Book Review: The Irishman (2019)

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AgentPete

Capo Famiglia
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May 19, 2014
London UK
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Title: The Irishman

Tagline: His story changed history

Genre: Crime, History, Drama

Director: Martin Scorsese

Cast: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Ray Romano, Bobby Cannavale, Anna Paquin, Stephen Graham, Harvey Keitel, Stephanie Kurtzuba, Kathrine Narducci, Welker White, Jesse Plemons, Jack Huston, Domenick Lombardozzi, Paul Herman, Louis Cancelmi, Gary Basaraba, Marin Ireland, Sebastian Maniscalco, Steven Van Zandt, Lucy Gallina, Jonathan Morris, Dascha Polanco, Bo Dietl, Aleksa Palladino, Daniel Jenkins, Jim Norton, Billy Smith, Kevin O'Rourke, Action Bronson, Glenn Cunningham, Paul Ben-Victor, Patrick Gallo, James Martin, Jake Hoffman, Barry Primus, Danny A. Abeckaser, Anthony J. Gallo, J. C. MacKenzie, Joseph Bono, Jamil Antonio Stefan, Louis Vanaria, Craig Vincent, John Polce, Joseph Riccobene, Vinny Vella, Thomas E. Sullivan, John Cenatiempo, Robert Mladinich, Rich Reilly, Robert Funaro, Tess Price, Jennifer Mudge, India Ennenga, Jordyn DiNatale, Kate Arrington, Bernie Martin, Philip Suriano, Tony Suriano, Jason A. Iannacone, Michael C. Brennan, James P. Harkins, Al Linea, Garry Pastore, Frank Pietrangolare, Frank Aquilino, Johnny T. Sollitto, Patrick Murney, Samantha Soule, Richard V. Licata, Vito Picone, Larry Mazza, Craig DiFrancia, Ira Drukier, Jon Bruno, Paul Borghese, Steven Maglio, James Licata, Veronica Alicino, Mike Massimino, James Ciccone, Ron Castellano, Marco Greco, Meghan Rafferty, Aldo Sergi, James Lorinz, Jeffrey Paul, Robert C. Kirk, Vincent Maritato, Lawrence Smith, Rebecca Faulkenberry, Ken Wulf Clark, John Rue, Steve Routman, Fernando Vera, Peter Claymore, Charles DelGatto, Michael Gongora, Eugene Bunge, Matthew F. O'Connor, Cliff Moylan, Vincenzo DelRiccio, Steve Beauchamp, Alfred Sauchelli Jr., Joe Giorgio, Diana Agostini, Lauren Aparicio, Kelley Rae O'Donnell, John Garrett Greer, Jack Caruso, John Scurti, Thomas J. Jenkins, Steve Witting, Luke Smith, Brent Langdon, James D. Forsha, Giacomino J. Matra, Paul Pearlman, Frank L. Messina, Cilda Shaur, Dominick LaRuffa Jr., Erick Zamora, Joe Caniano, Lou Martini Jr., Michael Bottari, John Bianco, Margaret Anne Florence, Siena Marino, Lori Arkin, Nicholas Chrysan, Samantha Coppola, Logan Crawford, Jeff DeHart, Mark Fairchild, Blaise Corrigan, Jill Brown, Tim Neff, Matt Walton, Peter J. Fernandez, Stephen Mailer, Gino Cafarelli, Robin Kerbis, Lucia Giannetta, Michael Romeo Ruocco, Anne Horak, Nina Lafarga, Clark Carmichael, Joseph Russo, Jeremy Luke, Barbara Eyland, Tracy J. Everitt, Saint Marino, Mario Corry, Johnny Potenza, Joe Passaro, Patrick Borriello, Alfred Nittoli, David Aaron Baker, Stanley Burns, Bill Timoney, Thomas J. McDonald, Virl Andrick, Ernest L. Sanders Jr., Bill McHugh, Kevin Kane, Amelia Brain, Craig Castaldo, Jacqueline Kennedy, John F. Kennedy, Fidel Castro

Release: 2019-11-01

Runtime: 209

Plot: Pennsylvania, 1956. Frank Sheeran, a war veteran of Irish origin who works as a truck driver, accidentally meets mobster Russell Bufalino. Once Frank becomes his trusted man, Bufalino sends him to Chicago with the task of helping Jimmy Hoffa, a powerful union leader related to organized crime, with whom Frank will maintain a close friendship for nearly twenty years.



Not a review. Altho I did think the last 15 mins could have been profitably removed.

Simply amazed that I could either (a) pay 50 quid for two tickets to see this film at my local cinema; or (b) watch it (effectively) for free on Netflix.

This reflects a destruction in value, and as an agent, it worries me.
 
