The Irishman: Movie Review (No Spoilers)

By Michael Momper

I had the distinct pleasure of writing about one of my favorite directors, Quentin Tarantino, in a review earlier this year. Great filmmakers like him labor for years over their projects and put their full creative weight behind their ideas. Big names like his command respect, and through the years gather the adulation and even friendship of a multitude of extremely talented actors (for Tarantino, this would be people like Samuel L. Jackson, Harvey Kietel, Tim Roth, Brad Pitt etc). I can’t help but to feel extremely lucky to review a brand new Martin Scorsese movie within only a few months of the release of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Scorsese is a masterful artist and likely my favorite director of all time. Perhaps just a brief discussion on what he does so well would be appropriate before diving into a specific breakdown of his latest, The Irishman- a movie that showcases almost every single one of his strengths and none of his weaknesses, indeed a true masterpiece.

You may wonder why I would even choose to compare Scorsese and Tarantino, as they are both so well respected in the Hollywood community as well as being so close to each other in my personal echelon of filmmakers. They are visionary, and true proponents of quality over quantity. For me, the difference between them simply comes down to their artistic ambitions, and so the reason I prefer Scorsese movies on the whole (again, a large generalization from which many gray areas emerge) is mostly stylistic and with regards to the way I relate to his characters. Scorsese’s greatest feats, namely Goodfellas, Taxi Driver, Raging Bull, Mean Streets and now The Irishman, are all stories that viscerally and violently portray the rise and fall of certain types of anti-heroes. While not painting with too clumsy a brushstroke, the movies often capture pieces of the human condition that can only come from approaching these anti-heroes with tact and reverence, and yet avoiding glorifying their more malicious behaviors. Within the hilarious mobster characters, ice-cold killers and conflicted societal bottom-feeders we somehow find something to relate to, and see parts of ourselves even through the gritty exterior of the anti-hero. Tony Soprano and Walter White helped to usher the anti-hero into American television, and the success of these shows hints at a deep artistic truth that even in characters that do reprehensible things right before our eyes, we can develop a strange compassion and affection towards their personalities if the motivations are properly fleshed out. Tarantino certainly has phenomenal character arcs in his films as well; however, his ambition is focused more on creating wacky personalities and crackling dialogue, something he does unbelievably well. For this reason my affinity for Scorsese is purely a reflection of my stylistic preferences and not because I think Scorsese is a far superior filmmaker.

The Irishman is Scorsese’s latest gangster drama, and before you assume that the film is simply Scorsese playing it safe in his familiar genre, as even Joe Pesci assumed at first, I would urge you to probe just a little deeper or go see it first. This movie is a sprawling epic with more similarities to the great Sergio Leone's Once Upon a Time in America than Goodfellas. Though there are some really funny moments, this movie is slower and longer than Goodfellas, so it is really tough to even compare them. I will just put it this way: like Goodfellas, The Irishman achieves its goals absolutely perfectly. With a cast including Robert Deniro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Harvey Kietel and much more, it goes without saying that the acting is absolutely extraordinary. It is without a doubt one of Deniro’s best performances, and I absolutely loved seeing Pesci in a much more mellow and commanding role than he played in earlier Scorsese flicks. The Irishman is 3 and a half hours long but never for a second strained my patience, as the pacing was deliberate, the plot engaging, and the visuals mesmerizing. The score was excellent as usual but most important was the attention to the human condition.

For this comparison I will have to reference Mean Streets moreso than any of his other gangster films. In it, a young man who is involved in a New York mafia through his uncle wrestles with the weight of the sin he commits nightly in the excess of the bars and nightclubs. He is at odds with his conscience, and struggles to justify his lust and greed to himself and his priest. Scorsese paints him in a sympathetic light, which makes his story engaging and relatable even to the majority of us who have never been in a criminal enterprise but nonetheless struggle with the consequences of our decisions every day. An important lesson strikes us from watching Scorsese’s finer gangster dramas: anti-heroes have to be at some level sympathetic or likeable in order to make us, the audience, care. This is abundantly clear in The Irishman. We see an everyday blue collar worker get involved with a criminal racket and we grow with him through decades of abundance and tragedy. We grasp his motivations, his shortcomings, and his regret, oftentimes through his own narration and an absolutely unforgettable closing act.

This is no Goodfellas; though it is funny, violent and profane, it is more akin to a fine wine than a line of cocaine. With the slow pace and wise dialogue, I really felt the age of the director and actors putting their stamp on the movie, brilliantly conveying their own lessons learned through years and years of ups and downs in the Hollywood machine. This is an absolute must-see, for those who love history, drama, gangster epics, and just plain great cinema. This is the best movie I have seen all year.

Rating: 97/100