Douglas Caddy Posted August 21, 2019 Share Posted August 21, 2019 Scorsese’s New Mob Epic, ‘The Irishman,’ Has Netflix and Theaters at Odds From the article: In his ninth collaboration with Mr. Scorsese, Mr. De Niro plays the title character, Frank Sheeran, a hit man known as the Irishman who claimed he killed the Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa, whose body has never been found, in 1975. He is joined in the cast by the “Goodfellas” and “Casino” alumnus Joe Pesci, who came out of retirement to play the mob boss Russell Bufalino. Al Pacino — appearing for the first time in a film directed by Mr. Scorsese — portrays Hoffa. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/21/business/media/netflix-scorsese-the-irishman.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Caddy Posted September 28, 2019 Author Share Posted September 28, 2019 Rave review for The Irishman that was premiered yesterday https://www.showbiz411.com/2019/09/27/1st-look-martin-scorseses-stunning-the-irishman-with-de-niro-pacino-finally-unveiled-three-and-half-hour-epic Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph McBride Posted September 28, 2019 Share Posted September 28, 2019 (edited) I haven't seen the film yet, but I have read the Variety review by Owen Gleiberman in which that publication (which Sam Fuller described to me in the 1970s as "that f-u-c-k-ing rag you love so much") takes its usual bold critical and historical stand: Scorsese wants to dramatize how America used to work (and maybe still does), with the personal and political hopelessly entangled. Frank’s assignments go well beyond whacking mobsters who don’t know their place. In 1961, he’s asked to help in a weapons shipment that turns out to be for the Bay of Pigs invasion. For a while, the film turns into a luridly arresting Mob’s-eye-view history lesson about the Mafia and JFK: the resentment the Italian crime leaders felt at having “bought” the 1960 election for Kennedy (by stuffing the ballot boxes of Chicago), only to see him appoint his brother, Robert F. Kennedy (Jack Huston), to the position of attorney general, at which point RFK goes after the Mob with unprecedented vengeance. The film presents the JFK assassination as an underworld conspiracy, and whether or not you buy that, the triangle of the Mob, the Teamsters, and the JFK administration, with the former bootlegger Joe Kennedy called upon to repay favors, makes for a thrillingly entangled political spider web. Edited September 28, 2019 by Joseph McBride Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Andrews Posted September 28, 2019 Share Posted September 28, 2019 (edited) Apparently an across-the-board "masterpiece," but of course there'll be the Asian-bashing thing rearing its head. Plus complaints about how Joe Kennedy never went Mob-deep: https://www.msn.com/en-us/movies/news/the-irishman-first-reactions-call-martin-scorsese-epic-a-masterpiece/ar-AAHX1zu?li=BBnbfcL Edited September 29, 2019 by David Andrews Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James DiEugenio Posted September 28, 2019 Share Posted September 28, 2019 (edited) OMG, according to Glieberman, Scorsese fell for that whole Chuck Giancana Double Cross BS that I put under the microscope in my review of Mark Shaw's pice of baloney. If this is true, i wonder if its in the book or if Scorsese had Zillian add it to the script? So now I have to repeat all this stuff because guys who should know better decided to make a stupid movie like this one? Edited September 28, 2019 by James DiEugenio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Douglas Caddy Posted September 28, 2019 Author Share Posted September 28, 2019 Today's NY Times review of the film: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/27/movies/the-irishman-review.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James DiEugenio Posted September 28, 2019 Share Posted September 28, 2019 (edited) Scorsese and Coppola have made careers out of reducing Italians in America to 1. Shooting people 2. Eating spaghetti and meatballs and red wine 3. Shooting each other (See the Sopranos) Enough already. DId you ever hear of Enrico Fermi? Edited September 28, 2019 by James DiEugenio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Andrews Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 (edited) "When the legend becomes fact - film the legend." --with apologies to John Ford And speaking of legendry...the critics are all hollering that this thing deserves to be seen on the big screen...just as Netflix is trying to negotiate a cash-favorable deal with AMC to show it in theaters so it can Oscar-qualify. No payola here. "100% 'Fresh' " on Rotten Tomatoes, and no human being who pays for admission has seen the thing yet! Jeffrey Epstein should be so fresh. Jim - at least they made De Niro an Irish killer.... https://ew.com/movies/2019/09/28/martin-scorsese-irishman-reviews/ Edited September 29, 2019 by David Andrews Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Couteau Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 5 hours ago, James DiEugenio said: Enough already. DId you ever hear of Enrico Fermi? Well said, Jim. Give me Fellini, Pasolini, Rossellini, or Visconti any day over Scorsese and Coppola. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Bauer Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 (edited) Keep in mind almost all these La Cosa Nostra / Mafia films primarily recount a "Sicilian Thing" versus a broader "Italian" thing. Yes, this Sicilian thing extended into the mainland of Italy to a degree but it's important to understand how different Sicily and it's history, people and customs are on their own versus the mainland and have been forever. The Cosa Nostra is pretty much all theirs. The Cosa Nostra has traditionally been the most powerful group in Sicily, especially around Palermo.