The long goodbye

Rating: 9/10 (18 December 2019)

When it comes down to cashing in your hard-earned chips, Martin Scorsese made sure all his dues were received. That is because "The Irishman" is filled to the brim with mob cliches. If it were anyone else, I'd be annoyed; but it just so happens that this is the man who invented these cliches. Scorsese was not the first to tackle the Mafia, but he was the best and most definitive.
Now, at 77-years old, De Niro and Pesci at 76, and Al Pacino at 79, it is time for these veterans of an era to cash their checks and wave goodbye. Of course, nothing is official. There is no Hollywood contract which says there won't be an "Irishman 2" but, come on. We all know. At three and a half hours long, "The Irishman" is barely not too long but it is a long goodbye signaling perhaps the inevitable end of an unofficial Mafia wave of cinema--all of it coming from exclusively these people (except perhaps "The Godfather" series).
Scorsese wanted to do this right so he toiled long and hard to get Joe Pesci out of retirement and thank God, offered De Niro the opportunity to be cast in a role which washes away a bit at his terrible choices in the last two decades, making him barely keep his "living legend" status. He also employed "Schindler's List" writer Steven Zaillian to adapt his script and with Netflix giving him essentially a blank check he could finally get on with it. Scorsese was not looking for royalties just for his ego, this financial and artistic freedom was needed to craft something like this because this is not the usual Scorsesian mob movie. It is much slower, much more deep, the consequences are more dramatic, and it is more focused on the ephemeral nature of the gangster life.
Despite Scorsese's fascination for mob life, he was always quick to destroy the characters of its movies as fast as he made them. In both "Goodfellas" and "Casino", the Cosa Nostra fellas seem to be living an ideal, free, bossy life. But both those movies end up with them essentially getting caught by their actions and becoming succumbed to the Average Joe way of living (if they're lucky)--and it all happens very quickly. Not here! "The Irishman" takes its time with its ending, putting these all-powerful mob bosses, especially the fearful Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) through the old-age meat grinder. De Niro gets the most treatment. It's like Scorsese wants us to forget everything he ever displayed in the past about the Mafia and replace it with only this because this is the truth. And it feels like he was sitting on it for years.
Yet despite lacking the frontal bashing, "The Irishman" not only withholds the power of the Italian Mafia, but augments it more than any of his other movies about the subject. The lack of information about Jimmy Hoffa's disappearance allows Scorsese to fill in the gaps with really ambitious conspiracies. Yet Steven Zaillian's writing is so complex, so full of historical and (maybe) fictional characters that he makes it believable. It's almost pique and I love it. For all its slow pace, "The Irishman" feels like its characters made the most impact on the world.
But throughout these characters, it is all about the three unlikely allies. Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci), the Crime boss, his friendship with Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) and allegiance with legendary Union boss Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). They all give Oscar-worthy performances (although I would single-out Pacino) and it begs the question whether true friendship actually can coexist with this business. By the end, the answer is no. While Sheeran is often passive and understanding enough to survive, Hoffa's principles stand in the way. In a scene, in which Frank and Russell, now both really old and without any strings attached to their past life, share a meal in prison, Russell confesses to Frank his appreciation for Hoffa and despises his gangster peers for what he had to do.
But it is what it is. "The Irishman" is exactly what it needs to be. With a who's who cast, Scorsese took an important step in his career. At this point, another Mafia-themed movie in the future seems inappropriate, almost rude, and unlikely. "The Irishman" is built to close a chapter, a thread in Scorsese's thematic strings of movies. Out of respect, this should be his last mobster picture but secretly, we'd all wish they would never end.