I’m not sure if I have this correct, but I read that Netflix is releasing films in theatre for limited engagements so that they are Academy Eligible for awards. Netflix doesn’t care about the box office earnings so much, as the bulk of their earnings is from their subscription service anyway. I think it was Spielberg who had issue with films competing for Academy Awards without having had a theatrical release so this was Netflix’s answer to that.
 
Im dying (not literally) to see this movie. For almost a year, way back in the day, my husband, our twin toddlers, and I lived in the middle house of a three house slum in Dobbs Ferry, NY. It was a duplex. Richie Salerno lived downstairs and "managed" the property, which his Uncle Tony owned. The tabloids called him "Fat Tony." I called him Mr. Salerno. He was polite and soft-spoken and, if you knew who he was, scary as hell. Domenick Lombardozzi plays him in the movie.
 
Richie Salerno lived downstairs and "managed" the property, which his Uncle Tony owned. The tabloids called him "Fat Tony."
Quite an experience! Never knowing if you’d wake up to a horse’s head in bed…

Apparently Coppola would cast real-life hoods as bit players in his films, to avoid “problems”. Many of them just wanted to “be in the movies”, big kids really. I wondered whether that might be the case with The Irishman, many of the crowd scenes (and there are lots of them) look very realistically cast. You might see your friend :)
 
Quite an experience! Never knowing if you’d wake up to a horse’s head in bed…

Apparently Coppola would cast real-life hoods as bit players in his films, to avoid “problems”. Many of them just wanted to “be in the movies”, big kids really. I wondered whether that might be the case with The Irishman, many of the crowd scenes (and there are lots of them) look very realistically cast. You might see your friend :)
Dangerous big kids. I won't see Mr. Salerno - he died in prison - but Vinnie, the nice guy who drove him around, became a Mafia bigwig and then a government informer. (Vincent Cafaro) He is probably still with us but hidden in the witness protection program. Vinnie's wife, Terry, was my only friend during that strange interval. I used to wonder if she had inspired the movie, Married to the Mob. She even looked like Michelle Pfeiffer. I hope things went well for her.
 
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Im dying (not literally) to see this movie. For almost a year, way back in the day, my husband, our twin toddlers, and I lived in the middle house of a three house slum in Dobbs Ferry, NY. It was a duplex. Richie Salerno lived downstairs and "managed" the property, which his Uncle Tony owned. The tabloids called him "Fat Tony." I called him Mr. Salerno. He was polite and soft-spoken and, if you knew who he was, scary as hell. Domenick Lombardozzi plays him in the movie.
My great uncle William Zerffi was a rich and successful voice coach/singing teacher in NYC. He owned a huge double-fronted Brownstone just round the corner from Central Park (it sold some years ago for 5.6million USD). Anyway, my father, his only relative, was due to inherit the whole thing. (He and my dad were quite close). 3 days before Uncle Billie died he changed his Will and left everything to his Italian lodger who had moved in 3 months before. Dad never contested the Will because he thought there was some Mafia connection. As kids, we didn't believe him. Then, once my mum died and we cleared the house, we found out the name of the guy (who was from a well-known Mafia family) and found a copy of the new 'Will' on which my great uncle's name was printed in capital letters and not signed, plus we discovered that all Uncle Billie's dead wife's jewellery had been taken into police care and... never seen again (apparently NY police in the mid 1970s were not known for their efficiency or honesty).
 
My mother-in-law’s family came to the US from Sicily. She was first generation— Brooklyn born. My mother-in-law’s mother disgraced the family by falling in love with and marrying a German man rather than the Sicilian man she was supposed to marry. She was “kicked out of the family” so to speak. The “family” was the mob, specifically some higher ups in the Gambino family, John Gotti being an uncle.
They moved to Texas to get away and started a family.
The funny thing is, my mother-in-law ended up marrying into the Hinton family where Ted Hinton was a renowned postal worker turned Texas Ranger who was part of the ambush of Bonnie and Clyde. The deal was whoever was the last remaining person involved in Bonnie and Clyde’s takedown got to write the book. Ted wrote Ambush, a detailed account of the chase for the cop killing duo.

So we had family on both sides of the law, as I suppose many families have had.

Funny that Netflix has movies about both sides, though . Gotti and The Highwaymen among others.

I think Hoffa was tight with the Bufalino family - so I guess this isn’t directly related to this post except for mob ties.

Bufalino had the Teamsters and Gambino had the Longshoremen.

And I’ve got The Colony here at Litopia, so I win.
 
I watched it the other night and after all the hype I have to say that it disappointed. The computers did a good job on the faces but couldn't disguise the movement of old men. They looked odd to me; middle-aged faces on old bodies. The story was nothing special. Maybe I was spoilt by The Godfather after which everything Mafia-like pales. This was Netflix trying to cash in on some old actors in an old now overdone scenario.
Enough Already :)
 
I was mildly invested. The most interesting observation for me was the daughter telling her father that because his idea of protection was so disproportionately violent, she could not ever call on him for help with anything at all.
 
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