Original title: The Irishman · Martin Scorsese · USA · 2019 · Script: Steven Zaillian on Charles Brandt's text I Heard you paint houses · Interpreters: Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, Joe Pesci, Harvey Keitel.
Regarding the audiovisual industry, in the confrontation between the different forms of consumption currently available to the contemporary viewer, namely, in the not yet resolved confrontation between digital platforms versus traditional movie theaters, It was Martin Scorsese himself who stated in a recent interview that, yet, I didn't know any young director who didn't want to see their films projected on a conventional screen. Much criticism from the media and the interested parties themselves of the old movie screen as an obsolete window, but it is in the room where, finally, a movie takes on real significance, stands out from others, he decorates her, especially if we talk about a type of cinema that aspires to be something more than a piece of mere entertainment. It's not just a matter of nostalgia, as is frequently alleged. The room sets the appropriate framework for the film, singles her out, not only because of the dimensions of the image and its physical relationship with the viewer, It is the very context of sharing with others (generally unknown) the same experience in community, It is the act of moving to another space other than everyday life that gives dignity to the work.. And at this point there is no experience that more strongly contradicts any previous premise than the anticipated success of the premiere of Scorsese's own latest work., whose distribution has literally been taken over by Netflix, film producer, limiting it to a few theaters in each country where it has been exhibited. The event, perhaps influenced by the dissemination of the news itself, but also because of the interest that this exceptional work by the Italian-American director aroused a priori., has had the consequence that, only in the United States, there has been a resale of tickets for the film that, In some cases, has reached the 90 dollars (some 99,96 €, at today's exchange rate). But, Wasn't it that people didn't want to go to the movies??
The Irishman tells the story of Frank Sheeran, a truck driver who, after participating in World War II, is lucky or unlucky to meet Russell Bufalino, a man of Italian origin with a malicious look very well connected to the mafia. Bufalino takes Frank under his protection, making him his inseparable right hand. The association between the two will bring many advantages to Frank that, from there, will begin to prosper economically. For it, however, He will be forced to carry out all kinds of orders for his protector., including, of course, the murder. But things get complicated when Russell asks Frank to join Jimmy Hoffa., leader of the truckers union and one of the most powerful men in the country. Everything seems to be going well until Hoffa, harassed by the Kennedy administration, begins to move on its own, contravening the interests of “those at the top”. bad business.
Addressing Scorsese's latest film forces us to situate ourselves, first of all, facing one of the best-crafted scripts in cinema in recent years. And, As the writer Guillermo Arriaga said in this interview, the script contains the structure of the story, The libretto created by Steven Zaillian based on the original novel on which it is based is an exemplary exercise in precision., both in the development of the plot, that is to say, of the events that develop this story, as well as for its ability to measure the progressive internal evolution of the characters and their conflicts.. So, The Irishman It is a film whose secrets unfold gradually, level, patient, before the viewer, to build a picture of complex dimensions in which we are immersed and that, like any great work, shoots much further than the mere exposition of its argument suggests. It is possible that, warned by the excess of attention that certain details that we will comment on sometimes receive, that viewer is somewhat disoriented at the beginning of the film. To address all those issues you are trying to explore, Zaillian's text must plant many seeds and that delays, in the first moments of this three and a half hour long monster, the progress of your plot. But once he has sketched the picture, We will allow ourselves to be engulfed by the details and rhythm of a story loaded with rich and deep nuances..
Thus, the Scorsese/Zaillian film unfolds on two levels well connected to each other. On a first level, The Irishman reveals itself as a portrait of more than forty years of recent American history, from the 1950s to the beginning of the Balkan War. The story, not because known, is less disturbing, although it is approached with fine lines, as is the case. Behind the glare of the television cameras, without a doubt the invention that would mark, until the appearance of the Internet, the culture and politics of our time (It is not surprising that his subtle presence guides the events to which reference is made.), hides a sordid story of hidden ambitions, of vendettas personal, of crimes organized by interests hidden from public opinion. Nothing is left out of Zaillian's pen, from political corruption and its connection with the mafia (stated here in an exceptionally clear manner, as if there were no longer any historical doubt about it), even corruption, maybe necessary, of workers' unions. Definitely, the decline of a democracy and an economic development that is based on rotten pillars, but hidden from the eyes of the general public. But this is just background noise, the context, the excuse.
