Thanksgiving has come and gone. Christmas looms just around the corner, bringing with it snow and gifts and joy. It’s officially the holiday season, which means it’s the perfect time for family.

I of course mean family in the mob-film italics sense of the word. However, the layman’s sense of the word is plenty relevant for today’s movie, as The Irishman is wrapped up in both these themes, and the disparity between the two.

Mafia movies started to amp up last century, and many of the films that came as a result of that cultural interest remain in the upper echelon of relevance because of the impact they made. People still make those types of movies nowadays, but rarely do they meet the standards of the Godfathers and Goodfellas that came before them.

Maybe it’s the odds are stacked against them. It is of course difficult to compete with the greats, but even still, when something is truly great, it deserves to shine. The Irishman is laden with greats, in both production and cast, but it is set apart from the movies that came before it and deserves a spot among its predecessors.

Oftimes with mob movies, it’s hard for some people to enjoy them because they’re long and have a lot of buildup to their conclusion. I had no such issue with The Irishman. While it has a hefty runtime, coming just shy of 3 and a half hours, it’s not slow in the slightest. There’s ample action and intrigue very early on, and Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino are all as great as ever. There’s plenty of buildup, don’t get me wrong, but it isn’t dull, and I never feel like any one scene is dragging. Even at the end of the movie, I was left wanting more.

I mentioned how both meanings of the word “family” come into play in this movie. The theming of family vs. family is subtle at first. The seeds are laid very early on that Frank, De Niro’s character, is going to choose between his family and the family Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci) has adopted him into. The way it plays out is as believable as it is heartbreaking, and when the conclusion comes about, you realize you knew this was coming all along, and it stings.

There’s also a bit of a meta theme going on that I couldn’t help but pick up as the movie reached its final moments. The Irishman is a celebration of the kinds of movies De Niro, Pesci, and Pacino became household names from. In that wholehearted indulgence of that style, we also get a clear message as well, that these guys aren’t young anymore. This isn’t a movie about a young, up and coming mobster rising the ranks of a New York or Chicago crime family. This is a movie about a man in his middle ages working a niche underworld in Pennsylvania, growing old with it, and at the end of his life, being alone, with no way to change his course. There’s a line to be drawn from Frank Sheeran to Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, or Al Pacino. The family is all together, this last time, and after this, it may never happen again. It’s beautiful and melancholic at the same time.

I fell in love with The Irishman quickly, and did not fall out of love by the end. It’s another masterclass in crime drama by Martin Scorcese, with an undeniable cast of legends. I can’t recommend it enough. 

Rating: 9.5/10

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-Vincent

© 2019 Vincent C. Russo. All Rights Reserved. This post is intended for review and constitutes fair use. These films and any images used belong to their respective owners.