Whenever anybody says they're a little concerned, they're very concerned. And when they say they're more than a little concerned, they're desperate.
-Frank Sheeran
Despite an 8 on FilmAffinity, for approach, pacing, development, length, and overall composure, The Irish it is not a cultural product available to all audiences (not to mention the limited list of cinemas in Spain where it has been released). Saying this about a movie that has cost Netflix $160 million is evidence of two facts: one, there is still room for miracles in the film industry, and two, Martin Scorsese, scourge of the industry, has just become the head of the list of the makers of such paranormal phenomena.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EThb2OGf8Pw
Not happy with meeting De Niro, Pacino and Pesci (y Keitel) in a three and a half hour film in which, as usual, Scorsese does what he wants and how he wants, the Italian-American has achieved a final invoice that is guaranteed to be remembered for decades. This is what he makes of The Irish a triple A miracle: that we will be able to see the premiere of four sequels of Avatar over the next decade is also a miracle, but of a different category. A miracle of the easy ones. Here we are talking about cinema, plot, characters and substance. From a film that, except for the occasional humorous and heated counterpoints of Jimmy Hoffa, presents us with an absolute grayness only digestible if attacked by someone with Scorsese's arts.
Table of Contents
The Irishman review without spoilers
In summary, The Irish it's a bunch of people sitting down negotiating. Dialogue scenes are of much longer duration than stipulated in the canons, and the act structure, if any, is divided by events that are not remarkable enough enough to keep the average viewer glued to the seat.
However.
That bunch of people negotiating They have dialogues directed and paced by one of the best goldsmiths in the history of cinema. The script is at the expense of steven zillian, also responsible for the script of Schindler's List, American Gangster o Gangs of New York. the structure of The Irish sums up four decades of outlaws juggling ethics with their understanding of friendship, business, pragmatism, virility, and the occasional need to transmit affection to people you think are important.
Al Pacino and Robert De Niro in 'The Irishman', by Martin Scorsese
Scorsese's Great Trilogy
Critics have said that The Irish the luck of the trilogy endsEniropescian started with Goodfellas y Casino. It seems logical to include in the equation Once upon a time in America. Directed by Sergio Leone, Once upon a Time in America also had Deniro and Pesci to explore in a similar way to The Irish (and for another three and a half hours), that strange residue of caresses and scratches that time is capable of leaving in friendships. Even more so, in friendly relations between gangsters.
The counterpoint (or novelty, if you prefer), is that in Scorsese's new film there is something The Sopranos: without actually seeing them in tracksuits (in pajamas and Sunday clothes), in The Irish is a drastic reduction of glamor aesthetic, theoretical and ethical of the mafia thing. Too much has been said about the alleged abuse of facial rejuvenation by the protagonists of The Irish. The CGI is forgotten after a few minutes, and in Postposmo these criticisms don't bother us.
Joe Pesci in 'The Irishman', by Martin Scorsese
love letter to cinema
The Irish It is a love letter to a way of making movies that will disappear with Martin Scorsese. The billboard landscape of 2019 has very little to do with that of 1995 (Casino) 1990 (Goodfellas) or 1985 (Once upon a Time in America). The Irish suffers from the same excess footage as the tarantiniana Once upon a time in Hollywood (also released in 2019). They are two clear examples that the same could be said with less, but also that their directors, aware of the excess, had come to play.
The DiCaprio and Pitt tape was zero risk. The difference is in the Tarantino brand and in his good work, without losing respect for the art of cinema, getting away with it in terms of structure, inclusion of pop elements, dialogues and cast, all more in tune with what mainstream.
Harvey Keitel in 'The Irishman', by Martin Scorsese
The Irish it is pure art; unceremoniously traditional cinema (except for the contemporary license of De Niro's testimony speaking to him almost to the camera) led by a holy trinity of actors who, in their day, were everything.
In his day.
The absolute totality of the film is the mischief of a Great of the history of the cinema, taking into account that, if he feels like it, Scorsese is able to connect with the contemporary (The Wolf of Wall Street. 2013 /Departed, Oscar for Best Film 2007). Scorsese stopped paying attention to the judgment of anyone other than himself decades ago.
The Irish It is a long tape. At times, even heavy. While criticism of its duration and articles on the suitability or not of seeing it divided into episodes proliferate, Scorsese himself has had to come to the fore to recommend something that, by itself, screams the times we live in: The Irish you have to see it straight away, preferably in theaters. And no, don't watch it on a phone.
And, despite all that has been said, the film haunts you for days and the review is announced as mandatory. It must be, we suppose, part of the strange artifice of a film class that, they say, is about to disappear.
8/10
Original title: The Irishman
Year: 2019
Duration: 210 min.
Country: United States
Address: Martin Scorsese
Script: steven zillian
Music: robbie robertson
Photograph: Rodrigo prieto
Cast: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci
Producer: Netflix/ Sikelia Productions/ Tribeca Productions
Gender: Mafia