The true story of Frank “The Irishman” Sheeran is one that can be seen as fairly well-represented in The Irishman by Martin Scorsese, but as you might have already guessed there were plenty of moments where Scorsese took a great deal of artistic liberty and steered the story in the way he wanted it. But perhaps the biggest gaffe, and this is something that gets noticed in many movies, is the CGI de-aging effects that can work but don’t always since in this case Robert De Niro looks like a younger version of his current self minus the wrinkles. This might work for some folks that didn’t get to see him in movies such as Mean Streets, Taxi Driver, and even The Godfather II, but as of now it simply takes an old man and turns him into an old man with fewer wrinkles. In other words the de-aging process in this movie is less than ideal especially since, just putting it out there, De Niro really DOESN’T look a lot like Sheeran. How anyone put these two side by side and said ‘that’s our guy’ is kind of hard to fathom since there had to be a lot of other guys that might have come closer to the mark and been able to be de-aged in an easier fashion. At this rate it’s almost as though Scorsese was playing to an audience that he was hoping hadn’t seen any previous movies with De Niro or Joe Pesci in them, since they both looked quite different when they were younger than the process makes them appear in this movie. Adrienne Tyler of ScreenRant has more to say on this.
Now don’t get me wrong, the movie was well done and Joe Pesci wasn’t a horrible representation of Russell Bufalino, but Al Pacino as Hoffa? Okay, he has the acting chops and the ability to be someone loud and obnoxious as Hoffa was credited with being back in his day, but honestly Jack Nicholson was a much better representation and his movie depicting Hoffa still wasn’t a favorite. Aside from this, just think on one thing for a moment. While De Niro has a very mixed background as far as being from Irish, Italian, and even Dutch and German descent through his family lines, Pesci and Pacino are both from Italian families, which is amusing since Hoffa was not Italian and as it’s been stated was from a family that claimed to be Pennsylvania Dutch. Not only did Pacino not really nail the role one hundred percent, not because of his acting but because he didn’t really look the part, but he just didn’t seem like the right guy for the role. Too many people still remember him as Michael Corleone, a man that was Italian through and through, and while the stereotype might not stick as much as some people might think, that memory is hard to shake. Then there are the little nitpicking facts that a lot of people tend to let go but are still fairly important. Like height for instance. Sheeran was well over six feet tall, around 6’4″ if the records are to be believed, and Hoffa was around 5’5″ or so, almost a full foot shorter than Sheeran. In the movie this isn’t depicted, which is where it’s easy to say that Scorsese took a lot of liberties. If you need further proof that he does this, and to great effect no less, take a look at Gangs of New York and then read the histories that exist. It’s true that some things might not have been written down or recorded back in those days, but it also would be feasible to think that Scorsese, who is another great storyteller, took what he saw and made what he want, which is how a story comes together a lot of times. Randall Colburn from Consequence of Sound has his own take on this matter.
The overall story wasn’t bad and it’s managed to gain the attention of quite a few people. Ironically though it’s kind of interesting to note that a lot of them might not remember just who Jimmy Hoffa was, or even know about Frank Sheeran. There is a moment in the movie when Frank, a broken down old man after so many years, is speaking of Hoffa to a nurse and realizes she doesn’t know who he is. It’s a bit of a sad realization how time moves forward and people forget, but it’s the truth as well since many people today might never know who Jimmy Hoffa was, and unless they watch the movie they’ll never know that much about Frank Sheeran. In a way this was more than just a different time, it was a different era in human history that a lot of folks knew next to nothing about. Overall the movie wasn’t that bad, but the de-aging effect wasn’t a strong point as it just didn’t work the way it needed to. Dom Nero of Esquire has a few more things to say about Hoffa.
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