The Irishman(2019)-A Modern Classic- Movie Review
IMDB: 7.8/10
Letterboxd: 3.9/5
My Score: 4.5/5
I am sure that there are some movies on our watchlists that we really want to watch but they are so long , over 3 hours, therefore we keep postponing watching them. For me, The Irishman was that kind of a movie. Having added The Irishman to my watchlist in 2020, I kept delaying watching it due to its 209-minute length. However, after I returned from my SAT exam yesterday, I decided to watch it to reward myself. To be fair, I really expected this movie to be great but The Irishman even reached beyond my expectations.
THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SOME MINOR SPOILERS SO I SUGGEST YOU WATCH THE MOVIE FIRST AND THEN COME BACK TO READ MY REVIEW
Although I have heard some negative reviews about The Irishman’s length in 2019, I am really satisfied with the movie’s length. In fact, if The Irishman was 5-hour length instead of being 3.5, I would still watch it. Since the movie’s tempo was slow, probably slower than The Godfather's, the length should be at least 3 hours. And yes, The Irishman is a slow movie. So, if you’re expecting to see numerous action scenes, this is probably not your movie.
Although The Irishman seems like a pure mafia movie, such as The Godfather or Goodfellas, I can assure you that it is more than just a mafia/crime movie. The Irishman is about life, politics, and, of course, the mafia. After watching The Irishman, you will clearly understand how the mafia is much stronger than generally thought and you’ll also understand what they are capable of doing. Moreover, in The Irishman, as our characters are aging, we can observe the changes in their traits and values. The movie tells us so much about worldly ambition and how our ambitions change as the years pass in our lives. Moreover, as the movie is based on a true story, we can perfectly understand the politics and problems in the second half of the 20th century.
While watching a movie, especially mafia movies, I really want to hear great music which should support the movie. Although we can’t hear so many original pieces in The Irishman, its pieces of music are marvelous due to they all perfectly fit into the scenes in which they were used. Personally, I would be happy if I heard more original pieces in The Irishman. However, Robbie Robertson’s The Theme For The Irishman music extremely satisfied me therefore I didn’t feel a need to hear more original pieces in the movie.
Besides the music of The Irishman, I am pretty amazed by Rodrigo Prietto and Martin Scorcese’s cinematography. In order to avoid giving spoilers, I don’t want to mention many details about The Irishman’s cinematography. However, if I have to mention my favorite, the “Caesar Street” detail was great.
Problems About The Irishman
Although I generally loved The Irishman, the movie wasn’t flawless. Actually, there were some big problematic scenes that made me really uncomfortable and it was really hard to watch these scenes. In fact, I didn’t expect to see these scenes in a Scorsese movie. However, all problematic scenes are sourced from the same thing: the age of the actors. Respectively, Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, and Al Pacino were 76, 76, and 79 while filming The Irishman. Although I mentioned The Irishman was a slow movie, there were also fight scenes and some of these scenes were hard to watch due to the age of the actors. For instance, for me, the worst scene of the movie, and maybe the career of Scorsese, was Frank(Robert De Niro) fighting with a shop owner. Since Robert Deniro was 76 years old while filming this scene, the scene seems extremely fake and even some kicks and fists of Robert De Niro couldn’t even touch to the shop owner.
Don’t get me wrong, the age of the actors only disturbs the audience in only on few scenes. So, I can’t say the age of the actors radically reduced the quality of the movie. For me, The Irishman is still a masterpiece. However, if The Irishman was filmed between 2000–2010, it is a fact that we would watch a different movie…
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