The Irishman [CRITERION COLLECTION] (DVD) [2020]

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Video Essay: "Gangsters' Requiem"(HD, 21 minutes) - Film critic Farran Smith Nehme connects The Irishman to Scorsese's personal experience and his other legendary gangster pictures while examining the director's style, the relationships between the characters, and the movie's underlying themes. Smith dissects several scenes and examines many of the subtle touches that make The Irishman such a textured, nuanced film.

The Irishman Review :: Criterion Forum

During World War II, Frank "The Irishman" Sheeran learned how to kill people with efficiency. Upon his return home, he tried to settle down and fought for the labor unions as a high official. He even became friends with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters' president Jimmy Hoffa. The main focus for me was absolutely the acting. And why wouldn't it be with a cast like this? Al Pacino and Robert De Niro for the 1st time on screen together since Heat. Joe Pesci and De Niro since Goodfellas. Joe Pesci coming out of retirement and Martin Scorsese directing all these legends on screen together! If this doesn't get you excited for this film then I'm afraid nothing will.

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This becomes the main story thread in hour three, and it features what should rank among Scorsese’s greatest set pieces as Sheeran comes to terms with and carries out Hoffa’s killing. It’s a sequence that’s austere in tone and approach (with one swaggering segue into goofball, semi-improvisatory humor), yet also unbearably tense and emotionally devastating. De Niro expertly sketches the moral bottoming out of an immoral man (his mumbly, halting call with Hoffa’s wife after the deed is done is a particular highlight), and it’s thrilling to see him so engaged. Pacino is no less impressive as the volatile Hoffa , so stubborn in his need to hold onto the presidency of the union that he built from the ground up that he’ll heed no warnings to the contrary about the degree to which his conduct may court disaster or death. When was the last time you saw Al Pacino give a really good performance? Well that's exactly what he does here and it feels so good to see him find his glory days. He is his usual shouty self but shines better when he tones it down and let expressions speak. Make no mistake, The Irishman is a true work of art, but its languorous pacing and talky script produce some draggy stretches and its excessive length ultimately dulls the story's power. (The last 30 minutes could have been significantly condensed without harming the narrative or disrupting the mood.) Much like running a marathon, watching the film is an endurance test, but if you can make it to the finish line, The Irishmanbreeds not only immense satisfaction, but also a deep appreciation for the artistry on display and boundless admiration for the man who so brilliantly conceived and executed this ambitious and frequently fascinating movie.

The Irishman - The Criterion Collection DVD - Zavvi UK

New documentary about the making of the film featuring Scorsese; the lead actors; producers Emma Tillinger Koskoff, Jane Rosenthal, and Irwin Winkler; director of photography Rodrigo Prieto; and others from the cast and crew And boy have I missed Joe Pesci over the years and don't worry he's still intense as usual. And that's weird considering he is extremely toned down in this movie. If you're looking for a violent Joe Pesci like he was in Goodfellas you'll be disappointed. But if you're looking for an intimidating Pesci with a huge presence then you're in the right place. Weekend Box Office Results: Five Nights at Freddy’s Scores Monster Opening Link to Weekend Box Office Results: Five Nights at Freddy’s Scores Monster Opening

Rate And Review

Scorsese’s choice, in many of these early scenes, to expensively and time-consumingly de-age his principal cast members with digital technology has the strange effect of making Sheeran’s recollections seem that much more like an idealized fantasy that cannot hold. The technical showboating—softening and erasing wrinkles, making flaccid skin seem taut—is subtle enough to not be mortifying, yet apparent enough that the CGI stitching tends to show, especially in brighter scenes. It also plays rather potently meta, since The Irishman gathers a murderer’s row of American acting elites—not only De Niro and Pacino, but Joe Pesci (as Sheeran’s mentor Russell Bufalino) and Harvey Keitel (as Philadelphia-based don Angelo Bruno)—three of whom Scorsese has worked with multiple times over his very long career.

The Irishman - Rotten Tomatoes The Irishman - Rotten Tomatoes

Criterion also includes a 19-minute discussion between Martin Scorsese, Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci, the four sitting around a table (used in the film I believe) to discuss the film. At first I thought this would be the same as the In Conversation featurette that is available on Netflix, and while this uses a lot of the same material, it’s a different edit with some alternate material as well (and it runs a few minutes shorter). Nothing mind-blowing is said but it is a bit of blast to see the four just talk about the film and the experience of them all working together for what is probably one last time. It’s also fun listening to them recall what they were expecting from one another, like how Pesci was expecting Pacino to really go off the rails, as he can do, in a few scenes (“blowup” as Pesci puts it) and planning how he was going to work around that. There’s also some discussion around working with the de-aging technology. Expanding on that latter topic is The Evolution of Digital De-Aging, a short 13-minute featurette created by Netflix. Though not all that long I will say it does a decent job getting into how the technology works (starting with these special cameras that also get mentioned a lot in the previous two supplements) and then how they had to properly capture a variety of expressions from the actors to make sure they could replicate their performances as exact as they could. Though I could look past a lot of them there are issues around the effects in the end product, yet despite that I still found it a fascinating look into not only the technology but the art that went behind it. New video essay written and narrated by film critic Farran Smith Nehme about The Irishman's synthesis of Scorsese's singular formal style

The cinematography is quite different from the usual modern movies we are accustomed to. It doesn't have an overabundance of Wes Anderson symmetric shots or Roger Deakins like Wide angle shots. The film was shot in a very old timey way with the camera pans and edits. The editing in the movie is great and the score is fitting. Technical aspects considered it isn't innovative or something jawdropping, but that was never supposed to be the main focus of the movie.