[83] A police investigation in summer 2019 also confirmed strong links between the Palermo area Sicilian Mafia and American organised crime, particularly the Gambino crime family.[84] According to La Repubblica, "Off they go, through the streets of Passo di Rigano, Boccadifalco, Torretta and at the same time, Brooklyn, Staten Island, New Jersey. Because from Sicily to the US, the old mafia has returned".[85] Edited September 29, 2019 by Joe Bauer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James DiEugenio Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 (edited) MA: Jim - at least they made De Niro an Irish killer.... LOL Rob: That is what I mean. All of those illustrious Italian directors and how many films about the Mafia? But In America, its a staple of our film diet. But on top of that, the Scorsese movies I like the most aren't his stupid and predictable mobster movies. The ones I like are After Hours and The Last Temptation of Christ. The former is a Kafkaesque dusk to dawn movie, and the latter is one of the two best films ever made about Christ, (the other being Pasolini's The Gospel According to St. Matthew.) Edited September 29, 2019 by James DiEugenio Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Couteau Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 (edited) Just now, James DiEugenio said: In America, its a staple of our film diet Yes, it's become a staple -- and a staple not of films about the real Mafia but about a extremely romanticized and glorified "Mafia." Not even "Goodfellas" portrays Cosa Nostra for what they really were: how they brutally tortured people and were in essence domestic terrorists. I grew up in a heavily mobbed up neighborhood in Gravesend, Brooklyn, where every mom-and-pop store paid "protection" to the Gambino crime family. It was not a pretty thing. There was man who lived around the corner who had his head blown off one day, sitting in his car in broad daylight, for not repaying a loan on time. Not a very wholesome sight for children to see. Too bad Scorsese didn't do more work along the lines of "Last Temptation of Christ." That really was a great film and would have made a superb double feature with the lusciously filmed "Gospel According to St. Matthew." BTW, for anyone who doesn't know this name: the Greek novelist Nikos Kazantzakis wrote the book "The Last Temptation of Christ" as well as the amazing "Zorba the Greek." Well worth reading, along with his memoir, "Report to Greco." Edited September 29, 2019 by Rob Couteau Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joe Bauer Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 (edited) 4 hours ago, Rob Couteau said: Yes, it's become a staple -- and a staple not of films about the real Mafia but about a extremely romanticized and glorified "Mafia." Not even "Goodfellas" portrays Cosa Nostra for what they really were: how they brutally tortured people and were in essence domestic terrorists. I grew up in a heavily mobbed up neighborhood in Gravesend, Brooklyn, where every mom-and-pop store paid "protection" to the Gambino crime family. It was not a pretty thing. There was man who lived around the corner who had his head blown off one day, sitting in his car in broad daylight, for not repaying a loan on time. Not a very wholesome sight for children to see. Too bad Scorsese didn't do more work along the lines of "Last Temptation of Christ." That really was a great film and would have made a superb double feature with the lusciously filmed "Gospel According to St. Matthew." BTW, for anyone who doesn't know this name: the Greek novelist Nikos Kazantzakis wrote the book "The Last Temptation of Christ" as well as the amazing "Zorba the Greek." Well worth reading, along with his memoir, "Report to Greco." Exactly. Another thing about the infatuation with and proliferation of these brutally violent Mafia films for decades now versus the films made by great Italian directors and writers before this trend is the loss of a truer picture of Italian culture, beauty and decency. Back when I was a kid, I most often pictured hot Italian starlets like Sophia Loren. Gina Lollobrigida and Verna Lisi when I thought of Italian films. Roman Holiday made me, and I am sure millions of others, around the world want to visit Rome and Italy and bath in the warmth of it's sun, red wine, song, sexually suggestive and animated hand waving humanity. Or visit the great art of Florence, riding the Gondolas of Venice or eating olives and cheese on a sunset viewing Tuscany terrace, all in the embrace of a warm, voluptuous Italian woman whispering soft and warm nothings in my ear ... ah - so Bellisima! Since then however, I just picture the violent corruption in their culture as much as any other aspect. Sad. Edited September 29, 2019 by Joe Bauer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob Couteau Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 Just now, Joe Bauer said: the loss of a truer picture of Italian culture, beauty and decency So true. Take any single sequence from Fellini's La Dolce Vita, 8 1/2, or Amarcord, and you have a higher level of artistic achievement than you do in the entire oeuvre of many contemporary filmmakers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joseph McBride Posted September 29, 2019 Share Posted September 29, 2019 (edited) Scorsese addresses THE IRISHMAN and the JFK assassination question from 21 minutes into this discussion until the end at 29 minutes. This is a panel discussion of THE IRISHMAN at the NY Film Festival. Edited September 29, 2019 by Joseph McBride Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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