The movie "The Irishman" on Netflix

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There was a thread on this in December but it is closed.

I was attracted to it because I am of Irish decent yet have a number of Italian relatives who are hard working…


I think thy should have used younger actors in the beginning and had difficulty seeing Pacino as Irish but other than that it was a very good movie on what went down. Facts were there. Mobsters were who they were.

Hoffa’s son Jimmy still runs the Teamsters today.

What did you like/dislike about the movie?
 
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When it comes to Irish movies I’ll always prefer The Quiet Man. 😄

But seriously I haven’t seen The Irishman yet. I keep meaning to.
 
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I didn’t bother watching it because I don’t want to sit for 3 hours watching this movie.
 
You would never last through some of the movies I’ve seen! We’re talking 4 hours, 7 hours, 9 hours.
 
It is not any Irish movie. It is a movie about a period in history when the Mafia or Costra Nostra was very strong and had ties to just about everything.

That they included an Irishman was interesting because there was an Irish Mafia of it own in Boston not anywhere as powerful.
 
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Pacino publicly questioned Martin Scorsese about the length knowing that short movies sell.

I broke it up into two nights viewing so it was easy to watch but I also knew the history of that time and so people like Hoffa, and Sam Giancana was names that I was familiar with. He was boyfriend to Phyllis McGuire of the McGuire sisters.

It was Al Capone all over again.

I never realized the the Sopranos was a take on Frank Palermo’s life. I did not watch the series.
 
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There was an Irish mob in Boston but not the size of the Italian groups that I am sure still control a great deal on Concrete construction, gambling and trucking industry and so many legitimate things.

Hoffa , head of the Teamsters" truckers" was Irish or at least part Irish. Fitzsimmons who took over sounds Irish.

This was a very interesting period in history. Kennedy, whom the Mafia helped elect was of course Irish.

The movie was based on a true story , on a deathbed confession of an Italian mafia figure Frank Sheeran who was Irish and confessed to killing many.

Any idea why the Irish name their children Frank. Is it for Saint Francis?
 
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The language is the movie is typical of movies today where 100 swears have to be included.

I did use VidAngel which currently is free to take out all the words.
 
gam197 said:
Any idea why the Irish name their children Frank. Is it for Saint Francis?
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Frank is indeed a diminutive of Francis.

Naming/referring to non-italian gangsters by their ethnicity was not uncommon. For example, Meyer Lansky was “the Jew.” [and here in Las Vegas, it is reported that the source of the phrase “Jewish lightning” for a “convenient” fire of an insured building is a referent to him. By some accounts, there was an exchange in which he was challenged as to his claim of lighting starting a fire, as it was a clear night, and that he shrugged and said, “It was Jewish lightning.”]

All that said, after all these years and movings, Al Pacino as an ethnic irishman seems a bit much to swallow . . .
 
Makes me wonder if Lansky was part of “Jewish Mob” or “Russian Jewish Mob” The Russia Mob is much bigger today and I don’t believe there is any connection. Also brings thoughts of if whether Bugsy Siegel was involved in Las Vegas in bringing about the term “jewish lightning”. His daughter did an interview which shows how she saw her dad as did Sam Giancana’s daughters. Siegel’s daughter talks about the Hollywood connections. She sold her father’s land (8 hundred desolate acres) for near to nothing after her father’s death, which would be worth a fortune today.

A younger Scorsese would have watched more details but he wanted to give his old friends some work. I thought Joe Pesci who hasn’t worked in years did a great job. He played the real 'Godfather". Dustin Hoffman’s son played Allen Dorfman (Jewish Insurance man))

It is difficult to believe the Lucky Luciano (1927) founded the Genovese family which is still powerful today. That Hoffa’s only son is currently President of the Teamsters.

.I watched very few mafia" hitman’" types films.I did like Pulp Fiction. Again you need to use filters (VidAngel) for the language.
 
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I tried watching it when it was first released on Netflix

However, trying to disconnect Good Fellows and Robert De Niro and see him as Irish, was impossible for me.

I gave it up after about 15 minutes.
 
DeNiro is Irish or at least part Irish. His father is Irish, Italian and his mother is mixed European.

I had no problem with that (looked Irish to me) but a younger Scorsese would have use younger actors at beginning of movie. Did not see “Goodfellas” yet so did it include Hoffa?

Try it using the filter and you can skip all the language.
 
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Doesn’t matter

He played in the Italian Mafia movies like Good Fellows, Casino and such, that he could never pull off being the head of the Irish mob.
 
DeNiro does not play the head of the Irish mob. The Irish mob was a group in Boston run by Whitey Bulger. It is not mentioned in the movie. The movie on Bulger’s life was" Departed".

It is the life of Frank Sheeran, an Irish kid in the mob named “Irishman” and the mob connection to the Teamsters and Jimmy Hoffa(Irish).
 
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Well at this point, I could care less

He didn’t come across well when I started to watch the movie and gave up on it
 
Not Scorsese best but based on the book. “I Painted Houses”. supposedly the life confessions of a dying man. Frank Sheeran.

A little confused because Robert Deniro played an Irish person, Jimmy Burke(mob affliate)(renamed Conway) in the movie “Goodfellas”. Might be you see type-cast, been so many movies about the mafia.
 
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dochawk said:
The (Italian) Chicago Mob, in Las Vegas
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So there were a number of Jewish and Irish people in the Italian mafia. Anyone can be a soldier. They were not allowed to go up to top levels of the group but made names for themselves. I question whether Pulp Fiction is a better take on today’s Italian mafia. In 2019 the Gambino family lost low profile boss Fran Cali.

Jimmy Hoffa Jr. is still head of Teamsters retiring in 2022. The percentage of union workers overall fell from 31 percent in 1960 to 6.5 percent today so that was a decline in unions however the Teamster union, itself, has seen membership increased from 530,000 to 1.4 million and still rising.

Th Russian mob is big in the Northeast.There have been no movies about their inner workings. And then we have the different drug cartels.

In the past, watched very few crime movies. There are sites you can find that filter these movies especially taking out language which are currently free so trying to watch a few. I just watched Goodfellas.
 
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I thought it was quite good, the 3+ hour runtime didn’t bother me so much, but I must admit that I am a bit of a cinephile.
gam197 said:
A little confused because Robert Deniro played an Irish person, Jimmy Burke(mob affliate)(renamed Conway) in the movie “Goodfellas”. Might be you see type-cast, been so many movies about the mafia.
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That is is correct the character of Jimmy Conway in goodfellas was meant to be Irish, also Ray Liotta played Henry Hill who was half Irish.
JimR-OCDS said:
Doesn’t matter

He played in the Italian Mafia movies like Good Fellows, Casino and such, that he could never pull off being the head of the Irish mob.
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Actually as noted above, Robert DeNiro played an Irishman working for the Mafia in goodfellas, and his character of Sam “Ace” Rothstein in Casino was Jewish, not Italian.
 
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