“The Irishman” is dragged down by simple mistakes
“The Irishman” is a movie that had so much potential, but it’s errors bring down the overall feel of the movie.
December 15, 2019
“The Irishman” by Martin Scorsese is yet another history-based film released this year. The film is based on the narrative nonfiction “I Heard You Paint Houses” by Charles Brandt tells the story of Frank Sheeran and his dealings with the Bufilino crime family. While this story is mostly based on the truth it only veers from it because of the urban legend on the disappearance of Jimmy Hoffa.
The film is a Netflix original allowing it to be released on Netflix only a few weeks after being in select theatres such as the FilmScene in downtown Iowa City. On Netflix it provides the enjoyment of watching it at home or really anywhere after you download it, and that you can watch it with your friends or family with the ability to watch parts of it if you want.
Robert De Niro, Al Pacino, and Joe Pesci had quality acting with fitting their historic roles with near perfection. With their acting, you felt like you were actually a part of the story. Their characters allow for a subtle, but powerful reflection of the 1950s and 1960s.
One of its major downfalls is the length of three and a half hours, leaving you at moments waiting for the movie to end. At times you look at the clock to check how much is left. Despite the movie dragging like this, no part of the story felt like it should be left out. Its pacing is good at the beginning with its balance of story and action, but as the film moves towards the end, the pacing slows down dramatically as almost as if they need it to be three and a half hours long.
The editing is what brings it down the most. It has simple errors such as jump cuts and not making some actors look older as the time progresses in the film. One actor is Lucy Gallina, who played Frank Sheeran’s daughter when she was a child, but she never aged until they switched actors for when she became an adult.
Martin Scorsese’s “The Irishman” is a movie that has its ups and downs. Throughout the film, you have quality acting and a compelling storyline, but there are many simple mistakes with the occasional jump cut pulling you out of the film. Overall I would say that the movie is good, not great. If the team spent more time fixing the small errors it would have been a great film.
Colby • Jun 30, 2020 at 4:16 am
There were also many simple mistakes in the historical accuracy that destroyed the movie. Bufalino’s origin is probably the simplest. Everyone in the area knew he was from Montedoro in Caltanissetta, Italy. Sheeran claims he was from Catania, a totally different city, in a totally different province. Furthermore, this is all verifiable by his attempted deportation. I could go one for days of the inaccuracies, but this is an obvious one that anyone supposedly that close to Bufalino would have certainly known.