The Irishman - Scorsese/De Niro/Pesci/Pacino

[r_z]

It’s a very good but very long movie that we’ve seen before and from the same director, no less.

That's not true. To me it feels like Scorsese is critiquing his past work and career on screen through the lens of this movie, expanding on previous ideas and themes and occasionally maybe even correcting himself.

For example, wheras in Goodfellas the gangster stuff comes across as flashy and "cool", here there's this whole other layer of regret ankered by the backstory about Sheeran's daughter(s).

That's also why the criticism of Anna Paquin's lack of lines from certain quarters just comes off as baffingly dumb. We don't get to know her better, because the father whose eyes we see her through didn't get to know her better. Because of his actions that we do get to see.

And that's literally the whole point of the movie.

[Swykk]

Goodfellas did not make that lifestyle look cool at all. Live large for a little while until you either get killed, caught or die alone. It’s the same message. The only difference is drug addiction (Goodfellas) vs being a shitty father (Irishman).

[GulDukat]

That's not true. To me it feels like Scorsese is critiquing his past work and career on screen through the lens of this movie, expanding on previous ideas and themes and occasionally maybe even correcting himself.

For example, wheras in Goodfellas the gangster stuff comes across as flashy and "cool", here there's this whole other layer of regret ankered by the backstory about Sheeran's daughter(s).

That's also why the criticism of Anna Paquin's lack of lines from certain quarters just comes off as baffingly dumb. We don't get to know her better, because the father whose eyes we see her through didn't get to know her better. Because of his actions that we do get to see.

And that's literally the whole point of the movie.

Spot on point. Another scene maybe overlooked is when De Niro kills the German soldiers in cold blood. It desensitizes him to murder and shapes his life, enabling him to kill and kill again without any remorse.

[onthewall2983]

That's also why the criticism of Anna Paquin's lack of lines from certain quarters just comes off as baffingly dumb. We don't get to know her better, because the father whose eyes we see her through didn't get to know her better. Because of his actions that we do get to see.

The one thing she says just stops the film in it's tracks and shows you enough of the mentality of children of violent men, that I found it utterly moving. All I can add is that she is at least "lucky" her father kept the violence out of the home.

[Wretchedest]

Excising women from this movie as a way to illustrate their absence in the eyes of it's protagonist is dumb, especially coming from a director who hasn't exactly handled women in his films super well. They are so absent in this movie that when they actually have lines, it's jarring.

De Neiro's character goes through two marriages and has four daughters and we see so little of it. The movie doesn't get interesting until it's epilogue: that was interesting story to tell. One of consequences, of lonely geriatric mobsters. That's new. If they wanted to emphasize the damage that De Neiro did to his family and his relationships, than they should have actually shown that, instead of relegating it to a couple of scenes and subtext. To see his life through his daughters eyes! That's a much better concept than what we got.

Because what Scorsese did choose to put on screen really isn't that exciting and it certainly isn't fresh. It goes through the procedural notions of a gangster movie without either subverting the genre or really being any fun.

[Substance242]

I am smiling on/at my silly idea what if Spoiler: Niro told to Pacino "that's for Heat, fucker" near the end. ;-)

But seriously, pretty long movie but I enjoyed and liked it all, even though sometimes the young faces were a bit "uncanny valley" to me.

Edit: By the way, it's interesting what has Netflix become, isn't it? Who would have thought a few years back. (ok this belongs to netflix thread probably)

[elevenism]

Excising women from this movie as a way to illustrate their absence in the eyes of it's protagonist is dumb, especially coming from a director who hasn't exactly handled women in his films super well. They are so absent in this movie that when they actually have lines, it's jarring...

don't you think it was MEANT to be jarring, though? wasn't that the point?

[katara]

Over the last few years, I watched my last remaining grandparent become increasingly frail. This summer, we put her in the ground.

Suffice it to say that the end of this movie was incredibly tough to watch.

Great film.

[onthewall2983]

Robbie Robertson on his relationship with Scorsese, his own (blood) connections to organized crime, and the soundtrack





A strange, and perhaps unintended coincidence, is Derek Trucks' presence on the latter track. His uncle was Butch Trucks, original drummer for the Allman Brothers Band. Derek is named after Derek and the Dominos, who of course performed "Layla", later featured in Goodfellas.

[onthewall2983]

November 24th

[onthewall2983]