weren't watching footage shot earlier in the careers of our favourite actors. Overall, I loved this Scorsese classic and now that it's epic 3h 29m run time is available on Netflix, you can take that intermission whenever you want.