A more sobering, mature view of the gangster

Rating: 9/10 (30 May 2020)

Martin Scorsese's newest film, the three hour and twenty-nine-minute gangster epic, The Irishman is the somewhat confession tale of teamster-turned hitman Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) and his life of crime over a span of nearly twenty years. The film focuses on the relationships forged in this line of work and in particular, on a relationship Sheeran develops with famous union president Jimmy Hoffa prior to his disappearance.
Similar to other gangster films the Irishman has several characters coming in and out throughout the narrative and a few interwoven plot threads that all add up to tell the story Sheeran wants to tell you. DeNiro plays the character with an earnestness and a soberness that is lacking in Scorsese's earlier mob film Goodfellas. Whereas Goodfellas at times glorifies the lives of its mobsters, The Irishman does not. The business Frank Sheeran and Russell Bufalino engage in is so matter of fact. These men have families and feel they have no choice in the matter. "It is what it is" seems to be their mantra. I appreciated this sober depiction. It allowed for the reflection that these things do happen to and by real human beings.
he Irishman is about older gangsters and older men and the importance of friendships,alliances, power, and ultimately betrayal. Sheeran is torn in his loyalty to two different men: Pittsburgh mobster Russell Bufalino and union boss Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). Though both men are shrewd, Hoffa's line of work is more dignified: he helped people live better lives. The character is played flawlessly by Pacino-though and outsider to the friendship between Frank and Russell Hoffa is still aware of how business- even Russell's business is run. Hoffa is the foil to Russell in many ways especially in the eyes of Peggy, Frank's oldest daughter; and yet the film does not make you side with any one character as relationships deepen. Frank is devoted to both men albeit perhaps to two different ends. Scorsese also highlights the necessity of death in the film. As it is a film about older men and their line of work Scorsese points out how many characters eventually met their demise ;this is done for a few reasons. First, it reminds us that death comes for us all; second it serves to deglamorize any notion of gangsters we might have as this line of work will not end well for anyone, and finally these definitive statements of characters' cause of death is up against the shroud of mystery concerning Hoffa's own disappearance.
With the lengths Scorsese goes to remind us all that death is coming, from those inter-titles described above, to the opening song, to the entire last after the film-which is just under an hour, it is clear he is preparing us for the final days. The last third of the film depicts the man Sheeran has become beyond his years of crime. He is old,white-haired, crippled, ultimately in a wheelchair in the halls of a nursing home. Having lost nearly everyone he was at one time close with, Sheeran is shown to have some regret, but it is unclear by the end of the film whether he has made that decision of the will to ask forgiveness