No. 103. (2019) THE IRISHMAN. November 11th.

Film No 103 (2019) Nov. 11th.  5:30 PM  BACKLOT CINEMA West Perth. 

"Hiya Frank, this is Jimmy Hoffa, my friend speaks very highly of you." (Hoffa makes contact by phone with Frank for the first time, it's the beginning of a long relationship).

Scorsese, what a legend. The man who created the "Wise Guy" shtik in cinema takes the genre to a new level this time with The Irishman.

The Irishman, Frank Sheeran, is a mafia fix-it man who rose to the rank of Teemster division president under the tutorship of none other than Jimmy Hoffa. Put simply Scorsese has taken a book (I Heard You Paint Houses; The Inside Story Of The Mafia, The Teamsters and The Last Ride Of Jimmy Hoffa) written by defence attorney Charles Brandt, placed De Niro, Pacino and Pesci in the leads and meticulously re-enacted, in its purest form the narrative of the book. The reason the content of the film can't be taken literally is because Sheeran, a sick (cancer) man, fixated on a book deal, told plenty of tall tales.

Added to the meticulous nature of Scorsese's script and costume mastery comes the CGI technology magically making actors (Pesci, Pacinao & De Niro) all in their late seventies look 30 to 40 years younger to add legitimacy to each era. It's a wonder created for modern cinema. 

Netflix gave Scorsese an open budget ($159M) to complete The Irishman after a couple of years dancing with major production companies who couldn't stomach the ballooning budget. If it weren't for Netflix then perhaps Sheeran's story may never have reached the screen. In my city (Perth, Australia) only one small boutique cinema was prepared to put this masterpiece on the big screen. The Irishman is a big screen film destined for the small screen (Netflix release 27/11). I'm concerned 210 minutes in front of a small screen will negate my glowing review. We live in different times, selfishly, I'm extremely pleased to have watched The Irishman in the dark on a big screen. 12GUMS.