Where this really stands out (of) work (teacher) That's where every good movie becomes truly exceptional., that is to say, as a portrait of the human experience. As happens in much of Martin Scorsese's filmography, The Irishman It is much more than a mere story of unscrupulous gangsters willing to kill for money and satisfy their lust for power.. In the first place, It is a portrait of friendship understood as that loyalty that leads us inexorably towards our destruction.. Like Henry Hill One of ours, Frank's union with Bufalino will allow the former to take a leap in his life and abandon the fate of misery to which he is forced by the lack of opportunities upon returning from the war.. That alliance will bring with it a trap: once he sold his soul to the devil, You will never again be the master of your destiny. Everything has a price. So, Scorsese's film is brilliantly deployed to offer us a reflection on the circumstances in which men find themselves involved.. So much Frank, as Russell, like Jimmy Hoffa himself, they are natural children of the time in which they have lived. And there, in that space, life has its own rules. There is no alternative. But the most interesting thing is that, although at first it may seem contradictory, there is a lot of love here. Love that comes from those same circumstances in which these men find themselves involved. (just because, this is a movie about men, mainly) who are forced to fight side by side to survive. Of men whose true existence takes place outside the family home, muddy to the hilt in the dirty war for survival. And here the film is superbly enriched with every small detail.. It is also, again, a harsh portrait of violence understood as the axis of progress. And it is perhaps at this point where the film takes true flight, connecting the two levels of meaning that we talked about before.. Already entered into old age, Frank tries to reconcile with his daughters from whom he feels estranged because of those sordid affairs that have plagued his life.. Frank can't understand the problem. After all, everything he did was to ensure a safer world for them against the barbarism that surrounded them.. They, however, They do not forgive him for involving them in his dirty business and in that violence that Frank emanates.. Perhaps the reproach is justified, but it is no less possible to imagine that his daughters also make a big mistake. Now, violence is no longer felt on the street, as it happens in Frank's world. Now he is in distant countries. On the television screen, US Army Air Force prepares to intervene in Kosovo. Maybe Frank knows something his daughters don't.. Oblivious to that dirty truth that lurks behind the news, They can afford to stay on the sidelines.. Frank chose another path. Hence I do not understand.
To top all this off, Scorsese surrounds himself with a casting that gives the best of itself. If the union of Joe Pesci, Robert De Niro and Al Pacino played as one of the most relevant attractions at the promotional level, the result lives up to expectations. Era, more than necessary, essential, given that The Irishmanes, above all, a film that is built on faces, of looks, of gestures, a slight movement of the head, the raising of an eyebrow (sober Joe Pesci), a look that is more than a provocation, it's a challenge, It is a sign of power, or that contains all the vital doubts, morals and the suffering implicit in a series of decisions that escape our will. How can we express the inexorable condemnation to which disastrous destiny pushes us?? And here it is possible that the best-informed viewer will be somewhat confused by the use of CGI technology that, in the first part of the tape, allows to “rejuvenate” the faces of the actors. There is something strange that we haven't quite described, but what, if we look, it doesn't come naturally to us. Patience will give us, however, some of the most brilliant performances that both Pesci, as De Niro and Pacino have offered us from the beginning of their careers.
But we are talking about Scorsese and, therefore, we make it pure cinema. And here it never ceases to surprise how, compared to what the promotion of the film seemed to predict, the director abandons the frenetic pace of editing to which we were accustomed, either in titles like the one mentioned One of ours to the previous one The Wolf of Wall Street. Here Scorsese gives his work a somewhat more relaxed speed., both in the construction of the sequences, as in the final assembly, which does not mean, obviously, that the pacing is not equally well managed throughout the entire film. Scorsese once again shows himself as a great storyteller, a master of film time. I don't think there is another like him in contemporary cinema.. But perhaps what is most surprising in this case is how, at seventy-seven years old, still maintains the passion necessary to create some of the most powerful images that have been seen on a movie screen in recent times. And this is where we can assure that a good film is more than the text that supports it.. Scorsese's camera speaks to us where the words of a dialogue or the mere representation of an event fall short of revealing what is hidden, that which is understood without being explained, that which is not named but that contains the same essence of the narrative. We could give many examples of what we are trying to explain.. We will resist the temptation. Just highlight that, after more than sixty titles behind him, Scorsese is still capable of surprising himself and us as a creator of images. A skill that leaves many filmmakers, whether they are generation companions, like new candidates for the podium of excellence, at a much lower level. Scorsese is still, definitely, one of the most powerful storytellers of our time. Highway. GERARDO LEON
