Last Updated on August 2, 2021
Based on Charles Brandt's "I Heard You Paint Houses," Martin Scorsese's THE IRISHMAN stars Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa, Robert De Niro as Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran, and Joe Pesci as Russell Bufalino, the mob boss steering Frank. The much-anticipated crime epic premiered at the New York Film Festival on Friday, and the first reactions to the film were full of praise, with many calling it a masterpiece, but it's always a treat to hear what other directors think.
Guillermo del Toro caught THE IRISHMAN during the New York Film Festival, and like most of the audience, he was blown away. THE SHAPE OF WATER director recently took to Twitter to make some interesting observations about the film spread out over thirteen tweets which only have me all the more pumped to finally see it for myself.
1/13: 13 Tweets about Scorsese's The Irishman: First- the film connects with the epitaph-like nature of Barry Lyndon. It is about lives that came and went, with all their turmoil, all their drama and violence and noise and loss… and how they invariably fade, like we all do…
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) September 30, 2019
2/13 “It was in the reign of George III that the aforesaid personages lived and quarrelled; good or bad, handsome or ugly, rich or poor, they are all equal now." We will all be betrayed and revealed by time, humbled by our bodies, stripped off our pride.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) September 30, 2019
3/13 The film is a mausoleum of myths: a Funereal monument that stands to crush the bones beneath it. Granite is meant to last but we still turn to dust inside it.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) September 30, 2019
4/13 It’s the anti”My Way” (played in every gangster wedding in the world). Regrets they had more than few. The road cannot be undone and we all face the balance at the end. Even the voice over recourse has DeNiro trailing off into mumbled nonsense-
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) September 30, 2019
5/13 I remember, in a documentary about Rick Rubin– he explained how Johnny Cash singing “Hurt” (having lived and lost and gone to hell and back) gave it a dimension it could not have in the voice of a -then- young Trent Reznor (even if he composed it). This film is like that.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) September 30, 2019
6/13 Scorsese started hand-in-hand with Schrader, as young men, looking for Bresson. This movie transmogrified all the gangster myths into regret. You live this movie. It never goes for the sexy of violence. Never for the spectacle. And yet it is spectacularly cinematic.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) September 30, 2019
7/13 Film has the inexorabie feeling of a crucifixion- from the point of view of Judas. Every Station of the cross permeated by humor and a sense of banality- futility- characters are introduced with their pop-up epitaphs superimposed on screen: “This is how they die”
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) September 30, 2019
8/13 I never thought I would see a film in which I’d root hard for Jimmy Hoffa- but I did- perhaps because, in the end, he, much like the Kennedys, represented also the end of a majestic post-war stature in America.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) September 30, 2019
9/13 Pesci supremely minimalistic. Masterful. He is like a black hole- an attractor of planets- dark matter. DeNiro has always fascinated me when he plays characters that are punching above their true weight – or intelligence- That’s why I love him in so much Jackie Brown-
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) September 30, 2019
10/13 An interesting transfer between these characters: Pesci- who has played the Machiavellian monster, regains a senile innocence, a benign oblivion and De Niro’s character – who hass operated in a moral blank- gains enough awareness – to feel bitter loneliness.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) September 30, 2019
11/13 I believe that much is gained if we cross-reference our transgressions with how we will feel in the last three minutes of our life- when it all becomes clear: or betrayals, our saving graces and our ultimate insignificance. This film gave me that feeling.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) September 30, 2019
12/13 This film needs time- however- it has to be processed like a real mourning. It will come up in stages… I believe most of its power will sink in, in time, and provoke a true realization. A masterpiece. The perfect corollary Goodfellas and Casino.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) September 30, 2019
13/13 See it. In a theatre. This movie languished in development in studio vaults for so long… having it here, now, is a miracle. And, btw- fastest 3 hours in a cinema. Do not miss it.
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) September 30, 2019
As much as I wish I could heed Guillermo del Toro's command and see THE IRISHMAN in theaters, the chances of it screening in my neck of the woods is rather slim, so unfortunately I'll be eagely awaiting its release on Netflix two months from now.
The official synopsis for THE IRISHMAN:
Robert De Niro, Al Pacino and Joe Pesci star in Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman, an epic saga of organized crime in post-war America told through the eyes of World War II veteran Frank Sheeran, a hustler and hitman who worked alongside some of the most notorious figures of the 20th century. Spanning decades, the film chronicles one of the greatest unsolved mysteries in American history, the disappearance of legendary union boss Jimmy Hoffa, and offers a monumental journey through the hidden corridors of organized crime: its inner workings, rivalries and connections to mainstream politics.
THE IRISHMAN will enjoy a limited theatrical release on November 1, 2019 before finally hitting Netflix on November 27, 2019.
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