Martin Scorsese has made his first ever film for Netflix with The Irishman, where elderly mobster Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro) recounts the story of how he went from a man who delivered meat to a very well-respected member of the Mafia. The film also delves into his relationships with his family and his mafia associates, and how he and the Mafia played a small part in some key moments in history.
As well as De Niro this film does have quite a remarkable cast. We have other Scorsese regulars like Joe Pesci and Harvey Keitel, and also the likes of Al Pacino, Stephen Graham, and in a rather unexpected turn to dramatic acting, Ray Romano. Most of these performances are passable enough - De Niro, Pesci, and Pacino manage to be charismatic and worthy of attention, but there is a constant feeling that they may just be looking to the usual movie gangster personas that they have made for themselves over the years. De Niro and Pacino in particular work quite well when it's just the two of them, with a really believable chemistry together. And despite their having been in a film together before, it's hard not to be at least half-interested in seeing these two greats act alongside each other again, which really helps given how the rest of the film is.
The script by Steve Zallian, adapted from a book called I Heard You Paint Houses, has a lot of material to get through. It's surprisingly dialogue-heavy and feels quite minimal in terms of violence, perhaps surprising given the kind of films Scorsese usually makes, especially his Mafia ones. It's maybe a bit odd why there's a sudden change of pace in an area where you would expect him to feel very much at home. Instead this film puts a greater emphasis on the characters, so that they can appear to us as fully fleshed-out human beings. This works in the film's favour, especially with some of the Mafia members as, instead of just seeing them as one-dimensional psychopaths,we see them as characters who one minute can be spending quality time with friends and family, then be off to blow up a building the next. While Scorsese may have gone minimal with the violence, I'm sure it will please someone somewhere to know the same hasn't happened with the film's liberal use of profanity - there's a lot of it.
I don't think I have much to say about Rodrigo Prieto's cinematography, except at the very start when my eyes briefly caught sight of what looked like very impressive camera work as it steadily went through a hallway taking us to the main character, and then the story could begin. Let's talk about the use of de-ageing for this film. This process has certainly been one of trial and error this year and with this film it's no different. De Niro is the one who has definitely come out best, since no matter what decade the scene is set in, he looks exactly like he actually did in that decade. But with some of the others the effort is there, but they just look like average young men.
The score is composed by Robbie Robertson, once of The Band. It tends to fade into the background compared to the more memorable songs that play throughout many scenes, mainly to enhance the setting of said scene. One or two of those songs stick in the mind but hardly any of the original score.
So far I have found some things in this film to praise, but like all films it's not without flaws. Starting with the one that people seem to be unanimous about, this film is simply too long. Three hours and twenty-seven minutes is way too long and even though this is counting the credits, without them the film is still close to three hours seventeen. And yes, I know that another film that was just over three hours long and is now the highest grossing of all time (Avengers: Endgame) did get a mainstream release back in April this year - but the difference is that film had enough to sustain its running time but I don't believe this one does.
Another flaw this film has is that most of the time it feels rather boring due to many scenes becoming very talky and dragging on for far too long. And when something slightly exciting does eventually happen, it's short-lived and soon back to boring conversations again.
The Irishman gives us good, if at times uninspired, performances from De Niro, Pacino and Pesci and the chemistry between the first two does manage to enhance their performances. We have a script that's very dialogue-heavy and minimal on violence, but chooses mainly to flesh out as characters so that they seem more like people. There is also some impressive work on the de-ageing process, especially on De Niro, and a score that is completely overshadowed by a selection of familiar hit songs from different decades. Finally the film is fatally flawed by its inordinate length, and with far too little going on to justify its runtime.
C-
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