Too Short Then Too Long Actually.
Look! First of all, I would like to clear that I mean no disrespect to the makers of The Irishman or the lovers of this movie. It is a good movie but not the movie we should love, but a movie which we can respect for what it is. All I can say, I tried so hard and I got so far. But in the end, it doesn’t even matter.
And you heard me. I personally believe this movie is way too short rather than a long story it needs to be, and it is a bit of a problem to me at least. The story this movie is trying to tell and the whole time period it is passing by is managed way too shortly. And, because of it, the majority of events and drama with the guys is kind of a bit lackluster. I think this needed to be a Mini Series at least to do full justice to the idea. I will talk about it in a bit, but first let me give the credit where it deserves.
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The Irishman Review
This movie is surprisingly a really well-directed movie by Martin Scorsese in such an old age. Kudos to him seriously! This movie’s action scenes, camera work, and everything so far is really, really profound and satisfying. Writing is kind of the only issue we’ll face here. The writing here is not anything new or innovative or even the best of Martin Scorsese, but yet it is presented well enough and the movie won’t feel like a complete disaster.
The Irishman does have some beautiful scenes and dialogues which are worthy to remember. But all in all, this isn’t the one which will ever be one of Scorsese’s must watch and most recommended movies. It is only worthy for Al Pacino and Robert De Niro die-hard fans or the mafia movies lovers and junkies.
Let me put the issues of this movie or more like something that made this movie not the masterpiece it wanted to be. The de-ageing factor done in this movie is the biggest issue so far I have faced. The old guys being in the age of young ones were looking really unrealistic and a bit corny at times, that fight scene of De Niro was really embarrassing, and how his daughter grows and yet somehow De Niro looks the same as he was before. These scenes were cringey and did bother me in many aspects. The other problem I saw is that the writing was just making this movie look like a typical Scorsese movie with same songs of that era and same dialogues of that time as well.
The story is also no big deal but more of your all time classic crime drama tale. It is predictable and does lack the emotional wallop of Raging Bull, Goodfellas, or Heat but instead this feels like fan service by Martin Scorsese making a mafia movie by casting Al Pacino and De Niro together after a long time. The soundtrack despite being good for a newer audience is just the same old classic track. These problems are buggy and all, but in the last whole hour of the movie, it does reach a peak where it does feel like to be respected.
Spoilers Ahead!
The reason why I was saying this is short and it needs to be long is because the whole drama of the first two hours feels wasted, because of the tons of characters in this long story. The drama they wanted to create didn’t actually happen. It felt rushed a bit with this character and now this character and this character with some intense drama with Jimmy Hoffa but because of being that quickly, it made this whole ride buggy. The daughter’s hatred towards his father was really not well developed but it was just mentioned like – this reason and now this reason which was looking really one dimensional and not suitable as well. I personally think if this was a Mini Series then, this could have reached the height of 9/10 or even 10 if only the writing was more creative.
Just think about it, the first 5 episodes of Kennedy and Jimmy Hoffa intense drama with Frank and his life with the mafia. And the other 5 episodes after the death of Kennedy with Jimmy Hoffa’s classic and sudden death in episode 8. After that, the downfall of Frank and his life vanishing. 10 to 13 hours could have been given to this story to process more nicely.
Nonetheless, It is a decent enough movie for the lovers of this genre and it won’t disappoint you, at least I hope so. I will be glad if this will be a masterpiece for you as well. Enjoy the movie and have fun. This is not going in my list of great movies at all. I will highly remember the ending though, it was really awesome and thought provoking. The Irishman gets 7 out of 10.
The World of Movies Rating 07/10
Movie Title: The Irishman
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Written by: Steven Zaillian (screenplay), Charles Brandt (book)
Main Cast: Robert De Niro as Frank Sheeran, Al Pacino as Jimmy Hoffa, Joe Pesci as Russell Bufalino, Ray Romano as Bill Bufalino, Harvey Keitel as Angelo Bruno
Year of Release: 2019
Genre: Biography, Crime, Drama
Country of Origin: United States of America
Languages: English
Running Time: 209 minutes
Production Company: Tribeca Productions, Sikelia Productions, Winkler Films
Distributed by: Netflix, The Criterion Collection, STX Entertainment
Image Source: Screenshots taken from the movie.
Reviewed by: Arsalan Altaf Soomro